Ojude Oba Yoruba Cloak,

2023

To create this cloak, Thompson researched the design and construction of historical agbádás, voluminous robes traditionally worn by Yorùbá men. His wool version features motifs typically embroidered onto agbádás and associated with the rise of Islam in mid-nineteenth-century Nigeria. The emblem of two knives (aska biyu) is a spiritual insignia associated with the Hausa-Fulani caliphate in northern Nigeria; the spiral inset with a quartered circle, known as tambari (the king’s drum), designates the wearer as a leader. Thompson designed the cloak as part of a collection, produced for his fashion label Lagos Space Programme, that imagines the ensembles a fictional British Nigerian immigrant might wear to the annual Ojude Oba festival celebrating the ruler of the Ijebu Kingdom. The godets, wedge-shaped pieces of fabric sewn into the garment to add lift and give the cloak its volume, are based on those used in traditional agbádás and also resonate with pleats found in British tailored clothing.