Olori Aderonke Ademiluyi-Ogunwusi is the great granddaughter of the late Ooni Ajagun Ademiluyi, the 48th King of the Ile-Ife Kingdom. She is now the 4th wife of the 51st Ooni of Ile Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, and the CEO of the Adire Hub, an indigenous handmade hub that empowers women and youth and trains them in the vocational skill of Adire making to enable them to earn a sustainable living for themselves. A lawyer by profession who chose the part of fashion, Olori Aderonke has many successful fashion projects under her belt, which include Africa Fashion Week in Lagos, London, and Brazil, the Moremi Cultural and Leadership Pageant, and the Oodua Adire Hub. Aderonke is also an author; she co-authored the book ‘African Fashion Book: The Eyes of Originality and Creativity’. In this interview, the soft-spoken Olori speaks about her love for the Adire fabric and why she decided to promote this indigenous textile, among many other things.

You are the CEO of the Adire Oduah Hub and the wife of Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi. Tell us what the Adire Oduah Hub is all about and why it was established.
Preserving our heritage and empowering our artisans, Adire Oodua Textile Hub was established in 2021 as an empowerment project to develop and build the capability of our artisans and act as a skills acquisition centre for women and youth within Ile-Ife and its environs. To use our heritage textile Adire as an instrument of youth employment and wealth creation for women in rural areas.
We have directly and indirectly trained up to 1000 youths and women in adire making; some of them we retain to work with us while others go and set up their own small-scale Adire businesses.
We are all aware of the situation in the country at the moment, particularly in the area of youth unemployment. We have so many youth who graduate every year without the possibility of getting white-collar jobs. Learning a vocational skill like adire making is very important to us at the Adire Hub, and this is why we partner with universities like Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), King’s University, and Ode-Omu, to mention a few. We offer free training to youths in adire making, and we train them in different types of adire making, ranging from adire eleko to adire oniko to adire alabere to adire alabela.
Before you established the hub with the Ooni as chairman, you must have conducted extensive research on this textile and its history. Also, as Princess and Queen of Ife Kingdom, you must have been familiar with the Adire textile. With your wealth of knowledge, tell us what the history of the Adire textile and its relation to the Ile Ife Kingdom is.
According to my research and what I know, in the Ifa corpus, the textile technology of Adire, which involves putting patterns on cloth using various resistant methods, was first developed by Orunmila, the patron deity of Ifa. The book of Ifa, which is also a book of knowledge, teaches us that Adire was actually developed as a wealth creation process because, according to what the book of Ifa says, “Orunmila went crying to God for an enterprise, and Olodumare showed him how to put different patterns on cloth using different types of beautiful birds to draw those patterns on clothes and how to use the ancient dyes like Indigo dye, which is known as the “Elu”. History tells us that he was the first person who was inspired by God to start this type of textile technology, which he passed on to women thousands of years ago. According to this history and based on the origin of adire, we learned that anyone who goes into the business of adire making will always be successful. We all know that Orunmila was an indigene of Ile-Ife, so there’s a connection between Adire and Ile-Ife.



You have many fashion projects under your belt, like the African Fashion Week in London and Nigeria, the Queen Moremi Cultural and Leadership Pageant, to mention a few, and now the Adire Oduah Hub, but you are particularly passionate about the Adire hub. Tell us how you have successfully managed all these projects without one outdoing the other, and also what makes the Adire Ooduah Hub truly special to you.
I’m an African fashion expert, a textile entrepreneur, an ambassador for African culture, and an advocate for the education of girls and women in leadership in Nigeria. I’m also an author, but all of these projects are connected to one another. They are woven into each other because they are all centred around our heritage and culture.
My Africa Fashion Weeks (AFWs) have been around for 13 years in London, Nigeria, and recently Brazil, and they allow me to tell the African story through fashion because what African designers do is linked to their heritage and to their collections, and this allows for story-telling of the African heritage through fashion.
The fashion week also allows me to link the creative side of fashion to business, creating a market for African fashion to thrive. Africa Fashion Week Lagos (AFWL), founded in 2011, emerged as an event that showcased the richness of African fashion, from traditional attire to contemporary designs. It has become more than a fashion event; it has evolved into a platform that spotlights the talents and aspirations of African designers and a space to celebrate the diversity of African culture. It also has a focus on education. It’s educating the world about our fashion because if we don’t tell our stories ourselves, no one will tell them for us.
We have also worked with some universities around the world with regards to African fashion.
University of Northampton (Fashion Department): Mentoring Scheme
Henley Business School (School of Entrepreneurship)
Parsons School of Design and Technology’s Fashion Futures online learning programme
Ravensbourne University (Fashion Department)
London College of Fashion (Centre of Sustainable Fashion)
University of West London (Fashion Department)
So, all my projects, including the Queen Moremi Cultural and Leadership Pageant, are centred around women, culture, and sustainability.


So far, what have you been able to achieve since you established this hub in 2019?
The Adire Oodua Textile Hub is something that is very close to my heart because, if we look at the uniqueness of Adire fabrics and the fact that it’s an indigenous handmade fabric, the craftmanship and dedication that the artisans put into making these designs is something that melts my heart. And even if an artisan makes the same design over and over again, there is always a variation in design. This is similar to a signed signature; if you sign your signature a million times, there will always be a difference. This is the same with Adire; each design has its own uniqueness, and therein lies the beauty.
Right now, Adire is gaining so much traction globally. And it’s no longer a fabric worn by Yorubas or Nigerians; the global market is now accepting Adire, and this is very visible in Brazil. At our recent Africa Fashion Week Brazil Expo and at the Africa Fashion Week London 2022 Expo, Adire was centre stage.
The Adire Oodua Textile Training Hub, which is under the chairmanship of the Ooni of Ife, has impacted the lives of so many women and youths. Through the grants offered by His Imperial Majesty the Ooni of Ife, we have been able to train so many young people in Adire making, which has enabled them to earn a sustainable living for themselves.
Like I mentioned earlier, the lack of employment in Nigeria is so huge, and according to statistics, in the year 2035, Africa will need 450 million new jobs for its youth, and learning vocational skills like adire making is really advisable. Adire is in such huge demand right now, both in Nigeria and outside of Nigeria, that sometimes we cannot even meet the demands.
There are six main types of Adire fabric that can be imprinted on different fabrics, from organza to chiffon to cotton and much more. Which is the most popular among Nigerians, and why?
The most popular Adire is Adire Batik, which can be imprinted on different fabrics ranging from brocade cotton, silk, crepe, scuba, rayon, linen, and jersey, to mention a few.
And we now have a new influx of textile designers who are coming out to make Adires that are appealing to a global audience, so turning that traditional fabric into something that appeals to the global audience and to our Generation Z, because they are the next generation, they are the ones who would keep this craftsmanship of Adire alive after we have long gone, similar to what we are doing now, preserving our heritage fabric.


As an advocate of the Adire textile, what do you hope this fabric is able to do for the Nigerian export market and the economy?
Personally, I think Adire should be the fabric of our nation, the same way the Kente fabric is identified with Ghana. When you see someone wearing Kente, you automatically know this fabric is from Ghana, and that is how we need to position Adire for Nigeria. It needs to be identified as the fabric of our nation.
If we are able to do this, Adire will continuously create jobs and wealth and be positioned as a non-oil export that can help us grow our GDP tremendously.
Adire has so many benefits. It helps us promote not only the history behind the fabric itself but our history because when our global audience sees a beautiful Adire fabric on the catwalk and they want to know the history behind the fabric’s signs, symbols, colours, and everything it represents, it becomes a form of storytelling for us, but again, it can also be used to grow our GDP tremendously.
You recently married your husband, the Ooni of Ife. How did you meet him?
I actually met him when I brought Africa Fashion Week to Nigeria in 2014, nearly a decade ago, and he pledged his support then, and he has been supporting the growth of the brand ever since. Our relationship started as a business relationship, turned into a friendship, and then into a relationship that involved marriage.
What is it like living in the palace with the other Oloris?
Contrary to what people might think about a house or home with many wives, it’s actually really nice because we act as a support system for each other.

