CLOTHES OF NIGERIA-by Lola García-Romeu

CLOTHES OF NIGERIA 

The traditional dress of Nigeria is colorful and elegant. While it is used in all circumstances it is also the everyday dress of many. Using it, is part of some traditional ceremonies and special occasions. Nigeria is a country populated by people of many ethnic groups with different traditional costumes.


Women's clothing

Everyday costumes are made of cotton and are dyed in the town. For formal use, the costumes are made of finest fabrics, sometimes dyed with known as batik techniques. You can add lace and embroidery. Women  wrapped their heads with a garment called a gele, a fabric tied in elaborate styles. Nigerian women can choose between the buba, a long, loose blouse which stops just below the waist and a dress called kaba. The iro is a rectangular fabric similar to a skirt which wraps around the lower part of the body. The final piece is the iborun or ipele, wearing a shawl in diagonal form.


Men’s clothing

For daily use, men also wear cotton. Clothes resemble a gown and a shirt. They have a long buba on pants that are called sokoto when dressed formally. The agbada is a combination of the sokoto and the buba used for the holidays. A hat that looks like a box for pills known as row. Another hat that has longer sides is called abeti - aja.

Fabrics and dyeing techniques

The fabrics used for making the traditional clothing of Nigeria are lace and jacquard. You can also use the adire, which is dyed a color indigo which produced the women of Yoruba in Southwest Nigeria, using a variety of techniques of mooring for your dyeing. The word "adire" can be translated as "tie and dye". Other dyed fabric, which was introduced through the adire Dutch copy, is the ankara. The dyes used in its preparation are faster and easier to use, and although it is a Western fabric, it was well received in Nigeria.

From North to South

Nigeria styles change as it passes from North to South. The Northern, where the people are more rural, use costumes of more traditional look than their neighbors in cities to the South. The work of the dress in the North is, often, more traditional, while in the South they use Western clothes to go to work.