Patience Torlowei (born 24 July 1964) is a Nigerian fashion designer. She is the creator of the "Esther Dress", the first piece of couture ever to join the
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art's permanent collection.
Early life
Born in
Enugu
Enugu () verbally pronounced as "Enụgwụ" by the Igbo indigenes is a state in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered to the north by the states of Benue and Kogi, Ebonyi State to the east and southeast, Abia State to the so ...
to
Ijaw Ijaw may refer to:
*Ijaw people
The Ijaw people, also known as the Izon people, are an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria, with primary Population, population clusters in Bayelsa State, Bayelsa, Delta State, Delta, and River ...
parents, Torlowei graduated from the Textile Arts and Technology faculty at the
Yaba College of Technology. She moved to Belgium in 1989. As a fashion designer she has worked to create bridal clothes and
lingerie
Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fashio ...
as well as ready-to-wear attire. She founded her first fashion line, Patience Torlowei BVBA, in 2006.
Career
A dress designed by Torlowei, ''Esther'', is currently owned by the
National Museum of African Art
The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the Washington, D.C., United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African ar ...
(NMAA) in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
; it is the first piece of ''haute couture'' to enter the museum collection. It depicts scenes of oil and diamond extraction and of war, and is made of a variety of materials including gold fabric.
The piece had been previously featured in a fashion show at the museum in 2014.
Torlowei was included in the 2019 show "I Am… Contemporary
Women Artists of Africa" at the NMAA.
See also
*
Fashion in Nigeria
*
Lingerie
Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fashio ...
*
List of 20th-century women artists
This is a partial list of 20th-century women artists, sorted alphabetically by decade of birth. These artists are known for creating artworks that are primarily Visual arts, visual in nature, in traditional media such as painting, sculpture, photo ...
References
External links
''The dress comes out of pain: Patience Torlowei creates fashion from the highs and lows of modern Africa''Washington Post, August 22, 2019 (with photos of the "Esther Dress")
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torlwei, Patience
1964 births
Living people
Nigerian fashion designers
Nigerian women fashion designers
21st-century Nigerian artists
21st-century Nigerian women artists
Yaba College of Technology alumni
Nigerian expatriates in Belgium
People from Bayelsa State
Nigerian businesspeople in fashion