Aso Oke and Nigerian traditional attire

Nigerian dress is legible. What someone wears at a ceremony tells you where they are from, which family they are attached to that day, and roughly what they want you to think about their standing. Little of this is accidental, and almost none of it is casual.

Aso oke, meaning top cloth in Yoruba, is handwoven on narrow looms in strips that are then sewn together. Traditional varieties are named by colour and fibre: sanyan, a beige cloth woven from wild silk and historically the most prestigious; alaari, a deep red; etu, a dark indigo. The weave is thick, slightly stiff and structured, which is why it holds the shape of a gele so well. A full Yoruba outfit in aso oke includes buba and iro with gele and ipele for a woman, and agbada or buba with sokoto and a fila cap for a man. Contemporary weavers work in every colour and add metallic thread, and a commissioned set for a wedding can take weeks.

Adire is the other great Yoruba textile: indigo-dyed cotton patterned by resist techniques, either tied and stitched, adire oniko and adire alabere, or hand-painted with cassava starch, adire eleko. Abeokuta remains its centre. Akwete cloth, woven by Igbo women in Abia State, is broader and more pictorial, with motifs held and passed down within weaving families. Igbo formal dress for men centres on the isiagu, a patterned shirt bearing lion heads, worn with a red cap that in many communities may only be worn by titled men — an important distinction, since wearing one without the title is a genuine offence.

Northern dress favours volume and embroidery. The babariga or agbada is a wide flowing gown worn over a kaftan, the finest examples covered in dense hand-stitched embroidery at the neck and chest that can take an artisan weeks. Men wear the hula cap; the Fulani and Kanuri each have distinctive cap shapes. Women wear a wrapper, blouse and a head covering or hijab, often in richly patterned atamfa.

The gele deserves its own mention. Tying one properly is a skill, and professional gele tiers are hired for weddings. Height, sharpness and symmetry are judged, and a well-tied gele is understood as a statement of confidence rather than vanity.

Aso ebi is the organising logic of a Nigerian ceremony. The celebrant's family chooses a fabric and colour scheme, sells it to guests in advance, and those wearing it are visibly identified as belonging to that side of the event. It builds cohesion and offsets cost, and it is also a frequent source of grumbling about the price of attending other people's weddings. Either way, the photographs come out coordinated.