Steemit Engagement Challenge S5-W1|My traditional Wear: Adire, Ankara, Aso Ofi and Lace

Good day Steemians, I'm so excited to be here and join the contest organized by this community which talks about our native wear. I'm from a Yoruba tribe which are in southwest Nigeria and my tribe is popularly known for our language and our traditional wears. Go with me as I will be sharing with you the native wears of the Yoruba people.

My tribe Yoruba has much native wears, some of these dresses originated from us while some were well adopted by our forefathers. The names of our native wears are:

Adire: Adire with the English name, **tie and dye** can be defined as an indigo-dyed cloth that is made by Yoruba women in southwestern Nigeria with the use of resist-dyeing techniques to produce a pattern design in extreme bright ranges of tints and hues.

Adire textiles can be achieved with the use of thread (for tying, folding, or stitching), wax, and dyes on a plain cloth to make a beautiful colored pattern design. It is one of the popular cloth that has been adopted all over the country.

Aside from using new plain fabric in making Adire, faded plain fabric too can be beautified by turning it into Adire. Adire cloth is being used to sow different styles from agbada (men's come down style), Buba and Iro (blouse and wrapper), top, shirt, skirt, and trouser.

Aso Ofi: Aso Ofi popularly called Aso Oke is a cloth made from cotton and handwoven, it is also one of the most popular native wears originated from the Yoruba tribe in a Southwestern towns in Nigeria, Iseyin in Oyo State and Ede in Osun State and is popularly accepted by other tribes in the country.

Aso Ofi is done manually by sorting the raw cotton, or fibers to combing, spinning, and warping, the process is hectic and takes days before it is completely done. Aso Ofi is worn to mark a special occasion like a festival, engagement, traditional wedding, introduction, naming ceremony, anniversary, and so on.

Aso Ofi can be used to sow agbada, trousers, cap, wrapper, Buba (blouse), gele, and ipele (head tie and the piece of cloth placed on the shoulder). My tribe does wear it alone as a complete dress or wears a cap, and head tie made with ofi to compliment our other natives wears like ankara, lace, and adire.

Ankara: Ankara which is also called Dutch wax or African wax is a popular and common clothing material in West and Central Africa, Ankara was introduced to West and Central Africa by a European Dutch merchant and has been popularly accepted since then.

We wear Ankara here on a normal day and for events, it can be worn alone as a complete dress such as gown, agbada, wrapper and blouse, blouse and skirt and top and trouser, sometimes we wear Ofi cap and a head tie with it for events.

Lace: Lace is seen as a delicate fabric made with a lot of holes in it, it is made of yarn or thread and it is of two categories known as needle lace and bobbin lace. Needle lace is done with the use of a single needle and thread to make stitches which later form lace fabric while bobbin lace makes use of many threads attached to small bobbins to create a pattern.

Lace is a popular native wear here in my country and with my tribe, there are many designs of lace and all of it can be sow into different styles of our choice, most time we wear lace for special occasions like our traditional wedding with the addition of Aso Ofi as a cap or head tie.

The price of all these clothes varies depending on the design made on the fabrics and the quality of the fabrics used

Adire: We can see good Adire as less as #5,000 (30.4 Steem) to as much as above #20,000 (121.9 Steem) depending on the quality of the fabrics, design, and dye used.

Aso Ofi: Aso oke also varies in price depending on whether it is plain one or with some designs. I have not bought a complete set of aso Ofi before but I have bought one plain aso ofi for a head tie and the cost was #1,500 (9.1Steem).

Ankara's price depends on its quality, we have high and low target ankara making it affordable for both the poor and rich. Its price ranges from #3,000 (18.2 Steem) for 6 yards to above #15,000 (91.4 Steem).

Lastly, Lace price also depends on the quality of the material used, there are some cheap lace whose prices are #1500 (9.1 Steem) per yard while some are sold for #5000 (30.4 Steem) or more per yard.

The durabilities of all these clothes depend on how they were used and washed. It is advisable not to wash these native wears with bleach or any harsh soap and Aso ofi doesn't need to be washed every time and it is not ideal to iron it.

If all these clothes were properly taken care of, they can last for more than 2-3 years, though lace at times can not be worn for years not because it is not looking good anymore but as new designs comes, it render some of the formal designs too old for some occasions.

Yes, I believe all these wears can be worn anywhere in the world because they can be used to sow different styles acceptable in all countries around the world, an example is Adire and ankara being used to make shirts or tops that can be worn on any skirt or trouser, it is can be used to sow both long and short gown.

Yes, like I said Ankara was made in a European country which is Turkey and was well accepted in West and Central Africa, the Dutch merchant got the inspiration from adire and akwete design which is from Nigeria.

My native wears are beautiful wears which speak and promote our culture, they are made in different colors which make them perfect for every skin color. Everyone can wear our native wears regardless of status as it is affordable.

Yoruba people's party is not complete without what we call aso ebi (family/friends cloth) which is a uniform lace and aso ofi for the family and close friends, and also Ankara for every other person to make the party uniform. Thank you for reading.

I invite @sahmie, @ruthjoe, and @yakspeace to participate in this contest.