Dida Raffia Dance Skirt

Long black fringe, like a wet paintbrush. The rest of it is a study in patience.

Dida peoples in Ivory Coast made this dance skirt in the 20th century, of dyed raffia. Raffia palm fiber, woven by hand, then bound and dyed in stages, gave Dida makers a distinctive cloth used in dance and ceremony. Its pale gold and red dashes run in tidy rows across the upper half. Lower down, the pattern opens into broad gold columns broken with dark lines, including one wider than the others. Knotted strands continue below. Forty-five inches long and just nine wide.

Slender enough for a wall, once dancing is no longer on the program.