Who owns vlisco

Tuesday night, president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama invited more than 50 heads of state to an outdoor dinner party at the White House, one of many events surrounding a three-day US-Africa Leaders Summit. Jill Biden, the wife of US vice-president Joe Biden fit right in, glowing in a strapless, printed turquoise dress with hot pink trim and voluminous folds that fell below a fitted waist. By the s, the Dutch had arrived in Java, and brought batik fabrics back to European mills with the intention of making cheap reproductions to sell back to colonies in the Dutch East Indies.

Two hundred years later, the Dutch had their printing technique pretty well dialed, except for one thing. Enter West Africa. Batik prints had already trickled into West Africa via European missionaries and West African soldiers who returned with batiks after fighting for the Dutch against the Indonesian resistance between and By the end of the 19th century, European manufacturers were producing color palettes and designs specifically for the West African market.

There, consumers favored the singular imperfections that the Indonesian market disdained. In recent weeks, the Works Council had to consider the future of the company. Hema owner Parcom would like to take over the fabric manufacturer — which mainly produces fabrics for the West African market — from the current British owner Actis.

The works council also felt opposed by the management in the advisory process. We really had to claim our advisory rights.

Advice from the Works Council is required for the takeover. But the Works Council had to fight for that right, because the management actually wanted to pass the Works Council. At the same time as they resign, the Works Council members announce that they are giving a positive advice for the takeover. If so, a vast market would open up because there was a great demand for sarongs, slendangs and headscarves. He also told Pieter to keep in mind that all the colours and patterns were coded: certain colours could indicate that the wearer was of noble descent, clear white signified death or mourning and some of the parang patterns were to be worn only by royals.

The Fentener van Vlissingen family were not the only one who focused on imitation wax-batiks. On the contrary: in England, Switzerland, and Belgium they already developed a way to industrialize that production, long before Frits had sent the first batiks to Helmond. In the machine was patented and the technique was kept secret until Therefore, HKM became the largest textile manufacturer in the Netherlands, producing the best imitation wax-batiks.

As soon as the examples arrived from Java, the craftsmen in Helmond tried to make genuine copies of the cloth. The colourist had the hardest task, as he only used natural dye, like indigo and alizarin, also known as Turkey Red to get the perfect colour. Weeks after the first shipment was sent to Java, a letter arrived in Helmond on November 17, Frits wrote that the first batch of imitation wax-batik was very well received. The story goes that especially the brown was looking better than the real batiks.

The correspondence between Pieter and Frits makes clear that the imitation wax-batiks from Helmond were a grand success and that Pieter allowed himself to use different colours and try new designs.

To seal the business, the private Batik-Associatie was founded with Frits as a key figure. The trading house decided which batiks were copied in Helmond and they had the sole right to sell it. The fabrics from Helmond became popular and gained a good reputation: they were becoming the most important competitor to HKM and P. In a shipment of 32 boxes was discovered on Java, stuffed with fabrics bearing the name of the factory in Helmond.

In the s sales of imitation wax-batiks skyrocketed and P. Every year, new buildings erected on the factory site, the piece of land between the old city canal de Mey and the river Aa. In more than people worked in the factory.