West Africans ditch Dutch wax prints for Chinese 'real-fakes'

摘要

Ironically, this iconic bold cloth was originally forged by Dutch colonial companies attempting to mechanically reproduce handmade Javanese batik cloth. When this failed to take off in Southeast Asia, Dutch traders began to sell the cloth in West African markets. The patterns were modified to fit local tastes and quickly became popular. The rise of mass-produced, Dutch wax prints partially displaced domestic textiles, which lacked the colourfastness and material lightness that ultimately made wax prints an essential everyday consumer good.