Tie and dye with swag

A DIRE, translated as tie and dye, is a fashion staple that is proudly African. If you are a lover of art, there’s no way you won’t keep falling in love with Adire.

Adire are indigo resist dyed cotton clothes that first emerged in the city of Abeokuta, Nigeria in the 19th century. It involves creating a pattern by treating certain parts of the fabric in some way to prevent them from absorbing dye.

Types of Adire include the Adire oniko and the Adire eleko. In the production of the former, raffia is tied around hundreds of single corn kernels to produce small white circles set against a contrasting rich blue background, while in the production of the latter, cassava paste is painted onto the fabric in order to resist the dyeing.  In recent times, stencils have been widely used in the production of this cloth.

Because of its great and wide range of changing motifs, symbols and themes, Adire eleko is the type that grew into relevance and modernity.

At first, they were generally worn by women as wrappers. However, by the mid 1960’s, they started being tailored into garments such as men’s shirts and now, if you scroll through social media, chances that you’ll see the Adire gracing your timeline is very high.

Adire, for a while now, has been widely accepted, as West African and European designers incorporate it into their contemporary collections, even on fashion runways. Stylish women around the world are not also left out. This is because of its patterns and intensities and also because there are no limits to what creative looks you can achieve using Adire fabric.

It can be used to make gowns, shirts, palazzo or baggy pants, jackets, shorts, turban and so on. Also, male and female, young and old can rock the design.

Check out ways you can rock the Adire fabric.

Photos: Instagram