Dogon Woman's Wrap / Skirt

Letters in every candy color are stitched over faded indigo like a ransom note.

This woman's woven and dyed cotton wrap or skirt is Dogon, from Mali, West Africa, and is dated 2006. Indigo dyeing in West Africa generally involves soaking cloth in a fermented vat of leaves and exposing it to air so the blue color develops and deepens. Indigo cloth, rectangular, with streaky blue tones and a ragged, soft edge. Rows of uneven capital letters in red, yellow, green and pink are sewn across the field, and a band of bold stitched shapes fills the bottom. It is 55.5 inches wide and 40.5 long.

Wordy, colorful, and spelled out with great enthusiasm.