The most striking example of what I found was BarkCloth or Bark Cloth (“Textile from the Kings”) from Uganda, which is the commercial name for one of the oldest textiles known to man. It represents the continuation of an almost forgotten African craft. There are also other forms of bark cloth that have been produced elsewhere like Asia. Another item that has been misnamed “barkcloth” is a soft, thick, slightly textured fabric so named because it has a rough surface like that of tree bark.

Using Bark Cloth helped me gain interest in my collection.

In Uganda farmers collect the fibrous bark of the Ficus natalensis tree, which they crush, work and flatten into a non-woven textile. Each Bark Cloth is made from the bark of just one tree. This means that every Bark Cloth is unique with it’s own particular story, look and texture.

Originally used to make burial shrouds for royalty, bark cloth can be dyed, fireproofed, coated and laminated. Applications thus far included furniture, lighting, interior design and clothing. This is largely thanks to the marketing efforts of an Afro-European family (Barongo-Heintz).

The manufacture process is totally environmentally friendly (Eco-Certified), it is produced by an Ugandan community under Fair-trade conditions. The Barongo-Heintz’s follow closely the production process and has very close relationship with the community of workers.

Bark Cloth Challenges

The Barongo-Heintz’s were very excited about my use of the material in footwear as it had not been done before. I did a number of tests with the material and it does present some challenges. It is not naturally water resistant. Also because the material is not that strong shoes have to be hand lasted or one has to use a strong backing material. good news is that Oliver Heintz is experimenting with use of latex to make Bark Cloth water resistant.

I was also concerned that the Bark Cloth natural aesthetic could look too ‘hippy’ for my collection, which was a high end fashion shoe range. This however depends on how you apply it. An innovative shoe shape design goes a long way to escape the tie-die fashion tag.

I however used it successfully in my collection which included both shoes and handbags. I combined the Bark Cloth with vegetable tanned leathers sourced from local South African tanneries.

UNESCO has declared Bark Cloth an intangible, cultural world heritage material. Bark Cloth has also been winner of 2005 IF Material Award, winner of the 2005 Materialica Design Award and Nominee for the 2007 Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany.