Art

By, Ellen Arkfeld, guest blogger, who is interning with Dsenyo this summer.

Hey we found this cool video about a textile company called Vlisco that makes African textiles… in Holland.  They make designs that we find really inspiring and are very popular in West Africa.

Vlisco is a Dutch company that prints and sells African textiles in Central and West Africa.  They started out when the Dutch picked up the process of batik from their Indonesian colonies.  Using batik and their new technology of the printing press, Vlisco began to produce colorful African textile on a large scale, becoming the first to commercialize African textile.  Today, Vlisco is a very popular brand in Central and West Africa, selling fabrics inspired by African textile design.  A lot of the time their designs have nothing to do with Africa, Vlisco says, but they’re still very popular and reflect the tastes of different regions of Africa.  Each textile, designed by the Dutch, is named by local market women and tells a story about their culture. 

Vlisco has long been known as the Rolls-Royce of African wax print textiles and is now starting to become a fashion label as well.  They are creating funky haute couture looks in addition to selling their textiles.  Even though their textiles aren’t technically African, they definitely capture the fun, bright styles that we love in African textiles\

What an incredible way to use artistic talent to share and explore culture along with pursue social justice. Touching and inspiring...you must watch this!