Evolution and Development of Fashion Designing in Yorubaland, Nigeria
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Abstract
Dressing and grooming are tangible aspects of Yoruba culture and civilisation that spanned thousands of years. Despite this truism, in Yoruba studies the politics, economics and religious underpinnings of Yoruba civilisation have been more isolated and adequately interrogated by scholars; than Yoruba clothing history. Thus, there is a lacuna in the understanding of fashion designing in the context of the changing utility of clothing over time and space in Yorubaland. Consequently, this paper examines the evolution and development of fashion designing in Yorubaland to bridge this gap. It used the historical research methodology to achieve this objective. The paper historicises the development of fashion designing from the Garden of Eden to the twentieth century. Within the period of study, the paper finds that the rise of clothing nationalism and the weaponisation of dressing in the struggle for Nigeria’s decolonisation were significant milestones in the clothing history of Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole. Therefore, this paper concludes that fashion designing served a purpose that was beyond covering human nakedness in Yorubaland. It featured prominently in the politics, economics and sociology of the Yoruba people. This means that Yoruba traditional textile designing was both responsive to time and the environmental milieu. Therefore, Indigenous Yoruba textiles and clothing evolved as a Giffen or utility goods in Yorubaland and changes in price, preferences and modernity could not extinguish their demand.
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