Batik: Spearheading a strategy to go international
Batik: Spearheading a strategy to go international
Sean Yoong Associated Press Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Decked in batik blouses and sarongs, four teenage girls stride down a fashion show catwalk, seemingly straight out of a village in this Southeast Asian country. Statuesque models follow in a batik-loaded swirl of silk scarves and colorful chiffon.
It's official: Malaysian batik is coming out of the closet.
After a lifetime of being overshadowed by the more widely known Indonesian batik, Malaysia's version of the traditional dyed textile is now the target of a big push to popularize it in global fashion circles.
"Our ultimate aim is to bring Malaysian batik to the world stage, where it would get the prominence, acclaim and sales that it deserves," said Endon Mahmood, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's wife, who has begun a campaign to boost batik manufacturing standards, nurture new designers and tailor the products to foreign tastes.
Batik-making has been a part of Southeast Asian culture for centuries, possibly brought by travelers from India, the art's reputed birthplace.
The skill flourished in Indonesia, spreading eventually to neighboring Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Lauded for their polished craftsmanship, Indonesians have long generated the most widely recognized batik, though production steps are similar everywhere -- using wax to draw out designs on cloth, dyeing the textile and boiling it to melt the wax away.
In recent years, Indonesian batik has sometimes been incorporated into clothes by Western designers, and top Indonesian designers have shown off batik costumes during overseas shows.
Nevertheless, Malaysia insists its batik fabrics could have an international edge because they have brighter hues and more versatile patterns than the illustrations of animals and people common in mystic-influenced Indonesian batik.
"It is very possible that Malaysian batik will reach the shelves of Macy's, Fifth Avenue and Neimann Marcus and Harrods and Printemps -- provided the support mechanism is well operated," columnist Wahti Mahidin wrote in the Malay Mail newspaper.
But challenging Indonesia's cross-border foothold won't be easy, especially since the popularity of Malaysian batik has faded even at home in recent decades and is now worn mostly by government officials and aging matriarchs during formal occasions.
Reviving the use of batik here is a priority of the campaign orchestrated by Malaysia's first lady Endon, a fashion trendsetter who published a coffee table book in early 2003 that stirred renewed interest in a traditional ethnic dress called kebaya.
Endon has voiced hopes that an ongoing publicity blitz, which comprises fashion shows, trade exhibitions and even a batik- themed street carnival, will drive up domestic demand and deliver an economic incentive for hundreds of batik manufacturers nationwide to improve their products.
"This is a matter of national pride in a craft that has served us well," said Prime Minister Abdullah, who is abetting his wife's campaign by encouraging civil servants to wear batik to the office on Saturdays, a half-day in Malaysia's working week and when dress has traditionally been more casual.
The efforts by Endon and her newly formed Batik Guild -- a coalition of industry insiders -- are expected to culminate in early 2005, when Malaysia plans to host a world batik convention.
For now, other initiatives include a design competition to discover fresh Malaysian talents who could create innovative attire and trendy accessories using batik material.
Officials have also flown overseas to hold pageants that highlight batik and other Malaysian textiles, starting with a Paris show in December attended by French Prime Minister Jean- Pierre Raffarin's wife, Anne-Marie.
"This is the biggest thing our industry has ever tried to do - turn our traditional craft into an international fashion craze," said Razali Arsat, a batik distributor in Kelantan, an eastern state where factories and tiny home-based enterprises churn out most of Malaysia's batik.