Terengganu Silk: Ikat Collection

"Ikak", in Terengganu pronunciation, refers to the world famous ikat. This piece-of-art fabric really defines the meaning of hand made craftsmanship with every aspect of it.

Ikat, or Ikkat, is a style of weaving that uses a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye on either the warp or weft before the threads are woven to create a pattern or design. A Double Ikat is when both the warp and the weft are tie-dyed before weaving.

Ikat means "to tie" or "to bind" in the Malay language and has the same root as the words dekat ("close"), lekat ("to stick"), pikat ("to catch") etc. The word Katt has the same meaning in all of the south Indian languages but there may be no relation. Through common usage, the word has come to describe both the process and the cloth itself.

Ikats have been woven in cultures all over the world. In Central and South America, Ikat is still common in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico. In the 19th century, the Silk Road desert oases of Bukhara and Samarkand (in what is now Uzbekistan in Central Asia) were famous for their fine silk Uzbek Ikat.

India, Japan and several South-East Asian countries including Malaysia particularly in Terengganu have cultures with long histories of Ikat production. Double Ikats can still be found in India, Guatemala, Japan and the Indonesian islands of Bali and Kalimantan. Like any craft or art form, ikats vary widely from country to country and region to region. Designs may have symbolic of ritual meaning or have been developed for export trade.

Ikats are often symbols of status, wealth, power and prestige. Perhaps because of the difficulty and time required to make ikats, some cultures believe the cloth is imbued with magical powers.

As ikat motif seems to be floating on the fabric, it reminds us of islands that are surfacing from blue, endless sea. Each of fabric of the collection is named after islands of Terengganu, which give pattern to wide South China Sea.

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