Clothes and Fashion
Senior 1 · English
Clothes and Fashion
Lesson 4 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
A good description lets the reader see an event they missed. One of the quickest ways to do that is through clothes: what people wear tells us how important the day is, what kind of day it is, and even what the people feel. Umwali, an S1 student in Ruhango District, entered a writing competition with this description of Umuganura, Rwanda's national harvest festival, which is held on the first Friday of August.
Before you read: What do people in your family wear for a big celebration? Is it different from what they wear to church, to the mosque or to the market?
by Umwali Iriza, S1 A
On the first Friday of August, our whole sector gathered on the playground beside the sector office to celebrate Umuganura. Umuganura is an old harvest festival that thanks the land for the first crops of the year, and it was brought back as a national holiday in 2011. By nine o'clock the benches were full, and the air smelled of roasted maize.
The first people I noticed were the women of the farmers' cooperative. They walked across the playground in a slow, straight line, and each one carried a tall hand-woven basket on her head, full of sorghum and beans from the new harvest. They wore matching outfits: a lime-green sash over a sky-blue top, and a long blue-and-green patterned skirt. When they stopped in front of the guests, the colours looked like a field of young crops beside a river.
The guests of honour sat under a white tent. The sector leader wore a well-pressed grey suit, and next to him sat the oldest farmer in the sector, a ninety-year-old man in a long-sleeved white shirt, a brown jacket and a flat cap. He held his walking stick with both hands and smiled at everyone.
The pupils from the primary school wore their sky-blue uniforms, freshly washed for the day. After them came the girls' dance group in knee-length mushanana, with bells on their ankles. As they danced, their raised arms curved like the long horns of Inyambo cows.
At midday the families shared the new sorghum and drank milk together, and even the youngest children in their brand-new shoes sat still to listen to the elders. I went home tired, but I felt proud: on that day, everyone had dressed to thank the land.
| Paragraph | Its job | In Umwali's description |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Introduction | says when, where and what the occasion is; sets the scene with one sense | first Friday of August, the playground, Umuganura; the smell of roasted maize |
| 2–4. Body | one group of people per paragraph; clothes described from head to toe; one comparison | the cooperative women; the guests of honour; the pupils and dancers |
| 5. Conclusion | what happened at the end, and how the writer felt | sharing sorghum and milk; tired but proud |
| Word or phrase | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| occasion | a special event or celebration | Umuganura is a happy occasion. |
| harvest | the time when crops are collected; the crops collected | They carried beans from the new harvest. |
| cooperative | a group of people who own and run a business together | The women belong to a farmers' cooperative. |
| guest of honour | the most important guest at an event | The guests of honour sat under a tent. |
| matching | the same, or looking good together | The dancers wore matching outfits. |
| outfit | a set of clothes worn together | Her outfit had three colours. |
| well-pressed | ironed smooth, with sharp folds | a well-pressed grey suit |
| hand-woven | made by weaving by hand, not by machine | a tall hand-woven basket |
| knee-length | reaching down to the knee | knee-length mushanana for dancing |
| freshly washed | washed very recently | freshly washed uniforms |
Definition
Compound adjective: an adjective made of two (or more) words that work together as one describing word. Before a noun, the words are usually joined with a hyphen (-).
Example: a long-sleeved shirt (a shirt with long sleeves), a hand-woven basket (a basket woven by hand).
| Pattern | Examples | In a phrase |
|---|---|---|
| adjective + noun + -ed | long-sleeved, short-sleeved, high-heeled, open-toed | a long-sleeved white shirt |
| adverb or noun + past participle | hand-woven, well-pressed, well-dressed, home-made | a home-made kitenge shirt |
| number + singular noun | two-piece, three-day, ninety-year-old | a two-piece suit |
| noun or adjective + colour word | sky-blue, lime-green, dark-brown | a sky-blue top |
| noun + noun (sometimes + -ed) | knee-length, ankle-length, gold-edged | an ankle-length skirt |
| adjective or noun + -ing form | eye-catching, good-looking, hard-working | an eye-catching hat |
| Before the noun: hyphen | After the verb: usually no hyphen |
|---|---|
| a ninety-year-old man | The man is ninety years old. |
| a well-pressed suit | His suit was well pressed. |
| a two-piece suit | The suit is in two pieces. |
Worked example
Analyse the phrase: a ninety-year-old man in a long-sleeved white shirt.
Warning
Tip
The hyphen test: take away one of the two words. If the meaning breaks (a knee skirt? a length skirt?), the two words belong together: write a knee-length skirt.
6 Minute Vocabulary: when to write hyphens, BBC Learning English (6 minutes). Listen for the rule about hyphens in compound adjectives before a noun, then check it against the table above.
Bring or choose a photo from a wedding, a graduation, a church or mosque festival or Umuganura. In pairs, describe two people in it from head to toe for one minute each. Use at least three compound adjectives.
This is my aunt at my cousin's wedding. She has a gold head wrap and long silver earrings. She is wearing an eye-catching, long-sleeved kitenge dress with a gold-edged sash. Next to her is my uncle, a very well-dressed man in a two-piece navy suit and brand-new black shoes.
Write a description of 120 to 150 words of an occasion you attended. Follow Umwali's plan: an introduction with when, where and what; two body paragraphs, each about a group of people, described from head to toe; and a conclusion with your feeling. Use at least four compound adjectives.
My sister's graduation
Last July my sister Aline graduated from the University of Rwanda. The ceremony took place in a huge open-sided tent, and by eight o'clock it was full of proud, noisy families.
The graduates marched in two long lines. Each one wore a black ankle-length gown and a flat square cap with a black tassel. Over her shoulders Aline wore a bright gold-edged hood.
The families were just as smart. My mother wore a cream mushanana with a thin gold border, and my father looked very well dressed in his two-piece grey suit and a sky-blue tie. My little brother kept pulling at his brand-new, stiff-collared shirt.
When Aline threw her cap into the air, my mother cried with happiness. I decided that one day I will wear that gown too.
Practice
Rewrite each phrase with a compound adjective.
Sources and credits
