Beautiful Ethiopian Headwear Made From Your Trash

In southern Ethiopia, deep within the Omo Valley you’ll find the semi-nomadic tribe known as ‘The Daasanach’, a group made up of some 50,000 individuals.

Over the past 50 years they have become increasing dependent on agriculture to help sustain a living, a side effect of their original land being taken and sold from underneath them.

Today different members of the tribe can be found in pockets near and around the Omo River, the ideal place to grow crops and help support their family.

Eric Lafforgue (previously) is a French travel photographer who has spent several years documenting and photographing The Daasanach.

During his experiences, he’s seen an interesting trend develop amongst the community itself, their fascinating and reappropriation of discard modern manufactured goods.

Using bottle caps, hair clips and even old wristwatches they women turn these items into fashionable head wear and jewelry, designed to be worn by young and old.

“Younger girls and children get the most basic version of the wig, while the oldest women are treated to the heaviest numbers with the most embellishment.”, he explains.

“Men are only allowed to wear the bottle top wigs until they marry – after that, they create small clay headpieces decorated with a colourful harlequin pattern and enlivened with a feather, although the latter is only allowed after a hunt or a successful clash with an enemy.”

Via So Bad So Good