Afro-Fashion: Ankara

To a large extent, when you talk about Afro-Fashion, the name Ankara mostly always comes up, thus Ankara over time has become a world wide name and fabric to reckon with. Here are a few things about Ankara you didn’t know.

1. “African Prints” or “African Wax Prints”, or commonly known as Ankara, is a 100% cotton fabric with vibrant patterns.
2. Though Ankara Fabric is associated with the African culture, its origins are not authentically and wholly African. Dutch wax prints started out as cheap mass-produced imitations of Indonesian batik fabric.
3. This colorful cloth and is primarily associated with Africa because of its tribal-like patterns and motifs. It was originally intended for the Indonesian market but found a more enthusiastic market in West Africa, where it became symbols of traditional and high quality fashion.    
4. From West Africa, this fabric spread to other parts of Africa and all over the world.
5. To make Ankara an even more versatile fabric, companies have most recently included Ankara prints on chiffon, crepe and other types of materials.