Batik is a dyeing technique using wax resist. The term is also used to describe patterned textiles created with that technique. Batik is made by drawing or stamping wax on a cloth to prevent colour absorption during the dyeing process. This creates a patterned negative when the wax is removed from the dyed cloth. Artisans may create intricate coloured patterns with multiple cycles of wax application and dyeing. Patterns and motifs vary widely even within countries. Some pattern hold symbolic significance and are used only in certain occasions, while others were created to satisfy market demand and fashion trends.
Ikat is a dyeing technique from Southeast Asia used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. In Southeast Asia, where it is the most widespread, ikat weaving traditions can be divided into two general groups of related traditions. The first is found among Daic-speaking peoples. The second, larger group is found among the Austronesian peoples and spread via the Austronesian expansion to as far as Madagascar. It is most prominently associated with the textile traditions of Indonesia in modern times, from where the term ikat originates. Similar unrelated dyeing and weaving techniques that developed independently are also present in other regions of the world, including India, Central Asia, Japan, Africa, and the Americas.
A sarong or a sarung is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist, worn in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, Northern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric often employs woven plaid or checkered patterns or may be brightly colored by means of batik or ikat dyeing. Many modern sarongs have printed designs, often depicting animals or plants. Different types of sarongs are worn in different places in the world, notably the lungi in the Indian subcontinent and the izaar in the Arabian Peninsula.
A kebaya is an upper garment traditionally worn by women in Southeast Asia, notably in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Southern Thailand. It is also worn in parts of southern Philippines and Cambodia.
Songket or sungkit is a tenun fabric that belongs to the brocade family of textiles of Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia. It is hand-woven in silk or cotton, and intricately patterned with gold or silver threads. The metallic threads stand out against the background cloth to create a shimmering effect. In the weaving process the metallic threads are inserted in between the silk or cotton weft (latitudinal) threads in a technique called supplementary weft weaving technique.
Kasuri (絣) is the Japanese term for fabric that has been woven with fibers dyed specifically to create patterns and images in the fabric, typically referring to fabrics produced within Japan using this technique. It is a form of ikat dyeing, traditionally resulting in patterns characterized by their blurred or brushed appearance.
The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns it into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.
Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian broccato meaning 'embossed cloth', originally past participle of the verb broccare 'to stud, set with nails', from brocco, 'small nail', from Latin broccus, 'projecting, pointed'.
Tais is a form of Tenun weaving tradition native to the eastern Indonesian regions of the Maluku Islands, the Tanimbar Islands, the East Nusa Tenggara Islands and the independent nation of Timor Leste. It has become an essential part of people in the eastern Indonesia hemisphere region, which mainly used for ceremonial adornment, sign of respect and appreciation towards guests, friends, relatives, home decor, and personal apparel.
Tenun Pahang Diraja is a type of woven silk fabric which is famous and popular in the state of Pahang, Malaysia.
Tapis is a traditional Tenun style and also refers to resulting cloth that originated from Lampung, Indonesia. It consists of a striped, naturally-coloured cloth embroidered with warped and couched gold thread. Traditionally using floral motifs, it has numerous variations. It is generally worn ceremonially, although it can be used as a decoration. It is considered one of the symbols of Lampung and Lampungese.
A Sambalpuri sari is a traditional handwoven bandha (ikat) sari wherein the warp and the weft are tie-dyed before weaving. It is produced in the Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh and Sonepur districts of Odisha, India. The sari is a traditional female garment in the Indian subcontinent consisting of a strip of unstitched cloth ranging from four to nine meters in length that is draped over the body in various styles.
Baju Kurung is a traditional attire of Malays and traditionally worn by women in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand. This type of traditional attire is the national dress of Brunei and Malaysia. In Indonesia, this dress is also worn as a regional attire, commonly observed on the island of Sumatra, particularly by the ethnic Malay and Minangkabau women.
Ulos is the traditional tenun fabric of the Batak people of North Sumatra in Indonesia. The ulos is normally worn draped over the shoulder or shoulders, or in weddings to ceremonially bind the bride and groom together. Ulos are traditionally hand-woven. With increasing modernization, ulos lost its significance.
Obin, real name Josephine Komara, is a textile designer from Indonesia. She is sometimes called a "national treasure" due to her passion for and promotion of traditional Indonesian batik techniques. Her work has achieved worldwide recognition, with fellow Indonesian designers such as Edward Hutabarat and Ghea Panggabean describing her as the real authority and leader of the mid-2000s movement to update and modernise batik. Despite this, Obin describes herself as simply a tukang kain, or vendor of cloth, stating that the genuine artists and designers are the craftsmen who make the textiles retailed through Bin House, her business.
The national costume of Indonesia is the national attire that represents the Republic of Indonesia. It is derived from Indonesian culture and Indonesian traditional textile traditions. Today the most widely recognized Indonesian national attires include batik and kebaya, although originally those attires mainly belong within the island of Java and Bali, most prominently within Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese culture. Since Java has been the political and population center of Indonesia, folk attire from the island has become elevated into national status.
Balinese textiles are reflective of the historical traditions of Bali, Indonesia. Bali has been historically linked to the major courts of Java before the 10th century; and following the defeat of the Majapahit kingdom, many of the Javanese aristocracy fled to Bali and the traditions were continued. Bali therefore may be seen as a repository not only of its own arts but those of Java in the pre-Islamic 15th century. Any attempt to definitively describe Balinese textiles and their use is doomed to be incomplete. The use of textile is a living tradition and so is in constant change. It will also vary from one district to another. For the most part old cloth are not venerated for their age. New is much better. In the tropics cloth rapidly deteriorates and so virtue is generated by replacing them.
The textiles of Sumba, an island in eastern Indonesia, represent the means by which the present generation passes on its messages to future generations. Sumbanese textiles are deeply personal; they follow a distinct systematic form but also show the individuality of the weavers and the villages where they are produced. Internationally, Sumbanese textiles are collected as examples of textile designs of the highest quality and are found in major museums around the world, as well as in the homes of collectors.
Odisha Ikat, is a kind of ikat known as Bandhakala and Bandha, a resist dyeing technique, originating from Indian state of Odisha. Traditionally known as "Bandhakala"', "Bandha", '"Bandha of Odisha", it is a geographically tagged product of Odisha since 2007. It is made through a process of tie-dyeing the warp and weft threads to create the design on the loom prior to weaving. It is unlike any other ikat woven in the rest of the country because of its design process, which has been called "poetry on the loom". This design is in vogue only at the western and eastern regions of Odisha; similar designs are produced by community groups called the Bhulia, Kostha Asani, and Patara. The fabric gives a striking curvilinear appearance. Saris made out of this fabric feature bands of brocade in the borders and also at the ends, called anchal or pallu. Its forms are purposefully feathered, giving the edges a "hazy and fragile" appearance. There are different kinds of bandha saris made in Odisha, notably Khandua, Sambalpuri, Pasapali, Kataki and Manibandhi.
Mary Zicafoose is an American textile artist, weaver, and teacher who specializes in ikat, an ancient technique in which threads are wrapped, tied and resist-dyed before weaving. Zicafoose is the author of Ikat: The Essential Handbook to Weaving Resist-Dyed Cloth (2020). Her works are part of private and public collections, including at least 16 embassies around the world as part of the U.S. Art in Embassies Program.
