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 onyx black linen-cotton, bogolan mudcloth collar insert and sleeve trim, tonal black embroidery along the curve, discreet gold-tone z on the inner label.