Grooms’ Acceptability of Aso-Oke for Wedding Suits in Lagos, Nigeria: A Study of Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Fashion Integration

Abstract

This study assesses the acceptability of integrating the Yoruba handwoven textile, Aso-Oke , into contemporary wedding suits among grooms in Lagos, Nigeria. Through a sequential mixed-methods approach, a prototype suit was first designed and constructed using adapted Aso-Oke fabric. Subsequently, a survey was administered to 110 grooms, sampled from the Ikoyi marriage registry, to evaluate their awareness, perception, and overall acceptance. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests at a 0.05 significance level. The results revealed a strong baseline awareness of Aso-Oke as a traditional fabric, coupled with entrenched perceptions of its heaviness and expense. Despite this, the prototype suit received a very positive perception (mean score=3.31), with respondents strongly agreeing on its uniqueness, quality of construction, and potential for job creation. Overall acceptability was high (mean score=3.06), driven primarily by the suit's aesthetic appeal, distinctiveness, and perceived promotion of cultural heritage. Notably, 58.2% of respondents agreed they would accept it if readily available at reasonable prices. However, significant barriers were identified, including poor market accessibility and doubts about its competitiveness with imported suit fabrics. Hypothesis testing confirmed significant relationships between socio-economic characteristics (p<0.05) and factors influencing clothing choice (p<0.05) on acceptability. The study concludes that while a clear market potential exists among urban, fashion-conscious grooms, realizing it requires a continuous technical adaptation of the fabric to meet contemporary standards of comfort and tailoring, and a concerted consumer re-education campaign to rebrand Aso-Oke from a static heritage artefact to a viable, premium material for modern formalwear.