Made from cotton, the dress is an excellent example of innovation in fashion design in 1990s in Sierra Leone. It is made from a single rectangle of fabric which has been folded over and the sides sewn down. A neck opening has been cut in the central fold, and two ovals cut and sewn to create the arms of the dress, the exterior seams of which are left open to create a draped effect when worn. The form is an adaptation of the wide-sleeved robe common across West Africa, known also as a boubou, agbada or kaftan.
The dress is heavily patterned using tie and dye. Sierra Leone has a long history of tie-dye and batik, these types of dyeing are called gara in reference to the gara leaves which come from indigo plants. This cotton appears to have been dyed with the taka technique. Taka is the Mandinka word for tying and here refers to the practice of folding cloth into pleats which are then bound together and immersed in dye, resulting in a striped design. Gara is traditionally made with dyes from the indigo leaf and/or kola nuts, creating patterns in blue and/or ochre. Chemical dyes became increasingly popular in Sierra Leone from the 1960s and the variety of colours on this dress indicates their use here.