Women’s Blouse (Buba) and Wrap Skirt (Iro), Nigeria, Africa, 1970s
This indigo buba, iro and gele was bought by the owner, Rounke, in Nigeria in the late 1970s. She remembers wearing it to a party when she was a university student in the early 1980s. It is made from woven blue striped cotton fabric. A buba is a tailored blouse, customarily worn by Yoruba women with an iro (wrap skirt), pele (shawl) and gele (headwrap) as a matching outfit. Collected as part of the Fashioning Africa project.
Creator: unknown
Place: Nigeria, West Africa, Africa
Date: 1970s
Brighton Museum recorded an oral history with Rounke where she discussed her memories of shopping for and wearing aso-oke. She said of this outfit:
When I was at the University of Reading, I became the president of the Africa Society and I wore the aso oke I’ve donated to the museum there because it [the traditional aso oke] wasn’t going to get ruined – you know this might have got ruined [indicates aso oke brought to the interview]. That was a cheap, cheap type that my friend’s mother had given me. When I say ‘cheap, cheap’ I don’t mean it was cheap, it wasn’t cheap but it was cheaper than this. [Yeah] And I wore that – because I was president of the society, I felt I needed to look presidential and I did!
