Dressing Etiquette

As in most of the developing world, people wear both traditional and Western clothes. In cities and towns, most people wear Western clothing—pants or blue jeans and shirts. However, many women still wear traditional brightly colored dresses (pagnes) with matching head scarves. Traditional clothing is most common in rural areas. Women wear pagnes or blouses with long pieces of cloth that they wrap around themselves as skirts. Men wear shorts or wrap short pieces of cloth around their bodies. Many men have long, beautiful robes for ceremonial occasions.

Kita clothing, which originated in both Ghana and Ivory Coast, is worn on special occasions and official ceremonies such as traditional weddings. Kita is handcrafted by weaving cotton or silk threads in a variety of colors between them. As a result, long strips are formed and connected one after the other. This is regarded as an ancestral cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation. However, because the Kita has different colors with different meanings, colors such as yellow, green, and blue are the most common colors worn for traditional weddings on Ivory Coast. The black color is only mentioned to express mourning.