The last post for Fashion revolution week is about a fierce family that has been working with batik for many years while facing many challenges and difficulties through living from their passion.
Ani’s family runs a batik workshop for the past several decades. They work with Batik Boutique to produce marvelous fabrics for our corporate gifts and apparels. We had the pleasure to spend the afternoon at their family run workshop in a village in Malaysia.
“I am Ani. I've been working in batik for the last 31 years. I started turning scraps of fabrics into batik, something I learned from my sister. My husband had an important role in my learning as well - he is a well-known batik block maker. He gained his skills and knowledge from his family. I am very grateful to my husband for teaching me and passing this knowledge to our daughter as well.
My inspiration for batik comes from everything that surrounds me. I am always working with themes like nature or abstract, accordingly to the tastes of my customers. In all the years I learned that we need to know where we are going to market our products. For instance, we have orders from Australia and New Zealand, they like more traditional looking batik.
I am grateful to our customers, to the Batik Boutique. Thanks to my work I was able to raise 4 kids and provide them a good education. Our efforts paid off when one of our daughters decided to work with us after her studies.”
Wani is one of Ani’s daughters. She is aiming to leverage her family’s business to an international level. We work together to turn their marvelous fabrics into high quality batik products.
“My name is Siti Noorizwani - or just Wani. I am 29 years old and have been working with batik for 6 years, after majoring in business. This is my family’s business for generations, so batik has been part of my life since I was kid. I have to say that the batik tools were my childhood toys.
I don’t have any kids but I have already started initiating my nieces and nephews into batik. I would love to have my family carry on this tradition to the future. For me, batik is a heritage that can regain its former glory with a modern touch, fulfilling today’s market requirements.
Two years ago a great flood destroyed our workshop, and we lost everything. We started over from scratch, working just with whatever we could repair. Even after a year we are not able to recover our loss of liability and assets.. Most of the area you see here will be damaged forever, losses we will never be able to repair.
I was determined to help my family and business step by step. I started buying new tools and marketing to cover all our loss. This was an awful incident, however I am grateful for it as it provided me opportunity to pay back the hard work of my family. I am glad I have skills and knowledge to carry on rebuilding my family’s business.”
(the remaining damages caused by the flood)As Fashion Revolution comes to a close, we hope awareness and fashion consciousness remains. Keep supporting artisan products, and let’s do our part to empower artisans worldwide. Join the Revolution!
