Wax prints

African wax fabrics (so-called waxprints), also known as Dutch wax prints, are industrially produced and used above all for clothing in Africa and especially West Africa. The colorful fabrics are mostly sold here as interior fabrics, for tablecloths, cushion covers or draperies/curtains.

The fabrics were introduced by the Dutch during their colonization of Indonesia in the 19th century, with the goal of flooding the market with cheap machine-made imitations of Batik. However, this did not succeed any further. By contrast, the fabrics became very popular in West Africa when Dutch trading vessels began introducing the fabrics in those ports. Today, they are a sign of the African clothing culture and are used both as clothing and furnishing fabrics.