About blackfashiongeek.blogspot.com

This short video is about my blog. Enjoy

The Beauty of Aso-Oke Fabrics

Aso-Oke Store

Aso oke fabric, is a hand loomed cloth woven by the Yoruba people of south west Nigeria. Aso oke means top cloth in the English language. Usually woven by men, the fabric is used to make men's gowns, called Agbada, women's wrappers, called iro, and men's hats, called fila. There are three types of traditional aso oke worn by Yoruba people, Alaari - a rich red aso oke, Sanyan - a brown and usually light brown aso oke, Etu - a dark blue aso oke, Aso oke fabric is often worn with aran, a brown velvet with concentric designs.

First, Etu (fowl), via blue and white stripes in the warp direction with a light blue checkerboard having pattern weave structure, a type of traditional Aso-Oke with blue and white stripes in the warp direction with a light blue checkerboard with a pattern weave structure. The strips are woven using local wild silk fiber, thus Etu is dyed repeatedly in traditional indigo blue dye, which is brought out at intervals for drying and stretching. In the ancient times, Etu was used as important social dress by chiefs and elders among the YorubaSecond, we have Alaari, crimson in colour, it is traditionally woven with locally spurned silk yarns dyed in red cam wood solution severally to achieve permanence in colour fastness. The use of alaari is not limited to a particular ceremony but traditionally used for all events among the Yoruba of Nigeria. The third, Sanyan, an expensive Yoruba hand-woven fabric, grayish in colour with white strip running through the middle of the cloth; traditionally produced from fibers made from the cocoons of the anaphe silk warm. Hence, the silk fibers are hand spun into silk threads, washed and soaked in corn-starch to strengthen the yarn for fabric production in the ancient times. In addition, sanyan is regarded as the most expensive of all Yoruba woven fabrics, thus, the Yoruba refer to it as baba-aso, the ‘father of fabrics'.

See pictures of Aso-Oke below:

Aso-Oke fabrics

Aso-Oke for wedding

Tie and Dye in Nigeria

Adire is the name given to indigo dyed cloth produced by Yoruba women of south western Nigeria using a variety of resist dye techniques. Adire translates as tie and dye, and the earliest cloths were probably simple tied designs on locally-woven hand-spun cotton cloth much like those still produced in Mali. In the early decades of the twentieth century however, the new access to large quantities of imported shirting material made possible by the spread of European textile merchants in certain Yoruba towns, notably Abeokuta, enabled women dyers to become both artists and entrepreneurs in a booming new medium. New techniques of resist dyeing were developed, most notably the practice of hand-painting designs on the cloth with a cassava starch paste prior to dyeing. 

Tie-dye is considered to be a product of pre-history. Even though fabric was perishable and long ago disintegrated, archaeologists still established that a variety of stamps could have been used for printing fabric five thousand years ago in Mesopotamia and India. In one thousand B.C., cloths such as those used to wrap mummies were found in dyed form in Egypt. It's possible that the dying techniques trekked through various trade routes from India to Egypt.

Tie-dye techniques have also been used for centuries in the Hausa region of West Africa, with renowned indigo dye pits located in and around Kano, Nigeria. The tie-dyed clothing is then richly embroidered in traditional patterns. It has been suggested that these African techniques were the inspiration for the tie-dyed garments identified with hippie fashion. 

As you plan on shopping later in the year, you can try adire for your family and friends.

The magic of Ankara

Fashion is a popular style or practice, especially in clothing, footwear, accessories, makeup, body piercing, or furniture. Fashion is a distinctive and often habitual trend in the style in which a person dresses. It is the prevailing styles in behaviour and the newest creations of textile designers. Ankara, the local African textile will be emphasized in this post with few pictures to add a little spectacle to the post. 

One clothing material stands out of all the clothing materials used for designing fashion outfits in Nigeria is the Ankara styles, in this post you will find the latest Nigerian Ankara styles presenting trending everywhere within and outside the country.

Not much story or explanation here, just take a look for yourself and judge, decide which one you think is good enough and that you can wear to anywhere, home, work, church and so on. See  more pictures below...