Bali Textile - Bali Fashion
World famous for their exquisite beauty and elaborate artistry,
traditional Balinese textiles have been permeated into every angle
of the island's culture. More than just pierces of cloth to drape
around the body, Balinese textiles are full significance, whether
they are worn in every day life or in religious ceremonies. For
example, Balinese cloths can reflect the status of wearer, distinguishing
his or her age, sex, caste and title.
Balinese women are the keepers of the knowledge of making textiles,
passed down from one generation to another. Such knowledge includes
the secret ingredients of certain dyes and a vas collection of sacred
motif. An important duty of a Balinese mother is to pass her precious
knowledge of textiles to her daugther.
Weaving anthusiasts will be eager to seek out the local handmade
cloth, endek, where patern has been dyed into the weft by tying
it here and there with strips of plastic. The cloth is made on
old European-style handlooms in small factories, and is sold for
local consumption in market all over Bali.
Ikat, a cloth for which both warp and weft have been prepattern-dyed,
is produced and sold in the Bali Agavillage of Tenganan, in Karangasem
Regency, east Bali. It is an appallingly complex and time-consuming
procedure, and you naturally pay for this when you buy the finished
product.
Most visitors, however, will be content with the better-known
batik from Java. Batik is not a Balinese product (trough "are
always on offer) but both the briliant "new" and the
more delicately shaded "old" batik are on sale in all
the main towns, and more or less everywhere that tourists frequent.
You can see the work shop of Batik in Batubulan Village by joining
Ubud Village
Tour. Hence you can see the process of making Batik and other
Bali textile.
