Slate | The Story Behind "Tribal" Prints

The incorporation of African prints into fashion designs has been quite the trend, with appearances in the recent collections of L.A.M.B., H&M, and Burberry Prorsum among others. As explained in a well-written article on Slate, these prints may not be as authentically African as most would think. 

...In the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), locals used the technique of wax-resist dying to make batik...Not only were the original industrially produced Dutch wax prints copies of Indonesian designs, they also were influenced by Indian-inspired British designs... 

...Europeans tried to manufacture their own versions of batik, with the intention of flooding the market in Indonesia with cheaper, machine-made versions of the cloths but this was unsuccessful... As Europeans began to sell this cloth, in West Africa—largely to women, both rich and poor, who regarded it as a marker of status—West African tastes shaped the evolving designs...   

...The biggest threat to Vlisco’s hold on the market today comes not from high-fashion designers, but from Chinese copycats, who since the ’90s have been using digital photographs to produce cheap copies of European designs to sell in West Africa... But for those who have been priced out of the Vlisco market, the Chinese offer a welcome alternative...

Read the full article on the story behind "tribal" prints over at Slate.

Also have a look at Yinka Shonibare's artwork, to discover his artistic exploration of the history of these prints which he describes as an artificial construct.