Woman's wrapper

Adire ia an ordinary commercially woven cloth that is transformed by hand dying with localy made indigo dye. To create the elaborate patterns of adire the artist blocks the dye from reaching the surface of the cloth. This is done by painting or stenciling with a starch such as cassava paste, or by tying or sewing knots and seams. This pattern is called sun bebe or "lifting up the sun," and is made by painting with starch resist. The pattern name refers to the beads girls wore around their hips. While dancing the beads would move up and down. The beads were especially worn by girls who were to be married, and in private ceremonial dances, they performed before their future husbands.

Adire was first produced in quantity in the late nineteenth century, with production dwindling by World War II. The 1960s saw a revived interest in adire with new patterns, and new uses superceeding the original use as women's wrappers.

Cotton cloth wrapper with indigo dyed pattern of 56 squares in 8 x 7 blocks, hand painted, with the painter's mark visible on the margin.

Jane Barbour, acquired Abeokuta, Nigeria, ca. 1969 to 1996

TxtStyles: Fashioning Identity, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 11-December 7, 2008

Adire: Resist-Dyed Cloths of the Yoruba, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 16-August 17, 1997

National Museum of African Art. 1997. Adire: Resist-Dyed Cloths of the Yoruba. Exhibition brochure. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, no. 19.

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