iya ni wura (mother is gold)
2019
A continuously evolving collection of unique cloaks invoking an era past where lustrous hand-woven cloth was the quotidian and traditional attire reigned supreme. Emblematic of Yoruba women’s past celebratory experiences and moved by the intention of the Gelede masquerade cloth costume, materials which previously danced in aesthetic and sacred communion now enter into tactile discourse with one another, the wearer as performer, and the wider community. Narratives of ancestral female agency merge with the present; an assembly of mother tongues in exchange across time and space.
Each unique cloak is reimagined from Yoruba women’s archival ceremonial garments, created from hand-loom woven aso oké cloth and sourced directly from specialty textile tradeswomen in Southwestern Nigeria. Cloaks are fully lined, subtly layered with Senegalese broderie gros fil, and finely finished with hand crochet.
This collection was specially commissioned for ALÁRA LAGOS, a contemporary African design store based in Lagos, Nigeria.
