What Is Ankara Fabric?

Where does Ankara fabric come from?

Ankara fabric comes from a 19th-century European effort to industrialise Javanese batik, a hand-waxed, resist-dyed cloth from the Netherlands East Indies, then a Dutch colony. Dutch printers could not sell their factory copies profitably in Indonesia, so they shipped the cloth to West Africa, where it found its market.

The Dutch company that became Vlisco was founded in Helmond in 1846 by Pieter Fentener van Vlissingen. British merchants joined the trade: the Scottish merchant Ebenezer Brown Fleming began offering machine-printed, batik-inspired cloth around 1890, and design historians Julie Halls and Allison Martino describe him as the first merchant to bring Dutch- and British-made imitation batiks to West Africa.

West African buyers shaped the cloth from the start. Mostly female traders in what is now Ghana told European merchants which motifs and colours their customers wanted, and market women gave imported designs names that tied them to local life. That is why a print designed in Europe can carry a West African name and meaning.

The soldiers story is a myth

A popular story says African veterans of the Dutch colonial army, returning from Java, brought batik home and started the fashion. The historian W.M.J. van Kessel traces the story to 1924 and finds no evidence that the returning veterans introduced new fashions.

Whose cloth is it?

Both answers are true. The cloth was long designed and made outside Africa, yet it has become a symbol of African identity worldwide. Companies began printing it in Africa during the independence era, from the late 1950s to the 1970s, and ABC Textiles moved its production from England to Ghana in 2005. By the early 21st century, countries in Asia, especially China, were also making their own versions.

In Nigeria, Ankara is one of the cloths used for aso ebi, the “cloth of the kin” that family and friends wear in matching fabric at weddings, funerals and other celebrations. When demand outgrew handcrafted aso oke (“top cloth” in Yoruba) after independence, families turned to wax print and other imported fabrics.

How is Ankara fabric made?

Ankara fabric is made by printing a pattern in wax onto both faces of a cotton cloth with engraved rollers, dyeing it so the colour fills the unwaxed areas, and then adding further colours by a variety of methods. It is a mechanised form of batik, where hot wax is applied to the cloth by hand. Batik belongs to the same family of resist methods as tie-dye and shibori: something blocks the dye from part of the cloth.

The resist cracks during processing, leaving the fine veins, or craquelé, and the undyed bubbles that mark a true wax print. Not everything sold as Ankara is made this way:

What are the properties of Ankara fabric?

Ankara is a woven cotton whose pattern runs through to both faces, so the cloth looks finished on either side. WIPO describes Vlisco’s top wax print, Super Wax, as densely woven fine cotton printed in three colours, two showing the crackle and one solid.

Durability varies by maker. In a 2025 laboratory study of three imported wax prints sold in Ghana, all met the Ghana Standards Authority’s tensile-strength specification when new, but their strength fell noticeably after washing, mostly across the weft (the crosswise threads). Their dimensional stability met the standard, so they did not change size beyond the standard’s limits.

How is Ankara fabric graded or measured?

Ankara is judged first by print type, not by a number: the standard hierarchy treats wax prints as the most desirable, above fancy prints, including imi-wax. Within wax prints, makers sell named quality lines, such as Vlisco’s Super Wax.

Laboratories measure the cloth itself. The 2025 Ghana study tested tensile strength, colour fastness, abrasion resistance, dimensional stability, thread count and fabric weight against national standards. None of the three samples met the standard for fabric weight and yarn count, a reminder that a bright print can sit on thin cloth.

The cloth is bought by length. A traditional Ghanaian ntoma outfit, a sewn blouse and skirt with an unsewn cloth, typically takes six yards.

How does Ankara fabric appear on a clothing label?

On a label, Ankara appears only as its fibre, usually cotton, because “Ankara”, “wax print” and “Dutch wax” describe the print, not the fibre. Under US law, a textile label must list each fibre by its generic name and percentage by weight, in descending order, plus the country of origin and the maker or dealer.

• “100% cotton” is what a cotton wax print should say. No tolerance is allowed when a label claims a single fibre.
• A fibre trademark may appear on the content label only next to the generic fibre name, in lettering of the same size. A print or maker’s name is not a fibre name and never replaces one.
• Country of origin must name the specific country where the product was made, so it tells you where the product was made: the cloth on a bolt, the garment on a finished piece.
• Cloth cut from the bolt needs no label of its own if the bolt is properly labelled. Read the bolt end in the shop.

How do you tell good Ankara from poor Ankara?

Good Ankara shows its design equally on both faces, has real crackle on both sides, and is a dense, even cotton; poor Ankara is flimsy, irregular, synthetic or printed on one face only. Check these points before you buy:

1. Turn it over. A wax print is printed on both faces. A pale or blank reverse means a fancy print.
2. Trace the crackle onto the back. Imi-wax copies the crackle on the face only. On a wax print the veins and bubbles show through on the reverse.
3. Hold it to the light and pinch it. WIPO notes that counterfeits are often flimsy and irregular. Thin patches, a papery hand or a print that wanders off the pattern are warning signs.
4. Read the fibre content. Counterfeits are often synthetic rather than cotton. Polyester on the label or the bolt end means it is not the cotton cloth it imitates.
5. Ask who printed it. Copies of new designs can reach the market within days of a launch, so a familiar pattern proves nothing. Ask for the maker and the country of origin, and check that the label agrees.

A kente-pattern print is a separate case. European firms were imitating hand-woven kente designs by the early 20th century, and the trading company CFAO registered a factory-printed kente-style design in 1954. Such a print is a geometric print, not kente.

How do you care for Ankara fabric?

Care for Ankara as a printed cotton: follow the care label, wash gently, and keep new cloth away from pale fabrics until you know how it behaves. The 2025 Ghana study found colour fastness generally satisfactory, but some samples stained other fabrics more readily, so a dye test on a hidden seam is sensible before washing with whites. That study also found the cloth lost strength after washing, mostly across the weft, which argues for gentle cycles over hard ones. See colourfast for what fastness ratings mean.

Is Ankara fabric sustainable?

Ankara is neither sustainable nor unsustainable by nature: its impact depends on the cotton it is printed on, the dyeing, and how many years it is worn. The fibre is cotton, so the questions that apply to any cotton apply here, including whether it is organic cotton.

Longevity is the lever you control. Thin, synthetic counterfeits and cloth that loses strength in the wash are replaced sooner. A dense cotton wax print, made into a garment you keep, fits the logic of slow fashion. If you want your money to support African textile manufacturing, the country-of-origin line on the bolt end tells you where the cloth was made; on a finished garment it names where the garment was made, so ask the seller where the cloth was printed. For the wider picture, see sustainable fashion.