This Yoruba indigo-dyed "adire eleko" man's cotton shirt was purchased by the Powerhouse Museum from Inna Cymlich in 1985. It was made by the Yoruba people of West Africa during the 20th century, between 1901 and 1985.

This shirt was produced on a men's double-heddle portable loom (or horizontal frame treadle loom). This loom produces what is known as narrow-band weaving (or narrow-strip weaving). The shirt is largely composed of numerous strips of narrow-band weaving, with additional monocot-leaf braid, cotton-wool felt and goat hide decoration. The narrow strips were sewn together with cotton and bast fibre threads, to form a rectangular, poncho shaped shirt.

This shirt is an example of an "adire" cloth, which refers to a cloth that has been patterned by the technique of resist dyeing, and is then dyed indigo blue. Yoruba women extract dye from the vine 'elu' (lonchocarpus cyanescens). This vine would have been collected by a Yoruba woman, who then would have pounded the vine into a pulp, and formed a fist- sized ball. The process of dyeing which would have followed was quite lengthy, but essentially involved extracting the dye from the 'elu' leaves, and then mixing the dye with mordant water extracted from mordant ash balls. The woman would have then proceeded with dyeing the cloth. It is also possible that a young girl assisted in the dyeing of this cloth, as the Yoruba dyeing process was taught by mothers to their daughters from a very young age.

This shirt is an example of an "adire eleko" design, which was achieved by applying cassava paste to the surface of the imported woven or machine-spun cloth. The cassava paste used on this cloth was made from cassava flour (or Lafun), which was boiled with alum to form a thick starch. This starch could have been applied to the cloth with a brush or feather quill, or a stencil. The pattern on this shirt appears to be hand painted.

During the dyeing process, the areas covered on this cloth with the now dried starch would have prevented the absorption of the indigo dye. Between each dyeing, the starch on this cloth would have been left to dry. After the dyeing process was completed, the starch was scraped off, leaving the cloth slightly stiff. After the cloth was dried, it would then have been placed over a flat log, and beaten with a wooden mallet. This process produced a high sheen on the cloth from the large amounts of indigo dye used in the dyeing process.

(Rebecca Fisher)

Yoruba indigo-dyed "adire eleko" man's cotton shirt. This cloth was produced on a men's double-heddle portable loom (or horizontal frame treadle loom). This loom produces what is known as narrow-band weaving (or narrow-strip weaving). The shirt is largely composed of numerous strips of narrow-band weaving, with additional monocot-leaf braid, cotton-wool felt and goat hide decoration. The narrow strips were sewn together with cotton and bast fibre threads, to form a rectangular, poncho shaped shirt.

This cloth is an example of an "adire" cloth, which refers to a cloth that has been patterned by the technique of resist dyeing, and is then dyed indigo blue. Yoruba women extract dye from the vine 'elu' (lonchocarpus cyanescens). This vine would have been collected by a Yoruba woman, who then would have pounded the vine into a pulp, and formed a fist- sized ball. The process of dyeing which would have followed was quite lengthy, but essentially involved extracting the dye from the 'elu' leaves, and then mixing the dye with mordant water extracted from mordant ash balls. The woman would have then proceeded with dyeing the cloth. It is also possible that a young girl assisted in the dyeing of this cloth, as the Yoruba dyeing process was taught by mothers to their daughters from a very young age.

This cloth is an example of an "adire eleko" design, which was achieved by applying cassava paste to the surface of the imported woven or machine-spun cloth. The cassava paste used on this cloth was made from cassava flour (or Lafun), which was boiled with alum to form a thick starch. This starch could have been applied to the cloth with a brush or feather quill, or a stencil. The pattern on this shirt appears to be hand painted.

During the dyeing process, the areas covered on this cloth with the now dried starch would have prevented the absorption of the indigo dye. Between each dyeing, the starch on this cloth would have been left to dry. After the dyeing process was completed, the starch was scraped off, leaving the cloth slightly stiff. After the cloth was dried, it would then have been placed over a flat log, and beaten with a wooden mallet. This process produced a high sheen on the cloth from the large amounts of indigo dye used in the dyeing process.

(Rebecca Fisher)

This shirt was produced by a male weaver in Yoruba, Western Nigeria, on a men's double-heddle portable loom (or horizontal frame treadle loom) between 1901 and 1985. The shirt was created by sewing the narrow strips of weaving together. West African strip weaving, as demonstrated in this shirt, is distinguished by the narrowness of the weave.

This shirt was purchased by the Powerhouse Museum in 1985 from Inna Cymlich. It was displayed in the Powerhouse Museum exhibition, 'A Material World' from November 1990 to June 1991.

(Rebecca Fisher)

Wide rectangular poncho style shirt, constructed from narrow strips of various sized, hand-woven cotton fabric, patched and hand-sewn together. The shape is basically rectangular with a slit left for the head opening and a slit left in each side seam for the armholes. The fabric strips were decorated before the garments was constructed in simple linear and geometric patterns using a resist technique with indigo dye background and the patterning left natural colour.

A firm three-stranded braid of grasses is stitched around the hem of the shirt on the inside, overlapping along one entire side. To this double braid are added pieces of goat hide with fur, forming a fringe along front side of shirt. On the outside, a narrow strip of red felt has been added around the hem, almost concealing the braid. Strips of the same red felt have been sewn on one side of the V of the neckline.

The garment is lined throughout with joined strips of coarsely woven tabby weave raffia fabric, undyed.

The shirt is made of hand-woven cotton, monocot-leaf braid, cotton-wool felt and goat hide. It was made by the Yoruba people of West Africa during the 20th century, between 1901 and 1985.

85/1280

1190 mm

690 mm