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African Wax fabrics

This fabric with its vibrant colors and original geometric patterns

I believe I have fallen under the spell of African Wax fabrics

All those patterns, all those colors… How could anyone resist? For a few years now, wax fabric has been a fashion trend beyond sub-Saharan Africa. I had already noticed a few clothes here and there. But when I arrived in Burkina Faso in 2016, I was overwhelmed!!

Living for a little over three years in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in Burkina Faso (which is really worth a visit), I realized that wax fabric is a true institution. It is everywhere: as a simple cloth around the waist, in dresses, in jackets, worn by men and women, as wedding gifts… In short, faced with all this, I now had to dare to go beyond mere admiration, dive in, and get hands-on experience.

dans un magasin de wax
Purchase of wax fabric at the "Woodin - Vlisco - Uniwax" store in Ouagadougou (2017)
toucher le wax pour le travailler
My first creations in the workshop (2017)

But which Wax fabrics should I choose?

Indeed, I quickly discovered that, as with all markets of this scale, you find all sorts of qualities. The vast majority of the production comes from… yes, China. Everyone is free to think what they want about this, but at least it offers affordable fabrics for all budgets. The only downside is the counterfeits, the counterfeits of counterfeits, and so on. But now, even though I am not an expert, I can almost recognize good quality by touch and by looking at a few details.

Today, I mainly create my pieces using standard wax fabric like “Hitarget” or similar. I would love to move up a notch and use “Uniwax”, “Woodin”, or even the holy grail: “Vlisco” more often!