By Tobi Onifade

The first thing that caught my eye at the GTBank ‘Fashion Weekend Craft and Fabric Market’ was the colour  – Indigo. This was the colour of the Adire fabric and it was prominent as I got to the entrance.

A huge banner welcomed me as I came across textile art by members of the Nike Art Gallery. There were two people creating Adire using the Eleko method which is also known as paste resist.

To the left was an old woman using cassava paste with the aid of a feather tip (a broomstick can also be used for this method) to draw her designs and on the right was a young man using hot wax and foam. The use of wax is modern compared to cassava paste, which was a more popular method back then. The difference between the two is that with cassava paste, the designs will only show on the side on which the fabric was drawn (when dipped into the dye) while with wax the design shows on both sides because the wax penetrates the fabric.

As I moved on, I saw many other ways of creating Adire such as the Oniko method, this is done using thread, raffia or cotton to tie the fabric in different places before it is dipped into the dye. Although it was done on different fabrics, I was really excited to see how it played out with silk, which is something I had never seen before.

Going deeper into the craft market, I came across other vendors like Adirelounge, Slippers by Kene and Aimas.

Adirelounge is another brand that does Adire but the difference between their technique and Nike Art’s is that the former uses various colours to dye the fabric whilst the latter sticks to the traditional indigo blue.

Slippers by Kene had lovely handcrafted male and female sandals/slippers, while Aimas had lovely Ankara headbands, tops, jewellery and more. Also in their stall were some African Queen dolls which were a lovely sight to see.

Another highlight for me was the Henna Place stall. It was beautifully decorated; the interior definitely had that Indian homey feel with cushions and lamps. My friend ‘IA’ decided to get henna done and whilst I watched, I was introduced to healthy drinks by Clay (which Henna Place was selling). The drinks were Zobo, Lemon and Ginger, Fura and Tamarind and trust me they were fantastic.

I couldn’t even decide which one I wanted for almost ten minutes but later went with Ginger and Lemon and Fura (this was huge considering the fact that I am not a yoghurt fan). At the end of the market were the bead crafters and a T-shirt artist/painter. The bead crafters had handcrafted jewellery, slippers and more. The styles displayed showed a lot of skill and sophistication and believe me when I say that bead making is truly a craft. The T-shirt painter did live demonstrations which were lovely and informative. My only disappointment was the fact that there weren’t any aso-oke weavers.

Two weeks before the GTBank Fashion Weekend, my mum came across the advert and excitedly showed it to me. As an aspiring textile/surface designer, this was what I was looking for in terms of information on textile art in Nigeria and whilst I learnt about the print aspect of textile design, it would have been a great opportunity to also learn about aso-oke weaving. All in all, I really enjoyed the experience because it showed a lot of our culture and identity. It wasn’t just a display of products, it was an interactive session with live demonstrations and questions were encouraged.