Ann-Aniedi Asikpo Studio is a creative practice based in Stockton-on-Tees, North East England, dedicated to decoding Africa’s 54 textile traditions for global audiences.

We work at the intersection of African heritage textile craft and multimedia public relations — making handmade garments, telling cultural stories, delivering community workshops, and providing strategic communications support for organisations wanting to engage honestly and accurately with African textile heritage.

Our mission: every African fabric has a language. We are here to teach the world how to read it.

Our Work

We make things.

We create handmade garments in Ankara, Adire, Aso-oke, and other African

heritage fabrics — each one designed with full cultural knowledge of the textile it is made from. Every garment is displayed with a story panel that tells visitors its name, origin, cultural meaning, and what its patterns communicate.

We tell stories.

Through our weekly Substack newsletter The Decoder, our blog, our social media content, and our public talks, we document African textile heritage for audiences who have never been told what these fabrics mean and for diaspora communities who deserve to have their cultural knowledge publicly recognised.

We educate communities.

We deliver hands-on workshops and talks in the North East of England, introducing community audiences to the visual languages of African heritage textiles. Participants handle real fabric samples Ankara, Adire, Kente, Bogolan, and more and leave with specific, accurate, lasting cultural knowledge.

We advise organisations.

We provide expert consultancy for brands, galleries, cultural institutions, and communications teams on accurate representation, cultural credit, and material integrity in African heritage textile contexts.

Our History in theNorth East

Ann-Aniedi Asikpo Studio was founded in January 2026 — but the studio’s roots in the North East go back further.

During her studies at Teesside University’s School of Arts and Creative Industries (SACI), Ann-Aniedi was part of a fashion group that created a collective design label called NKEM an Igbo word meaning mine as part of the Exit to Industry module. The label operated within the Teessidemade Marketplace. Ann-Aniedi designed the men’s contemporary clothing range within the NKEM label: hoodies, co-ordinated sets, and everyday pieces for ages 18 to 50, made from Ankara fabric infused with plain fabric. Other group members designed the women’s clothing.

The NKEM collection was exhibited publicly at Pineapple Black in Middlesbrough and several of Ann-Aniedi’s men’s designs sold at the exhibition.

That experience watching North East England audiences respond to African heritage textile design with genuine curiosity and real commercial interest is the foundation Ann-Aniedi Asikpo Studio is built on.

Our Values

Cultural accuracy above aesthetics.

We never engage with African heritage textiles as decoration or trend. Every fabric we work with is named, credited, and contextualised. We say where it comes from, who made it, and what it means.

Community before market.

The African diaspora communities of Teesside, Tees Valley, and the broader North East are our primary audience. They deserve to have the cultural story of their heritage textiles told accurately, publicly, and with respect in the places where they live.

Honesty in communications.

As an MCIPR-qualified communications practitioner, Ann-Aniedi brings professional honesty and evidential rigour to cultural storytelling. We do not overclaim. We do not appropriate. We decode.

Making as knowledge.

Every garment we make is made with full knowledge of the fabric it is created from. The making is not separate from the cultural understanding — it is the deepest expression of it.

Connect With Us

The Decoder newsletter:

substack.com/@annaniediasikpostudio — weekly, every Wednesday

Blog:

ann-aniediasikpo.co.uk/blog

LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/ann-aniedi-asikpo-mcipr-uk-931023251

Instagram and TikTok:

@DecodeAfrica

Email:

contact@ann-aniediasikpo.co.uk

#DecodeAfrica · #weaveyourstory

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