Fashion Feeds: I heart BATIK

 

image courtesy of Wikipedia

I love Batik and I love wearing it! I love love the color- when I wear batik, its natural colors just blend with my skin color and the patterns are timeless so I can wear it any time, any year and I know I can even pass it to my future kids one day like my late mom did to me hahah but even so, I dont know THAT much about Batik.:-S Shame! Shame! Shame!:$ so I started googling and I thought why not share what I found hein?;-) Well, violà my resume...^_^

Batik term derived from Javanese words "amBA niTIK" so read as BATIK. Its describes a work how to point by point on cloth using special liquid called as "malam" by a mean called "canting "

This local traditional handy craft originates from Majapahit Kingdom era for the king family's fashion and then continue to Mataram Sultanate era in central Java.

However, batik then becomes public fashion thats why Jogya, Solo, Pekalongan, Rembang, Semarang, Tegal are centers of Batik production called as "Kampung Batik " or Batik Village in English.

Batik then widely spreads to other areas such as west Java; Cirebon,Garut, Ciamis,Tasikmalaya, East Java; Madura, Ponorogo, Sidoarjo and outside of Java; Aceh,Bengkulu, Padang,Jambi,Gorontalo,Papua.

It is believe that some Javanese migrants to Malaysia few centuries and also initiated batik production in Malaysia in their "Kampung Jawa"

Currently Batik can be found in many countries such Malaysia, Japan, China,Azerbaijan,India,Srilangka,Iran,Egypt,Nigeria,Senegal and Singapore.
Indonesian Batik motifs has symbolic especially batik with old pattern. Some design are restricted; larger motifs can only be worn by royalty; and certain motifs are not suitable for women or for specific occasions.
Motifs of flower, twinning, plants, leaves bud, birds, butterflies, fish, insects and geometric forms are rich in symbolic association and variety; there are about three thousand recorded batik patterns.
Malaysian batik often displays plants and flowers as Islam forbid pictures of other living beings.

On 2 October 2009 The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural organization has officially recognized Batik as Indonesian Cultural treasure. UNESCO designated Indonesian Batik as a Masterpiece of oral and intangible Heritage of Humanity.

These images below are courtesy of  Kompas.com

 

I heart batik.
Hope this short summary informative enough for you as well as rich our fashion knowledge.;-) 

XOXO

Sources:
en.wikipedia.osg/wiki/batik
www.unesco.org
www.javabatik.org
www.heritageofjava.com
www.KOMPAS.com
Elliot Inger McCabe.(1984) Batik: Fabled cloth of Java photographs,Brian Brake; Contributions, paramita Abdurachman, Susan Blum, IwanTirta;design, kiyoshi kanai,New York:Clackson N.Potter.inc.,ISBN 0917551551