The multicolour palette of this design seems to be in vogue. From dresses to pants, tees, hoodies, shirts and shorts, the latest Adire styles are returning, this time, better than any tie and dye ever done in the past.
Thanks to every creative tie and dye artist out there. We don’t seem to get enough of this pattern. How wonderful is this art to have evolved from being patterns on traditional wrappers to patterns on ready-made appearel.
If you love the whole concept of tie and dye, the latest Adire styles you’ve been seeing and will see in this post will make you want to grab one. But before checking them out, let’s know a bit about Adire, shall we?
What is Adire?
Adire which means ‘tie and dye’ is a textile art that involves tie and dye. Aboriginally, it was the textile cloth made by Yoruba women in Nigeria. It is usually achieved by using different resist-dyeing techniques to create a pattern. This is done by treating certain parts of the fabric in some way to prevent them from absorbing dye.
A professional maker of this textile is known as Aladire.
Brief History of Adire
Yoruba women of southwestern Nigeria locally handspun and wove this textile into simple tied designs on cotton cloth back in the day. This is similar to those produced in Mali.
However, in the early years of the 20th century, the prevalence of European textile merchants in Yoruba towns like Abeokuta brought about access to large quantities of imported shirting fabrics. This in turn made female dyers to become both artists and entrepreneurs in the field. Hence, they developed new techniques of resist-dyeing. One of which was Adire Eleko which involved hand-painting designs on the cloth with a cassava starch paste before dyeing it.
Moreover, other techniques included using sewn raffia to combine with tied sections of clothes and using metal stencils cut from the sheets of tin that lined tea-chests.
Consequently, tie-dye became a major craft for Abeokuta and Ibadan residents from the 1920s to 1930s. It attracted many buyers from near and far. However, this high demand was short-lived. This is because towards the end of the decade, under-skilled newbies and the proliferation of synthetic indigo and caustic soda posed a problem of quality.
Nonetheless, there are better tie and dye productions these days. In fact, Nigerian fashion designers such as Amaka Osakwe and Duro Olowu have revived this textile art, doling out fashion-forward pieces that even public figures like Michelle Obama and Lupita Nyong’o cannot resist.
Latest Adire Styles
The latest Adire styles have been incorporated into both tailored and ready-to-wear pieces. That is, while you can take a piece of this textile to your tailor to sew something for you, you can as well take your ready-made clothes to textile artists so they can tie and dye them for you.
Moreover, you can go further by shopping off-the-rack from fashion brands that produce the latest Adire styles as ready-to-wear clothing.
Below are the latest time and dye styles for you:
1. Tie-dye Bottoms
From pants to skirts, shorts and even bumshorts, this textile doesn’t carry last at all. It in itself is a fashion statement. For instance, imagine having it sewn into a midi skirt with beautiful details. You’ll inevitably be a showstopper.
2. Adire Tops
Plain tees, shirts, hoodies,etc., are very good but try refurbishing them with a splash of some tie-dye ink. Yeah that’s right. The result will indeed be a colourful one.
3. Tie-dye Dresses
Want a shift from Ankara, Dashiki, Kente and every other African print you usually wear? A tie-dye dress won’t be a bad idea. Just make sure the style is super lit to complement the standout details of this textile.
4. Two-piece Adire
How about having this textile as a co-ord set? This gives you room to either pair them separately or together anytime you feel like it and still slay.
5. Mix-and-Match
Already, tie-dye involves mixing and matching two or more colours to achieve a beautiful palette. Regardless, you can still mix and match the textile with either a plain one or another Adire textile of a different colour.
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