Aso oke is a hand-loomed cloth woven in narrow strips, traditionally across south-west Nigeria. Each strip comes off the loom about four inches wide, and a weaver joins them by hand until there is enough cloth for a garment. Nothing about it is fast.
We chose it because it behaves like no mill fabric does. The cotton is spun with slight irregularity, so light catches the surface differently along the length of a coat. A Maduenu Long Coat in black does not read as flat black — it reads as a fabric with weather in it.
It also wears in rather than out. Handwoven cotton softens around the shoulders and elbows over a first year of use, and the weave holds its structure long after a bonded or fused fabric would have collapsed. That is the reason we are comfortable putting a one year warranty against workmanship and material faults on every piece.
The trade-off is time. A single garment is woven, cut and finished to order, which is why delivery runs 30 to 60 days. We would rather tell you that plainly than rush a loom.