Favorites: African Dutch Wax

I just love African Dutch Wax fabric.

It combines all the great aspects of cotton fabric with a beautiful history.

African Dutch wax is also known as African Wax or Ankara. It wrinkles about 90% less than other cottons, is double-sided printed and just looks beautiful. Because the prints are (on average) very large, matching and lining them up does cost more fabric, but on average the prices are very friendly.

Vogue 9253 (with shorter skirt)

History

The technique originates from Indonesia where people used wax to make patterns on cloth. After dyeing the fabric the wax is removed. Under the wax the fabric is not dyed. This technique is called Batik and is originally done by hand.

After the Dutch colonization of Indonesia, the Dutch invented a mechanical way of printing wax on fabric. This meant the fabrics could be dyed quicker (en therefore cheaper) and copied after another, making it easier to have a constant outcome of the process.

In the late 19t century the Dutch introduced the fabric over the world. Especially in West-Africa the fabric was well received. Over time the patterns and colors became more suited to the African tastes.

In current times is still a large textile fabric in the Netherlands that makes African Wax. It is called Vlisco after the the founder 'Van Vlissingen'. But most of the prints are now printed in Africa.

Two skirts from Vogue 9253 (skirt part only). On the right an Angolese pattern called Samacaca.

Online shops.

Vlisco has their own website and shops worldwide. Delivery is free with orders over €220,- so perhaps it is catered more to wholesale.

Julius Holland is another company in the Netherlands that sells fabrics from different manufacturers.

My favorite shop is Africanfabs. It is a Dutch webshop, but delivers worldwide. My favorite part of this webshop is that it lets you buy the fabrics by the yard (91 cm) where as most retailers make you buy the full cloth of 6 yards (5,8 meter). I usually buy 3 yards per fabric. In most cases this is enough to make a dress and line up patterns.

Little Lizard King's Sedona dress.

About Vlisco

Here a beautiful video I found about producing African Wax Print by Vlisco. It originally comes from the site Arttube.nl.

Bought june 2020

You will probably see these fabric around this blog soon as these just arrived. They are from Julius Holland bought through Afrianfabs.

Your thoughts.

Have you made something from African Wax. What are your favorite shops. Please let me know.