It started with one thimble and a table.

In 2009 Mma Ekaete Udofia rented a single table at the front of a provisions shop in Ewet Housing, with twelve pieces of wax print and the brass thimble her grandmother sewed with. The thimble still sits by the till.

A fabric store with shelves full of colourful cloth

Chapter IIThe years

Seventeen years on the same street.

2009
One table
Twelve pieces of wax print and a ledger. Customers were neighbours, church members and the tailors on the next street.
2013
The first room
We took the whole front room and added lace, kept in tissue in a cupboard her husband built.
2017
Aso-ebi lists
A wedding for 140 guests taught us to keep lists, bag by name and send waybills. Group orders became half our work.
2021
Three rooms
The shop grew back from the road into three rooms, one for each family of cloth.
2026
The swatch wall
Customers in Lagos and Abuja asked to see the cloth before travelling home. The swatch wall is our answer.

Chapter IIIThe people

Who you will meet at the counter.

Mma Ekaete Udofia

Founder

Still at the counter most mornings. Ask her about any print and she will tell you the year it first came in.

Uduak Essien

Head cutter

Cuts every aso-ebi share and knows how much cloth a style needs from a single photo.

A young woman in a patterned dress smiling

Ime Bassey

Lace room and WhatsApp

Answers the WhatsApp line and keeps the aso-ebi lists. Names are invented for this demo.

Chapter IVHow we work

Four promises we keep.

Honest yards. We measure on a brass rule fixed to the table, never by arm length.
Daylight checks. You can take any cloth to the door before you pay.
Fair batches. We tell you when a print is the last batch, so you can buy enough.
Names on bags. Every aso-ebi share is labelled, so nobody gets the wrong length.