Research Overview

Ikat weave began amongst a small community of women, using basic techniques and relying on individual region resources; therefore ikat textiles can reveal a lot of historical evidence into societies and lifestyles. Women would use the weave to construct necessities such as baskets and clothing, it soon evolved into small businesses between clusters of women in the Middle East seeking to earn a little extra income by selling the cloth to tourists; the ikat weave has since been applied across fashion and interior design across the globe. Having had a go at creating my very own ikat weave by tie-dying my warp and setting up on the loom, I have found its a very involved process and there is a great element of surprise and fascination as a pattern soon comes together created by dip dying the yarn. The ikat weave has become iconic for the unique patterns and colours it can produce, and is now used in print deisgn, transferring bold inventive pattern to screen printing scarves and garments; such as scarf designer Alison Lousada. From my market reearch it has become evident that the ikat patterns are more commonly seen as a print and not a weave, particularly in  the fashion industry, this could possibly be because it is more commercially efficient to produce as a print rather than a weave, as the ikat weaving process is rather complicated and lengthy.
I have enjoyed researching the history of the ikat weave, and how a simple technique can produce such unique and iconic patterns that can be used to create future fashions.

                                              A video of 'Ikat Indonesia' clothing collection.