Red Wax Print Fabric

African wax prints are  common, industrially produced clothing materials popular all over Africa but primarily in west Africa. Although called wax prints and influenced by Indonesian batiks which are decorated in wax resist technique, the African wax prints are only inspired by wax resist batiks and are actually printed. They were first produced in Holland and in the 1880’s they became widely popular in west Africa. Eventually they were manufactured in England, Scotland and Switzerland. Today, Africa is home to production of high quality wax prints.

The wax prints are part of a nonverbal way of communication among African women and they carry their message out into the world. Some wax prints can be named after personalities, cities, buildings, sayings or occasions.

The producer, name of the product and registration number of the design are all printed on the selvedge, thus protecting the design and allowing reading the quality of the fabric.