Gele

[Nasturtium 500]

(sorry for invading your forum lol). This looked really interesting! I was wondering as well about what fabric would have been traditional as well as what starch they would have used. I wonder how traditional these are today versus modern fabrics and starches making it easier to accentuate traditional styles-- make things brighter, higher, and starchier! I can see one being able to make a decent starch out of corn or potatoes but both of those are New World (so 500+ years ago they could have shown up) and I didn't think Africa took well to corn like we did... but maybe they did? Asia, Europe, and the ME didn't, so import would be difficult.

OK, poked around and this site came up:

http://www.africahistory.net/shea.htm

Which basically says they have used cottons for the past 500 or so years and before that it was tree and palm fibers, so basically a kind of bark cloth. I am sure they were cultivating or had access to a local starch, although maybe they weren't starching things like now.

(OK, end nerdy intrusion.)

[Asante Maroon 0]

(sorry for invading your forum lol). This looked really interesting! I was wondering as well about what fabric would have been traditional as well as what starch they would have used. I wonder how traditional these are today versus modern fabrics and starches making it easier to accentuate traditional styles-- make things brighter, higher, and starchier! I can see one being able to make a decent starch out of corn or potatoes but both of those are New World (so 500+ years ago they could have shown up) and I didn't think Africa took well to corn like we did... but maybe they did? Asia, Europe, and the ME didn't, so import would be difficult.

OK, poked around and this site came up:

http://www.africahistory.net/shea.htm

Which basically says they have used cottons for the past 500 or so years and before that it was tree and palm fibers, so basically a kind of bark cloth. I am sure they were cultivating or had access to a local starch, although maybe they weren't starching things like now.

(OK, end nerdy intrusion.)

Your invasion is more then welcome. Stop in anytime Thanks for the link...great info

[LovinLiberia 0]

(sorry for invading your forum lol). This looked really interesting! I was wondering as well about what fabric would have been traditional as well as what starch they would have used. I wonder how traditional these are today versus modern fabrics and starches making it easier to accentuate traditional styles-- make things brighter, higher, and starchier! I can see one being able to make a decent starch out of corn or potatoes but both of those are New World (so 500+ years ago they could have shown up) and I didn't think Africa took well to corn like we did... but maybe they did? Asia, Europe, and the ME didn't, so import would be difficult.

OK, poked around and this site came up:

http://www.africahistory.net/shea.htm

Which basically says they have used cottons for the past 500 or so years and before that it was tree and palm fibers, so basically a kind of bark cloth. I am sure they were cultivating or had access to a local starch, although maybe they weren't starching things like now.

(OK, end nerdy intrusion.)

Very good information...you are almost as nerdy as I am! Thanks for intruding.

[Nasturtium 500]

Awww, thanks! I love nerdy things. I always had a thing for textiles, but Sub-saharan Africa is kind of out of my area I've studied, so it's fun to learn about new things!