The attire library
What we wear. And what it says.
44garments, cloths, and ornaments and counting, from kente’s named colour-patterns to a Zulu isicholo to a Tuareg tagelmust: what each piece is, what it signifies, and who may wear it.
Not a fashion catalogue: no shopping links, no styling advice. Every entry treats dress as material culture and answers the question most visitors actually have — can I wear this? Filter by category, region, country, or people; every claim wears its badge.
Also on this shelf: the customs library and the cuisine library →
Showing 1–12 of 44
Adire
Indigo-dyed cotton cloth, resist-patterned by hand using stitching, tying, or starch-painting before dyeing, an Egba Yoruba craft tradition centred in Abeokuta.
🇳🇬 🇧🇯 🇹🇬Yoruba
Agbada
A voluminous, wide-sleeved flowing robe worn over a matching tunic and trousers, the formal dress of Yoruba and Hausa men for the most significant occasions.
🇳🇬 🇧🇯 🇹🇬 🇳🇪 🇬🇭Yoruba · Hausa
Akwete cloth
A heavy, hand-woven Igbo cloth on a vertical loom, historically the domain of women weavers in the town of Akwete, patterned with bold geometric and figurative motifs.
🇳🇬Igbo
Amazigh silver jewellery
Heavy silver jewellery, fibulae, headpieces, and bracelets, often set with coral, amber, or enamel, worn by Amazigh (Berber) women and passed down as family heirlooms.
🇲🇦 🇩🇿 🇱🇾 🇹🇳 🇲🇱Amazigh
Aso ebi
A single fabric chosen for one specific event, bought and tailored by the hosting family and their guests so everyone appears in coordinated, sometimes identical, dress.
🇳🇬 🇧🇯 🇹🇬Yoruba
Aso oke
A heavier, hand-woven Yoruba cloth in rich colour and texture, tailored into agbada, gele, and other formal wear specifically for weddings, chieftaincy, and major ceremony.
🇳🇬 🇧🇯 🇹🇬Yoruba
Basotho blanket
A thick, boldly patterned wool blanket, worn draped over the shoulders and pinned, so central to Basotho identity that it appears on Lesotho’s own iconography.
🇱🇸 🇿🇦Basotho
Bogolanfini
Handwoven cotton cloth dyed with fermented mud and plant dyes into bold, often black-and-cream geometric patterns, a Malian Mande textile tradition with deep symbolic vocabulary.
🇲🇱 🇬🇲 🇬🇳 🇸🇳 🇨🇮Mandinka / Mandé
Boubou
A wide, flowing robe with generous sleeves, worn over matching trousers, the everyday and formal dress of Wolof and Mandinka men and, in a fitted women’s version, of women across the Sahel.
🇸🇳 🇬🇲 🇲🇷 🇲🇱 🇬🇳Wolof · Mandinka / Mandé
Coptic wrist tattoo
A small, simple cross tattooed on the inside of the wrist, a tradition among Coptic Christians in Egypt, often applied in childhood and worn for life as a permanent, visible mark of faith.
🇪🇬 🇸🇩 🇱🇾Coptic Orthodox Christians
Djellaba
A long, loose, hooded robe worn by both men and women across the Maghreb, practical for weather and modesty alike, worn daily and, in finer versions, for Friday prayer and celebration.
🇲🇦 🇩🇿 🇱🇾 🇹🇳 🇲🇱Amazigh
Doek
A headwrap tied from a square of fabric, worn daily and for ceremony across South African communities, its knot style and fabric choice carrying its own small vocabulary.
🇿🇦South Africans · Xhosa · Zulu