JACQULINE MASON-REID, a producer of Jadire, says: “I have been praying for a long time because I am not a person who is good at sales. I have been asking God to show me some marketing strategies, and now an avenue is open so I can sell my fabric.” She was speaking at the Jamaica Business Development Corporation’s (JBDC) Incubator & Resource Centre (IRC), which came alive on Thursday, June 15, at its Jadire Buying Event. Each Jadire piece on display screamed Jamaican luxury … a fashion renaissance.
Jadire is a style of tie-dye batik fabric, a fusion of Nigerian and Jamaican design techniques. The ‘J’ in Jadire means Jamaica and the ‘Adire’ is the Yoruba word for ‘tie and dye’. The Jadire was introduced to Jamaica in 2021 through a partnership with the Nigerian High Commission, and the name coined by Alao Luqman, Nigerian cultural diplomat working at the JBDC. Since then, over 100 local artisans and designers have been trained under this fashion programme. Beneficiaries include members of the Ethopian Orthodox Church.
Through the JBDC’s Jadire Buying Event, five artisans who participated in the programme were given the opportunity to present their fabric designs to potential buyers who received exclusive invitations to IRC.
Colin Porter, technical services manager at JBDC, said this event is an opportunity to take Jadire to the next level. “The Jadire Programme has been going on for quite a while now. So, the idea was to build the technical and the business competency of the participants that were trained to bring them to a point of commercialisation, meaning that they now get an opportunity to share their works with a range of designers to see the offerings and to see the possibilities,” he explained.
The African-inspired art, coupled with Jamaican symbolism, adds a new flare to Jamaican fashion. Robert Hall, fashion expert at the JBDC, said, “We really saw solutions that would now help to mark us apart and if you think on another level of how does this resonate with the issue of identity as a black people in a time like this. We had different designers doing from the suit to a ball gown type kind of evening dress situation. Accessories such as jewellery and bags were on display. We saw a number of bags as well. It really speaks to a different kind of approach because bags are usually in muted colours, but today we saw colours like the blues and yellows, etc.”
Source Jamaica Gleaner: https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20230627/growth-jobs-jadire-dyeing-sell
