Batik collection

Some people collect items of clothing/fashion, don’t they? It just occurred to me that I have a bit of a collection, myself – of traditional Indonesian batik sarongs.

This picture (above) shows part of my collection.

In every true batik, wax is painstakingly applied to the cloth to resist successive dyes so that wherever the cloth is dyed, dyes cannot penetrate. For example, if the desired design is a red flower on a blue background, wax is first applied to the area that will become the flower. The white cloth is then immersed in blue dye and dried. After drying, the wax which covered the flower pattern is scraped from the cloth. Because the wax resisted the blue dye, there is now a white flower on a blue background. To make the flower red, the blue background is then covered with wax and the entire cloth is immersed in red dye. When the wax is scraped off a second time, a red flower emerges on a blue background.

This process is repeated over and over again as more colours are used.

From Batik: Fabled cloth of Java by Inger McCabe Elliot, Periplus Editions, Singapore, 2004, p.50.

Much of my batik has been bought during trips to Malaysia. All of them are sarongs. These sarongs are my favoured item of clothing in summer.

I have a couple of pieces that could be considered heirlooms, in that they used to belong to both my grandmothers. I don’t wear these very often as I don’t want to wash them too frequently.

I have been known to wear a batik sarong instead of a frock when the dress standard for an event says “formal”. (To me, this is formal, and besides, I don’t own a frock!) There’s a photo of me somewhere in a sarong and kebaya at the 2008 LIANZA ball (if you have this photo I’d be very pleased to have a copy). The kebaya used to belong to my maternal grandmother.

The fabrics are a little creased in the photos, from being folded for storage in the wardrobe. That’s another thing I love about these sarongs – no matter how creased they are they wear well – I never iron them! Because these traditional sarongs are sewn into tubes they can be wrapped quite easily and securely around the waist – no pins, buttons, or zips needed, and they don’t fly open either.

I can’t really explain why I love these traditional designs so much. Perhaps it’s the intricacy of the patterns. The vibrant colours. The fact that both my grandmothers wore such fabrics.

My version of the traditional outfit.

(More detail of the sarongs on Flickr.)