Bringing Leah Home: A Journey from Japanese Denim to Aso Oke

There’s something profoundly moving about watching a design come full circle. When we first created the Leah bustier in Japanese denim, we fell in love with its structured silhouette and the way it celebrated the female form. But as we worked with the piece in our London studio, a question kept surfacing: what would happen if we brought Leah home?
Home, for us, is Nigeria. And home has a fabric that carries centuries of tradition.
Aso oke isn’t just fabric; it’s a language. Woven by skilled artisans on traditional looms, each piece tells a story through its intricate patterns and rich, vibrant colors. Historically worn during significant celebrations, weddings, festivals, coming-of-age ceremonies aso oke has always been about marking moments that matter.
The vertical stripes you see in our reimagined Leah bustier echo the traditional weaving technique, where every line is carefully crafted by hand. The navy, bronze, and cream palette speaks to both heritage and contemporary elegance, while those signature coral-red tabs at the waist ground the piece in bold, modern femininity.
At Josh and Nicol, we’ve always believed that fashion should honour where we come from while embracing where we’re going. The original Leah in Japanese denim represented our appreciation for global craftsmanship and precision tailoring. 
Working with aso oke required us to approach the Leah design with fresh eyes. The fabric’s texture and weight meant adjusting our construction techniques, respecting the material’s natural behaviour while maintaining the sculptural quality that makes Leah distinctive. Every seam, every dart, every curve had to be reconsidered.
The result is a piece that feels simultaneously timeless and contemporary, a bustier that could be worn to a Lagos wedding or a London gallery opening, that honours tradition while refusing to be confined by it.
This reimagining of Leah is just the beginning. We’re excited to continue exploring the intersection of Nigerian heritage and contemporary womenswear, to keep asking ourselves how we can celebrate where we come from while creating something entirely new.
Because that’s what fashion should do, it should remember and reimagine, honour and innovate, all at once.