Adire (textile art)

[5] The earliest pieces of this type were probably simple tied designs on cotton cloth, handspun and woven locally (rather like those still produced in Mali).

In the early decades of the 20th century came new access to large quantities of imported shirting material via the spread of European textile merchants in Abeokuta and other Yoruba towns that caused a boom in these women's entrepreneurial and artistic efforts, making adire a major local craft in Abeokuta and Ibadan that attracted buyers from all over West Africa.

[9] However, by the end of the 1930s the spread of synthetic indigo, caustic soda, and an influx of new less skilled entrants caused quality problems and a still-present collapse in demand.

Though the more complex and beautiful starch resist designs continued to be produced until the early 1970s, and despite a revival prompted largely by the interest of US Peace Corps workers in the 1960s, they never regained their earlier popularity.

Political figures and celebrities such as Michelle Obama and Lupita Nyong'o have worn adire-inspired clothes recently.