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.
Does your family know it this way?
The names it answers to
- AdireYoruba · literally "tie and dye"
MEANING
The specific resist technique used, stitched (adire oniko), starch-painted (adire eleko), or tied, produces recognisably different pattern families, each a distinct skill passed within workshops.
Traditionally the work of women dyers, adire cloth has long carried economic as well as artistic weight within Yoruba communities.
Meanings are plural by design: your family may hold another. Dispute or add below; disagreement is recorded, never erased.
Colour, pattern & material
When it is worn
Who wears it, and may I?
Yoruba women historically as the primary makers and wearers; today worn and appreciated broadly, with the craft itself experiencing a contemporary revival.
Who wears this
Provenance
- generated: 2026-07-10
- source: Model-knowledge aggregation pass (2026-07-10); unverified, awaiting community affirmation.
This entry is a hypothesis awaiting its people. If your family holds or wears this differently, that difference is exactly what we want recorded.
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