Focus on Fabrics: Bogolanfini

Bogolanfini, otherwise known simply as bogolan has recently taken the Western design world by storm, with the distinctive geometric cloth popping up in all sorts of homewares and decoration sites. Despite this recent emergence in the Western design world, bogolanfini has a long history in Mali, where it originates and where it continues to play an important cultural role.

Bogolanfini by Naktune Diarra, The Smithsonian

Series on Ethical Fashion

Photo from the Ethical Fashion Initiative

I’ve been meaning to write this post about ‘ethical fashion’ for more than a year, but it has felt impossible to begin. Ethical fashion is elusive – it has been talked about so frequently over the past two decades and yet it seems that very little has actually been said. It is now more than twenty years since the global protests were held against Nike for their use of sweatshop labour and two years since the tragic collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh. Although calls for more ethical practices by clothing manufacturers are getting louder, it is difficult to figure out what exactly has improved in this time.

West African Textiles: Indigo

Malian Woman Producing Indigo in the
Dogon Country

Beginning this project in Ghana, where African-produced wax print is ubiquitous, I thought sourcing locally made textiles would be as simple when I arrived in Senegal. Once I started visiting markets and speaking with textile importers, I quickly realised it would be much more difficult to find textiles for Madame Tây that had been produced in Senegal, if not impossible.

As we were developing this project, we realised we had the unique opportunity to be able to explain how our garments were produced. For us, ethical production starts with the materials used to create a garment, but as Steph remarks in her earlier posts about the cotton industry (All About Cotton - Part I and Part II), the production processes involved in creating the fabric we purchased are completely closed off to us.

Working in West Africa, where most young people prefer buying mass-manufactured clothes imported from China, or second hand clothes imported from all over the world,  this was particularly poignant for me as I hoped that Madame Tây would not only be able to support Senegalese artisans, but also the local textile industry. When I realised that there was no local textile industry in Senegal (You can read more about  the wax print used to create Madame Tây garments here), I started looking further abroad.

West Africa Production - Phase Three: Garment Production

After our first samples had been tested, we set to work making the needed changes – the blazers were too long, the t-shirt were too wide, the shorts were a bit too tight and the skirts needed a few extra details. The whole process was pretty difficult for me, as someone who has never worked in patternmaking or design but who has specific ideas about what the final product should look like. Luckily, our tailor Diogo was super patient and really great at showing me his methods of cutting fabric and explaining techniques like darting which really helped me understand what changes we needed to make for our final run of garments.

Diogo in his atelier in Marche Santhiaba, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Once Diogo and I had decided on the final changes to make to the four different pieces we are producing, he set about the production – which included transferring patterns, cutting and finally sewing over 130 metres of fabric! Needless to say, it was a look of work, so Diogo called in his friend Atou (pictured below) and they worked together to complete about 75 pieces (plus a few extra surprises!) for Madame Tay’s first range of garments.

Atou (l) and Diogo (r) getting to work, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Atou and his machine, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Diogo has an atelier in Marche Santhiaba, the big textile market in Saint-Louis, in Northern Senegal. The market is buzzing from 6am to 11pm with the sounds of sewing machines and scissors slicing through fabric. Diogo’s atelier looks onto a long, covered passageway where apprentice tailors spend hours each day looping string to make fancy embroidery for dresses and shirts -  which are both really popular in Senegal for events and celebrations.

Detail of Diogo's atelier - superman, mannequins and posters of Senegalese religious leaders

Marche Santhiaba

The last part of the production was completed in Dakar, at Diogo’s family house in a suburb called Parcelles. We set up a temporary atelier with a borrowed table, a borrowed sewing machine and goats constantly sticking their heads through the window as Diogo worked.

Diogo's temporary atelier in Parcelles, Dakar

Madame Tay garments ready to be sewn!

Diogo cutting out some Madame Tay high waisted shorts.

Diogo and some neighbourhood goats.

West Africa Production - Phase Two: Samples

After doing preliminary design with Martha in Ghana, the next step was starting production in Senegal with our tailor, Diogomaye. On a Saturday afternoon I was invited over to Diogo’s family’s house in Parcelles – the Northern suburbs of Dakar, right next to the beach – super beautiful!

Diogo and I going over measurements

The first step was going over the first designs with Diogo, and seeing how these could be translated to the fabric we had purchased at Sandaga earlier in the week with Diogo’s cousin and Aunty. After reworking a few of the measurements, Diogo got to work in his atelier to produce the first lot of samples we would use to finalise the pieces we’d make for Madame Tay’s first production lot.

Diogo hard at work on our first pieces

Cutting table

Diogo at work at his atelier

After Diogo had completed 15 samples, I gathered a few of my friends to have a casual clothes fitting to see how the pieces worked and if we needed to do any adjustments. The clothes fitting turned into an impromptu photoshoot, here are a few shots:

It was really useful to see what the pieces looked like on a range of different sized women, and made me realise just how difficult correct sizing and fit could be. My friends were really helpful, and made plenty of suggestions to Diogo and me as to what should be changed. After taking lots of notes, and working out what pieces needed some work, Diogo and I set to making a few more samples, just to make sure we were on the right track.

ALL ABOUT COTTON PART II: Exploring sustainable and ethical options

We’ve already talked a bit about the environmental and social challenges associated to cotton production and also the long and complicated production process from cultivation to cloth. What initiatives are currently being undertaken to produce cotton in a more ethical or sustainable way?

Fairtrade and organic fabrics are probably the most well-known options for the end consumer.

• Organic cotton traditionally attempts to address the environmental ramifications by strictly regulating things such as water use and prohibiting the use of pesticides and genetically modified seeds.
• Fair trade cotton traditionally attempts to address the social ramifications and aims to provide a fair price to farmers and imposing strict regulations on labour, including child labour conditions.

However, there is often cross over between these two as obviously companies who have an interest in social issues also generally have a concern for environmental issues and vice versa.

ALL ABOUT COTTON PART I: Tracing the Seeds of Fabric

We started thinking more about cotton as our clothing project places a strong emphasis on using natural fabrics. Almost all of our pieces produced in Vietnam are made with fabrics using cotton. The African wax prints we are using in Senegal are also made with cotton. At the same time, the ethical production behind all of our clothes has been a very important concern for all of us. Very early on in the project, we realised that there was a whole side to the clothes-making process which was completely closed to us. Although we go to the markets to individually select fabrics and work very closely with the tailors who sew together our clothes, there is a lengthy, complicated process that the fabrics have already gone through before even getting to the fabric market. To find out more, I spoke to my friend Isabelle, who works as Traceability Advisor for the Better Cotton Initiative. 

 

What are key ethical implications in the production of cotton – particularly for the textile market?

The first ethical implication here is environmental: Firstly, cotton is a crop requires a lot of water and is particularly susceptible to pests. This means that the cultivation of conventional cotton requires massive consumption of water and pesticides. In addition, since cotton is a cash crop, there are cases where natural forests are being converted for cotton cultivation, resulting in the loss of natural habitats. Aside from cultivation, there is also of course all the pollution caused by the treatment of cotton and dyeing of fabrics.

                  

A cotton flower about to bloom (above), before it later becomes enclosed in a firm shell after which the cotton emerges (below).