What Is Ikat Fabric?

How is ikat made?

Ikat is made by binding sections of yarn, dyeing it, and repeating the binding and dyeing for each colour before a single thread is woven. The bindings stop dye reaching the covered sections, so the pattern is built into the yarn itself. When the dyeing is complete, the bindings are removed and the threads are woven.

The Textile Museum in Washington, DC, describes the specialist workflow behind Uzbek silk ikat:

1. A designer stretches the silk threads, often 200 yards long, in sections on a frame and draws the design on them in charcoal.
2. A binder wraps parts of the design with cotton string to resist the dye.
3. A dyer dips the bound threads in the lightest dye first, then the binder reties them for the next colour.
4. The finished threads are woven on a treadle loom about 17 inches (43 cm) wide.

Each extra colour means another round of binding and dyeing. The museum notes that the most expensive ikats, with many colours, can take weeks to pass between designers, binders and dyers.

That order of work is what separates ikat from resist techniques worked on finished cloth, such as batik, bandhani, shibori and most tie-dye.

What are warp, weft and double ikat?

Ikat comes in three types, named by which set of threads carries the dyed pattern: the warp (the lengthwise threads on the loom), the weft (the threads woven across), or both.

The Australian Museum describes gringsing as a highly valued textile made and used in special ceremonies in Tenganan.

Where is ikat made, and what is it called locally?

Ikat is made in many communities across Asia, Africa and the Americas, and the Textile Museum states that it originated independently in those regions. Some forms also travelled: the Australian Museum says weft ikat was probably introduced to coastal Indonesia through Indian and Arab merchants. Many traditions have their own names for it, and their own motifs and uses.

In Central Asia, ram’s-horn patterned silk robes were worn to signify high social status. In Borneo, the Iban people weave intricate cotton ikat cloths with motifs such as crocodiles, whirlpools and serpents, which protect ritual spaces.

Is “ikat print” the same as ikat?

No. Ikat is defined by dyeing the yarn before weaving, so an ikat-style design printed onto finished cloth is not ikat, whatever name it is sold under. “Ikat print” is often used for exactly that: a printed imitation of ikat’s blurred motifs.

There is an in-between case. From the mid-19th century, a method called chiné à la chaîne hand-painted the design onto the warp threads before weaving; the Textile Research Centre in Leiden notes that hand painting was later replaced by screen printing and then roller printing of the warp. An older method, chiné à la branche, popular from the early 18th century, bound and resist-dyed the warp, which the centre describes as closer to Asian ikat. The centre notes that the two terms seem to be used interchangeably in English, especially online.

Some ikat cloths have ritual roles in their own communities, such as gringsing in Tenganan, so if you are buying ikat, look for pieces credited to weavers from the communities that make it.

How do you tell true ikat from a printed imitation?

Turn the cloth over: in true ikat the pattern is in the yarn, so both faces carry it. If the back is plain or only faintly coloured, the pattern was not dyed into the yarn. A pattern on both faces rules out a surface print, but not warp-printed chiné, where the design is printed onto the warp before weaving.

• Look at the edges of each motif. Ikat is characterised by blurred edges; the University of Ljubljana’s textile department notes the effect comes into its own from a distance. Blur alone is not proof, so use it together with the reverse-side check.
• Look at a frayed cut edge inside a seam allowance. In ikat, sections of each patterned thread were bound to stay undyed, so a single thread changes colour along its length.
• Work out which threads carry the pattern. In warp ikat, only the lengthwise threads are patterned. If only the lengthwise threads change colour, that fits warp ikat; if only the cross threads do, weft ikat; if both do, it may be double ikat.
• Count the colours to judge the work involved. Each colour needs its own round of binding and dyeing, and the Textile Museum notes that the most expensive ikats have many colours.

Red flags: a crisp, hard-edged outline on the front combined with a plain reverse.