African Fashion Vocabulary
Enhance your understanding of the industry with our compendium of key fashion terminology in the region.
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Adinkra
Adinkra cloths are distinguishable by the designs applied with carved gourd stamps and black dye within a rectilinear grid, separated by a three or four-tine comb brushed in measured segments across the length and width of the cloth. Some cloths have a single stamped design, while others have over twenty designs. Dark Andinkra aduro pigment is made by soaking, pulverizing, and boiling the inner bark and roots of the badie tress in water over a wood fire. Once the dark color is released, the mixture is strained and boiled for several hours until it thickens. The stamps are carved out of the bottom of a calabash piece, measuring between five and eight centimeters square. They have a handle on the back, and the stamp is slightly curved so the dye can be put on with a rocking motion.
Adire
The Yoruba word adire means tied and dyed. The everyday fabric is produced by Nigeria’s Yoruba people using a range of resist-dyeing processes. As a textile technique, Adire initially emerged in the city of Abeokuta in the nineteenth century. Historically, locally woven cloth called Teru was tied to produce simple patterns with indigo dye found in local elu leaves. In the early decades of the twentieth century, 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 before dyeing. This was known as adire eleko. Alongside these, a new style was soon developed that accelerated decoration by using metal stencils cut from the sheets of tin that lined tea chests. Another method was to use sewn raffia, sometimes combined with tied sections, while other cloths were folded repeatedly and tied or stitched in place. The basic shape of the cloth is that of two pieces of shirting material stitched together to create a women’s wrapper cloth. Most of the designs were named, and popular designs included the jubilee pattern (first produced for the jubilee of George V and Queen Mary in 1935), Olokun or “goddess of the sea,” and Ibadadun “Ibadan is sweet.”
African trade beads
Particularly in West Africa, trade beads have been utilized as a medium of exchange for the trade of products and services. These beads were frequently exchanged for products that Europeans and colonial overlords, including ivory, gold, enslaved people, and other goods desired. Various raw and processed materials made African trading beads, including bone, shells, wood, and minerals. Africa served as a significant trading hub for trading beads. However, not all of them were produced there.
Ahenema
Ahenema is a traditional, royal slipper worn by the queens and chiefs of the Akan, Ga, and Ewe ethnic groups in Ghana. In recent times, this traditional slipper came to be worn by anyone to events such as festivals, funerals, wedding ceremonies and church.
Akwa-Ocha
Akwa-Ocha is native to the indigenous Anioma people of Nigeria’s Delta State. The fabric has evolved, traditionally worn for ceremonial occasions, particularly weddings. Intricately crafted from locally harvested cotton, the material, the name of which translates to its literal meaning “white cloth,” has historically been a conscientious collaboration between Anioma men and women.
Akwete
Akwete cloth is a vibrant, hand-woven textile with ancient Igbo origins. Originating in Nigeria’s Abia State, Akwete was originally known as “Akwa Miri,” which translates as “cloth of the water,” and is reported to be as old as the Igbo nation itself. This weaving technique is practiced solely by female artisans.
Ankara
Most homogenously associated with traditional “African print”, this textile is called Ankara fabric, and is also referred to as African wax print fabric, Holland wax, or Dutch wax (named after its respective origins). One of the most famed aspects about Ankara fabric is that the intensity of its prints remains the same through wear-and-tear compared to other printed textiles that fade quickly, due to its “wax-resistant” textile printing technique.
Aso Ebi
Aso Ebi (Yoruba), sometimes spelled as Asoebi in Nigeria and Ashobie in Sierra Leone and The Gambia, is a uniform dress or dressing code/style that the Yoruba ethnic group of Nigeria traditionally wear and other African cultures as an indicator of cooperation, camaraderie, and solidarity during ceremonies, events and festive periods. The dress’s purpose can be to serve as self-identification with age mates, relatives, or friends during social occasions or funerals.
Aso-Oke
The hand-loomed Aso-Oke cloth lends to the sumptuous traditional wear of the Yoruba people from southwest Nigeria, worn mainly for ceremonial occasions such as chieftaincy coronations, weddings, and name day celebrations. The name of the fabric translates to “top cloth.” Men traditionally don it as a three-piece outfit, an Agbada, while women wear it in head ties, blouses, and sarongs. To the Yoruba, the cloth represents prestige due to the widespread understanding of the labor-intensive and costly production process. The fabric is cultivated from cotton plants, which usually takes between five to eight months from plant to harvest. The harvested raw cotton is then processed by hand through an ‘Orun,’ or ‘Spindler,’ which involves the material being rolled over a wooden loom and rotated until sufficiently thinned or spun. Next comes the most tedious part of the process: sorting. Traditionally done by hand, this quite simply consists of a person removing all the dirt from the spun cotton. Finally, creativity comes into play as the cotton is dyed and woven to create imaginative patterns for the grand final piece. Aso Oke textiles are sometimes used in contemporary clothing to denote high craftsmanship and luxury elements.
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