Batik and more…
During the days of my grandparents, batik was used extensively by people of different walks of life in Malaysia, Indonesia and many other regions in Asia and Africa.
The fishermen in the east and west coast of Malaysia wore batik. The enterprising business ladies of Kelantan, who owned many small, medium and big businesses wore batik. The beautiful ladies of the Baba Nyonya community in Melaka wore colourful batik sarong kebaya every day.
Today, however, globalisation has introduced many other alternatives. Mass produced ‘modern’ clothes and designer items are available in many department stores. Batik is being worn less and less. Batik is now more of an ‘official dress’ to be worn to official functions.
Asyraf and I feel that given the right ‘tweak” batik could be more than just something that we wear for official functions. We have experimented on many new ways of presenting batik as a wearable art. While doing that, we would also like to share the history, the meaning of the designs used and the techniques used in the production of the batik.
We are not experts in batik, but we will talk to the experts and share the story with you. There will be new stories about batik every week. So tune in for the information and join us in this journey to know more about batik.
The next time you wear a beautiful batik shirt or dress, you will carry with you the wonderful story of my extended family and you can share the story with your family.
Have fun wearing the various designs of Su & Ash.