The cloth
Bogolanfini begins as hand-woven cotton strip cloth, joined selvedge to selvedge before it ever meets the dye. It is dyed with a wolo bark tannin with iron-rich mud drawn from the Niger banks — the pattern is not printed on, it is drawn in mud and then the ground around it is lifted away. On this piece the mudcloth meets black cotton shirting, gold and ivory bogolan shoulder column, patterned collar and cuffs, diamond z shank buttons.
