Looming

Batik & ikat are everywhere this season. They appear on everything from clothes, accessories, shoes to home decor. For more on batik & ikat, read below.

Photos Courtesy of Conde Nast Publications

Photographer: Thomas Iannaccone
Model: Rea/Wilhelmina; Hair by Jason Murillo/Defacto for Redken;
MakeUp by Javier Romero/KenBarboza.com; Fashion Assistant: Justine Henley



L.A.M.B.’s silk dress; Porter Grey’s wool tweed dress (worn as jacket) and Line Knitwear’s cashmere turtleneck. Anndra Neen bracelet; Matt Bernson boots.

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi’s silk and wool dress and belt and

 Line Knitwear’s cashmere turtleneck. Ben-Amun cuffs.

0039 Italy’s cotton blouse; Camilla’s cashmere, wool and modal sweater

with Swarovski Elements; Araks’ wool pants. Ben-Amun necklace.

Shoshanna’s silk dress and Karen Kane’s wool and polyester

fleece knit sweater. Ben-Amun necklace.

Ali Ro’s silk twill dress and Porter Grey’s wool tweed blazer.

JF and Sons’ scarf; Bluma Project necklaces and bracelets.

M. Patmos’ eco-friendly merino wool sweater; Suno’s viscose skirt. Theodora & Callum scarf (worn over skirt); Jensen Conroy necklace; Anndra Neen cuff and bracelet.

Iosselliani necklace

Madeline Weinrib bag

Calypso St. Barth pillow

Shock scarf

Tory Burch flats

Anthropologie plates

 

Batik making, practiced almost exclusively on Java, involves a complex wax-resistance process in which all parts of a cloth that are not to be dyed are coated on both sides with wax before the cloth is dipped into the dye. Using a penlike wax holder called a canting, it is possible to create intricate and elaborate designs. It is a time-consuming process, and those batik fabrics that are made entirely by hand take several weeks to complete. Much modern batik is made using copper stamps (caps) to apply the wax, thereby greatly speeding up the process and lowering the cost.  The famous ikat method (weaving), in which the thread is dyed selectively before weaving by binding fibers around groups of threads so that they will not take up colour when the thread is dipped in the dyebath. Weft ikat is found mainly in south Sumatra, and the complex process of double ikat is still carried on in Tenganan in Bali, where such cloth has great ceremonial significance. (Source: Discover Indonesia)