AFRICAN WAX TEXTILES

Striking in color and design, internationally admired African Wax Textiles are the product of a complicated, transnational, and fascinating global cultural exchange. Originally inspired by Indonesian batik dyeing processes, Dutch traders and textile manufacturers began replicating wax print dying techniques on an industrial scale during the nineteenth century.

Later, Dutch manufacturers introduced the fabrics to West Africa, where they were enthusiastically assimilated into local apparel customs, and where they remain exceedingly popular to this day. West Africans artisans not only stamped the fabrics with their own vibrant palettes, but also inflected them with local stories, histories, and traditions—transforming the Dutch-made fabrics into something singularly and beautifully their own. And their dazzling use of color, lively graphics and expressive motifs have not gone unappreciated by artists and tastemakers from around the globe—African Wax fabrics have increasingly made their mark on the world of high fashion.

Hybrid and heterogeneous, African/Dutch Wax prints are the boldly cosmopolitan, intersectional, and electrifying fruit of an ongoing cultural dialogue. Pikku Takki’s "FIRST RUN" hopes to continue that journey, circling back to hand-made and artisanally-produced, inviting our readers/customers to engage with the histories, traditions, and practices of the products they wear.

 Below are three of the 13 African Wax prints featured in our "FIRST RUN" line: