Dutch wax prints use strong colours and large patterns – just what I like. Good quality wax prints are nearly as good on the reverse as on the front – as shown in the picture above. And one of the most popular producers is Dutch company Vlisco.

All this and more, I picked up at a lecture by Helen Elands, a textile historian from the Netherlands. She talked about her research into how wax prints and their patterns developed over the past 150 years.

During the 19th century, wax prints were developed
as a cheaper, mechanised version to compete with hand-made batik in the Indonesian market.

But it was in west Africa where wax prints hit the spot with customers who themselves shaped the new designs with their feedback and preferences over the subsequent 100 years.

Nowadays, designers in African countries are preparing collections using these cloths even for markets outside of Africa.

In Europe, wax prints are even used for that most traditional of Bavarian dresses – the dirndl – see here as designed by Noh Nee in Munich.

 

And only the other day, I came across these new models by Weekend by Max Mara … they call it the Rhodesia skirt.