Atelier Noir / Journal

Notes from the bench

Short essays from the studio on cloth, craft and dressing for Nigerian occasions. New entries with each collection.

A hand holding a pencil, sketching a figure

Craft, 6 min read

Why we fit three times

The first fitting is about the body, the second about the cloth and the third about the way you move.

Striped hand-woven cloth on a wooden table

Cloth, 5 min read

Adire meets silk

How an Abeokuta indigo tradition found its way onto silk twill, and why no two capes match.

From the studio notebook

Tip

Steaming in a hurry

Hang the garment in the bathroom while the shower runs hot for ten minutes. Light creases fall out; heavy ones need a steamer.

Tip

Gele and necklines

A tall gele balances a high neckline. With a low back, keep the gele wide rather than tall.

Tip

Choosing aso-ebi cloth

Order 10% more than you think. Late guests always find you, and dye lots rarely match.

Sketchbook

Every collection starts with about two hundred sketches. Around a dozen survive to become looks. We publish a few of the rest in each letter.

Join the letter

In the cloth room

This season the cloth room holds silk faille in black and mint, corded lace from a mill we have used for eight years, and forty lengths of adire, no two alike.

Your next chapter

Begin with a fitting.

Thirty unhurried minutes with a stylist at the Yaba atelier. The deposit comes off your garment.

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