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 cocoa chocolate washed linen, black-and-cream bogolan mudcloth offset placket and mandarin band, tonal embroidery beside the placket, discreet gold-tone z at the collar button.
