5.05.2026 Events, Visual arts

Polish Fashion Stories: Unexpected Encounter – Batik from Java to Kraków

The earliest known examples of Polish batiks appeared around 1903 at an exhibition in Kraków, when the artist Jan Bukowski presented furniture upholstered in textiles decorated with what was called then “a manner of Easter eggs” - it was before the term batik had even entered the Polish language. From this point, other Kraków artists began to further explore the technique and its possibilities.

“Batik is a resist-dyeing technique in which, put very simply, patterns are formed by applying wax to cloth before dyeing. Its elaborate, fine ornamentation is gradually built through successive layers of wax and dye, applied in repeated stages. The term batik is also used to describe patterned textiles created with this method. While wax-resist dyeing techniques have existed for over two thousand years across the Far East, Middle East, Central Asia, and India, batik reached its most sophisticated form on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its etymology is traced to the Javanese words amba (“to write”) and titik (“dot”), referring to the act of drawing in small marks…

…From interiors to couture, batik was absorbed into a wide range of practices. Yet in each context, it took on a different character and in Poland, its story unfolded in a particularly interesting way”.

Read more in this latest article from Polish Fashion Stories:

https://www.polishfashionstories.com/we-love-1/2026/unexpected-encounter-batik-java-krakow

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