Madras is the name given to a particular style of cotton fabric used in many places across the world and extensively by designers such as Ralph Lauren. Madras cotton is used to great effect in many of the Caribbean islands as the basis for their national costumes. The fabric originated in the Southeast region [...]
Shema is Ethiopian cotton and the production of it is Ethiopia’s oldest industry. Traditionally the cotton was hand spun and woven on handlooms. Even though there is a significant part of the Ethiopian cotton industry that is now industrialised there are still a large number of rational hand spinners and weavers. Handpicked cotton is [...]
A Crocus bag (also known as a croker/ crocus sack, burlap sack, towsack, gunnysack, grass sack or barley sack depending on the region of North America) is a sack which was used for carrying goods and produce to and from plantations and market places. The sacks were often made of roughly woven and coarse [...]
Bogolanfini (also known as Bogolan or mud cloth) is a fabric indigenous to Mali in West Africa. Although made and used by many ethnic groups in this country the designs made by the Bambana people are the ones which have the most international recognition. The finished fabric is found in two forms mass produced [...]
Bark cloth is a material made from the bark of trees in the mulberry or fig tree family. These trees can be found in many parts of Asia, the Pacific islands, The Caribbean and East Africa. In the Pacific Islands the cloth is known as Tapa cloth or Ngatu. In the Buganda kingdom of [...]
