Not Your Art Teacher’s Batik!
Batik has come and gone in the past few decades as a trend. It appeared on quite buttoned up shirts and swim trunks during the midcentury tiki heyday. In the late 60s and the 70s, it showed up on more free flowing, bohemian garments. Batik is back, but this traditional method of fabric dying has never really gone away.
Today, there are designs that sort of take over the entire garment, and there are some that are much more subtle. They compell you to query incredulously, “Wow, is that batik?” I was perusing the virtual shelves of an online Batik store, and that is exactly what I thought. My grade school art teacher, with her batik caftans and shell necklaces, did not cross my mind at any time.
As the Batik blog mentions:
“Batik is a Malay word which refers to traditional wax-resist dye method used on cloth.”
As batik is a process rather than a set design, many motifs can be imagined up, and not just the large, all encompasing prints that usually come to mind. The shoes, at left, take on a slightly exotic feel. In contrast, the green shirt, shown below, comes off as an all over printed pattern. The shirt at right is a little out of the ordinary due to the “color way.”
Ready to become a batik braniac by learning more about fabric care, the dying process, and modern batik wares? Click to read the batik blog.
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