VLISCO is colour obsessed from beautiful colorful fabrics and designs. They develop and make their own unique colours and hues in-house to ensure the deepest colours, which remain vibrant, even after washing. Indigo is the most important dye in their colour portfolio. Bathed in Indigo ink, their designs and drawings are imprinted into the fabrics. In fact, colour is an integral part of the craft, as it fuses with design to create wonderful optical illusions and eye-catching looks. Just by using different colour combinations and placement, one design can become totally new!
Colour is their obsession
Indigo used to be the most common and popular source of colour throughout West Africa for centuries. It was the first colour used by Africans, and by using it in the Vlisco designs, they connected with the deep cultural value it has. Indigo designs and motives were traditionally a means of expression and a way to communicate. The indigo designs and vibrant colours fabrics became entwined in West and Central African culture, being given and worn during special moments such as the birth of a child, or as the dowry or at a wedding.
In 1969, Vlisco introduced ‘Sepia’ as a base colour for its fabrics, which was previously 100% Indigo blue. This created a total new depth in colour and thus design experience. The sepia base, as a backdrop for varying colour combinations, was so popular it changed the role of Indigo in fabric design. Indigo design remains the key colour in Super-wax and Vlisco Wax Hollandais products but it is the intricate patterns today, and combination of bright colours, which have become so popular. The Connoisseurs of Style, know and love the colour combinations and the way each design can become totally new when different colours are used. It is for them that Vlisco continue day-in day-out research and development of new colours to bring West and Central Africa a fresh palette each season.
Below are some examples of Vlisco’s vibrant fabrics, with their own unique colours made in-house.
These colourful Dutch Wax fabrics are now selling in the very first Vlisco store at Jabi Lake Mall in Abuja, Nigeria!
