History & culture

Cotton fabric with bold, wax-resist-dyed patterns, industrially produced in Europe from the 19th century in imitation of Indonesian batik and adopted as a distinctive West African fashion textile.

A Vietnamese national dress consisting of a long, fitted tunic with side slits worn over loose trousers, developed in its modern form during the 1930s from earlier court dress.

A wax-resist dyeing technique in which molten wax is applied to fabric to block dye from certain areas, producing intricate patterns; long practiced in Indonesia, especially Java, and recognized by UNESCO in 2009.

A brightly printed rectangular cotton cloth from East Africa, worn wrapped as clothing and often printed with a Swahili proverb along its border, used for dress, carrying children, and ceremony.

A close-fitting Chinese dress with a mandarin collar and side slit, evolving in Shanghai during the 1920s from the looser Manchu changpao into a modern, tailored garment.

A Japanese hand-stitching technique using simple running stitches in white thread on indigo cloth, originally developed to reinforce and mend workwear, now also used decoratively.