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 n'tjankara leaf mordant followed by a slow black-mud pass — 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 ivory linen-jersey blend with a soft drape, bogolan mudcloth neck-turn and hem-step trim, refined gold-thread embroidery, discreet gold-tone z on the inner facing.