Woman's Àdìrẹ Wrapper

These adire, or "tie-dyed," textiles—both woman's wraps or skirts—were produced by tightly sewing together parts of a cotton fabric that would resist color during an indigo dye bath. The artists used a needle and raffia strings or cotton threads, some of which are still visible, to sew the pleats together. They also employed a technique in which pebbles are sewn into the fabric to create the vibrant chain-like effect. From the early 20th century through the 1970s, adire textiles were the domestic cloth of Yoruba women, created by them and worn as skirts in urban centers such as Abeokuta and Ibadan. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, imported dyes and machine-made cotton cloth with floral patterns replaced adire as the newest fashion.