Ikat and Tribal in Prints, Oh my!
Maybe it’s because diversity is a trend or perhaps it is one of 7th Avenues’ answers to ‘going green”, but earthy tribal prints are making waves for this spring and summer and the hottest of all are Ikats.
Tribal patterns are often all over prints that take their influence from various forms of nature. A form of a leaf, flowers, bone, or the pattern of an animal skin is often standard patterns. More African patterns feature primitive art motifs that would have previously found their way onto cultural art or primitive masks and now are making their way down the runway and into stores.
The color pallets for these fabrics are based on natural printmaking and traditional dying techniques, so greens from plants, bark, husks, lichen, and berries bring a natural feel all over. For instance, the dyes from onion skins create a wonderfully warm golden mustard color which can then paired with a black for a dramatic positive verses negative effect. Fashionable tribal fabrics often pin a strong bright color against the neutral tones with dark browns and blacks. Even if the fabric is obviously not hand dyed from nature, the full tribal patterns can bring out the animal in us all.
Ikat Prints are everywhere!
The hottest of all prints this year are Ikat prints. Ikat, or Ikkat, is a style of weaving that uses a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye. While almost all of the tribal prints have their roots in an original people and their culture, Ikat is credited to Malay- Indonesia. In the Malay language, Ikat translates to means “to tie” or “to bind” or “to knot”, which is the technique used.In principle, Ikat or resist dyeing involves the sequence of tying and dyeing sections of bundled yarns to a predetermined color scheme prior to weaving. Technologically, this weaving refers to thread-resist textile. The threads, which are colored, are then woven into the fabric.The traditional Ikats from Malaysia are actually much more complicated than the fashionable textiles baring their name this year. 
While in fashion terms “Ikat prints” tends to hand a zig zaggy tribal look to it with only one or two colors.The look is more akin to a simpler weave of the dyed threads, or taking a piece of fabric, tying it off to resist the dyes, and that produces the effect like this scarf.Clothing made from Ikat inspired fabrics are literally everywhere this year. From the top designer’s runway collections to the local stores, Ikat is making huge ways. Airy summer dresses, cute tops, long skirts, short skirts, bathing suits, scarves, and even underwear are screaming Ikat all over. 
I never met an ikat I didn’t like, wish I could find more at my local Loehmann’s – I can’t get enough!
designer underwear
Hi very interesting post.
[...] inspired prints were everywhere: lots of great black and brown animal, Ikat and tribal prints, Navajo, and batik, as well, on both woven and knitted fabrics. Ombre prints were also [...]