Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer

Olivia Moore, international fashion designer at the Health Home and Garden Expo, in October 2006.

Olivia Moore, of Olivia’s International Designs lives the Bohemian’s life, travelling from craft fair to carnival in the Caribbean and South America with her beloved mud cloth and ethnic designs for home and wardrobe.

We caught up with her in early July days before she boarded the plane for Cuba and carnival.

She was planning, she said, to spend about three weeks in that country introducing mud cloth to locals in Havana and learning abouthe culture of Africans descendants living in that Caribbean island.

With her will be bolts of her favourite product – African Mud cloth from Mali.

“My mantra is that through cloth we can recognise our ethnicity. I mix east with west, using fabrics interchangeably.”

Olivia Moore has had a life-long fascination with things African and has long collected the mud cloth which is used as throws over furnishings, for dresses and as upholstery for furniture.

The cloth is purchased by Moore in Harlem, New York, where African vendors in a popular African marketplace “love to show me new stuff,” Olivia noted.

Cushions designed by Olivia Moore, international fashion designer. - Photos bu Avia Ustanny

What is mud cloth and where does it come form?

Bogolanfini (“Bo-ho-lahn-FEE-nee”), which translates as ‘mud cloth’ is a long-established tradition among the Bamana, a Mande-speaking people, who inhabit a large area to the east and north of Bamako, in Mali.

The origin of this cloth is believed to lie in the Beledougou region of central Mali. Hand-woven and hand-dyed mud cloth uses a century-old process of applications of various plant juices/teas and mud to dye hand-woven cotton cloth.

Traditionally, Bamana women made the mud which is used to die the cloth.

Olivia Moore, international fashion designer, displays a piece of African mud cloth at Health, Home and Garden Expo 2006.

The cloth, for them, is said to be an essential component in the marking of major life transitions, such as birth, marriage and death. The symbols, arrangements, colour as well as shape of the mud cloth are said to reveal secrets.

For Olivia Moore, mud cloth is ancestral cloth, which “for me has the symbols of family and destiny.” Lifting one piece of cloth she noted, “This is my own favourite piece.”

The cloth is stamped with gye nayame or cowrie shells. “It represents the omnipresence of God. It is becoming very popular.” The cloth, she said, is often simply placed over her bedroom door.

■ Olivia Moore can be reached at oliviaintl@ad.com