Olutayo Rawa is a Nigerian fashion designer whose practice bridges two cultures through the medium of cloth. Based in Kent, she is the founder of Aleph, a womenswear label rooted in Yoruba Adire Batik textile tradition, bringing a centuries-old West African resist-dye craft into contemporary professional and occasion wear.
Her engagement with Adire Batik began in 2018 at a tie-and-dye workshop in Abeokuta, Nigeria, the heartland of the tradition, where she first worked directly with the cloth and its making. That encounter marked a turning point in her practice, anchoring her design work in the cultural and textile heritage of south-western Nigeria. She developed her understanding of Adire Batik in 2023 via training with AdireWorld, exploring its history and place within the broader Yoruba textile tradition.
Rawa has practised independently as a fashion designer for over ten years, developing a body of work that draws on both formal training in garment construction and personal familiarity with Yoruba textile culture. In 2024, she completed an MBA at the University of Greenwich, within which she developed a full business plan for an Adire-focused womenswear label, the formal foundation of Aleph.
Her debut collection, Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀ the Yoruba word for origin, is currently in development. Eight made-to-order looks in Adire Batik fabric, each named for a Yoruba concept, every piece custom-made to the client’s measurements and designed for longevity.
At the heart of Rawa’s practice is a conviction that clothing is never simply clothing. A woman who enters a professional space wearing Adire Batik is not simply dressed. She is carrying a conversation about identity, heritage, and belonging into the room. It is this conversation that Aleph exists to start.
Cloth That Speaks: Adire Batik as Conversation Between Heritage and Contemporary Life
Adire Batik is one of the oldest textile traditions in West Africa, originating among the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria. It is a resist-dye craft in which cloth is transformed through wax, pattern, and indigo, carrying within it centuries of cultural memory, identity, and meaning.
This presentation asks a simple question: what happens when that cloth travels? Drawing on photographic documentation and personal practice, Olutayo Rawa traces the journey of Adire Batik from its origins in Abeokuta, Nigeria, to its place within contemporary professional and occasion womenswear in the UK. She explores how a textile tradition rooted in Yoruba culture can enter into dialogue with modern British creative life, and what that conversation reveals about identity, belonging, and the enduring power of cloth.
Through photographs of the cloth, its making, and its translation into contemporary womenswear, attendees are invited to consider how heritage travels, transforms, and speaks in new contexts.
