What do zulu women wear?

Traditional male clothing is usually light, consisting of a two-part apron (similar to a loincloth) used to cover the genitals and buttocks.

Married men will usually also wear a headband, called the umqhele. The women on the other hand dress differently depending on whether they are single, engaged and married. An unmarried woman who is still eligible is proud of her body and is not ashamed of showing it. She only wears a short skirt made of grass or beaded cotton strings and spruces herself up with lots of bead-work. An engaged woman will let her traditionally short hair grow. She will cover her bosom with a decorative cloth which is done out of respect for her future relatives and to indicate that she has been spoken for. The married woman covers her body completely signalling to other men that she is taken.