Market intelligence

Trend reports

Each month we publish what designers are searching for and buying: techniques, colours, regions and price movements, drawn from marketplace activity.

The first report is on its way

Reports are built from real searches and orders, so they begin once the marketplace has enough activity to be meaningful. Until then, our editorial reading covers the history and the craft behind the cloth.

Read the journal Explore heritage

From the journal

Bogolanfini: how a village mud cloth became a national symbol and a global lookFermented river mud, a leaf bath that turns cloth yellow, and a chemical reaction that fixes the colour for good. Mali's bogolanfini is a slow craft that was rescued by art students, adopted by designers and copied by printers.Wax print: from Java to Helmond to Accra, the long journey of 'African' clothIt is sold as the most African of fabrics, yet it began as a Dutch attempt to copy Javanese batik. Follow wax print across three continents, and see why a cloth with a colonial origin became a medium for African speech.Kente: who owns a cloth that is also a language?Spider legends, a disputed birthplace, a UNESCO listing and a brand-new legal protection: the story of Ghana's most famous cloth is also a story about who gets to define it.