Wine Aso Oke Traditional Wedding Dress with Gele | Long Sleeve Yoruba Bridal Outfit

Handwoven aso oke in deep wine, tailored as one dress that reads like iro and buba. All the presence of the traditional two-piece, none of the adjusting: nothing to re-tie, nothing that slips when you sit, stand or dance. The groom’s agbada is woven from the same cloth.

The cloth

Aso oke is woven in narrow strips on a traditional loom and hand-joined into panels, which is why the surface catches light unevenly and why no two pieces are identical. This deep wine reads as oxblood, garnet or burgundy depending on the light in the hall, and it holds its colour under photographers’ flash instead of blowing out the way flat reds do.

The cloth is woven to order, and that is the part brides underestimate. Weaving to a specific colour takes weeks before a single stitch of tailoring happens. There is no shortcut and no express option.

The cut

Square neckline, fitted through the body, ankle length, with the sleeve opening into a wide bell at the wrist. A seamed panel runs up the front where a wrapper would overlap, so the silhouette carries the traditional line while the garment stays a single piece with a concealed closure.

The motifs are cut by hand and set individually: leaf shapes outlined in beadwork with faceted black stones at the centre, scattered across the bodice and climbing the front panel. They are placed rather than printed, and placed asymmetrically so the eye keeps moving down the dress.

One dress rather than two pieces also solves the practical problem of the day. You will be greeting family, kneeling, sitting for long stretches and standing back up in front of several hundred people. Nothing here needs a second pair of hands to put right.

The gele

Woven from the same cloth and shaped to your head, not bought in as a generic pre-tie. An aso oke look without its matching gele is incomplete, so it is included rather than sold separately. It arrives already formed and ready to place on the morning.

The couple set

The groom’s four-piece is available in the same weave: agbada, buba, sokoto and fila, with hand embroidery worked into the chest and the cap. Order both together. A second weaving run months later will not sit at exactly the same shade, and in photographs that gap is obvious.

Included

• The dress, cut to your size or to your measurements
• Matching aso oke gele, shaped and ready to place
• Garment bag

Groom’s agbada set priced separately. Coral beads, clutch, shoes and jewellery shown are styling and not included.

Details

Colour and customisation

Shown in wine. Because the cloth is woven to order, almost any colour is possible, including a shade matched to your aso ebi from a swatch photograph. Colour matching across a group is the strongest reason to place one order rather than several.

Regular alterations: a longer or shorter bell on the sleeve, a heavier or lighter scattering of motifs, a fuller gele, a higher slit for movement, and simplified versions for mothers, sisters and the aso ebi group. Group orders need a much longer runway, since every metre has to be woven before anything is cut.

Ordering

Weaving and hand-setting the motifs takes weeks, and the atelier accepts a limited number of bridal commissions each season. Send us your date before you order and we will tell you honestly whether it is possible, particularly around the December and Easter peaks. We ship across Nigeria and to brides in the UK, US, Canada, Ireland and Australia. Import duty on international orders is charged by your own customs authority on arrival and is not included in the price.