Aso oke fabric: From Head to Toe Yoruba Beautiful attires

Aso oke fabric, (Yoruba: Așǫ oke, pronounced ah-SHAW-okay) is a hand-loomed cloth woven by the Yoruba people of west Africa.

 Aso oke means "top cloth" in the English language, denoting cloth of high status. Usually woven by men, the fabric is used to make men's gowns, called Agbada, women's wrappers, called iro, and men's hats, called fila.

Aso oke is from the Yoruba culture in Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Lagos, and Osun States in southwestern Nigeria and Ajase in southeastern Benin Republic

The way of making the cloth has remained the same for centuries, however new techniques and production methods have been looked into to eliminate the weight and thickness of the Aso oke cloth, and to make it more accessible for casual wear.

Types of aso okeEdit

Other ways that designers have made this old traditional cloth become more modern is to "structurally manipulate and combine animal and floral motifs into definite shapes of grids and geometry, suitable for computer design applications." The basis of more traditional motifs would have originated from fables and folklore.

• Sanyan type: woven from anaphe wild silk and cotton yarns
• Alaari type: woven with either synthetically or locally grown cotton and shinning threads, sometimes with perforated patterns
• Etu type: bears dark indigo colours with tiny white stripes noted for their simplicity.

Aso oke fabric is often worn with aran, a brown velvet with concentric designs.

eople of west Africa Aso okemeans "top cloth" in the English language, denoting cloth of high status.^[1] Usually woven by men, the fabric is used to make men's gowns, called Agbada, women's wrappers, called iro, and men's hats, called fila.

Aso oke is from the Yoruba culture in Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Lagos, and Osun States in southwestern Nigeria and Ajase in southeastern Benin Republic

The way of making the cloth has remained the same for centuries, however new techniques and production methods have been looked into to eliminate the weight and thickness of the Aso oke cloth, and to make it more accessible for casual wear.

Edit

Other ways that designers have made this old traditional cloth become more modern is to "structurally manipulate and combine animal and floral motifs into definite shapes of grids and geometry, suitable for computer design applications." The basis of more traditional motifs would have originated from fables and folklore.

• Sanyan type: woven from anaphe wild silk and cotton yarns
• Alaari type: woven with either synthetically or locally grown cotton and shinning threads, sometimes with perforated patterns
• Etu type: bears dark indigo colours with tiny white stripes noted for their simplicity.

Aso oke fabric is often worn with aran, a brown velvet with concentric designs.