Relay Column: The World & History Connected by the Warp & Weft of Ikat: From India to Marie Antoinette & the Modern Day (Kumi Eguchi)

Inquiring ChatGPT About Fashion & Technology

What comes to mind when you hear the keywords fashion and technology? To explore this theme, I first asked ChatGPT, the latest technology, what it could suggest regarding fashion and technology. It provided intriguing responses such as "smart wear," "fashion VR/AR," "flexible displays," "movable materials," "smart textiles," "digital fashion," "sustainable fashion," and "AI-assisted fashion design." While I will refrain from elaborating on each point here, what connects them is that they all reflect cutting-edge technology and ideas, showcasing possibilities for future fashion. It would not be an exaggeration to say that fashion continues to evolve alongside technology.

While it seems recent that fashion has become possible through technology, traditional crafts, which have been inherited for generations, also utilized the cutting-edge "technology" of their time, resulting in textiles that have continued to the present day. One such example is "kasuri," known outside of Japan as "ikat."

Introducing Kasuri & Its Techniques

Kasuri might be a somewhat unfamiliar word. Perhaps some of you recall a kasuri monpe (traditional trousers) at home. Kasuri is a traditional craft textile characterized by patterns that appear blurred. Once celebrated for its beautiful techniques, it spread worldwide as a trade item, resulting in diverse regions producing it and the blossoming of kasuri culture across different times and places. However, in modern times, due to the expansion of fast fashion, this textile faces a global decline.

Let me explain the "technology" that supports the expression of kasuri. Kasuri is a plain woven textile created by "dyeing either the warp or weft threads, or both, to produce kasuri yarn (yarn dyed in a speckled manner), which is then woven to express patterns"[1].

There are three types of kasuri: "warp kasuri (using kasuri yarn in the warp to express patterns), weft kasuri (using kasuri yarn in the weft), and double kasuri (using kasuri yarn in both the warp and weft)"[2]. Globally, warp kasuri is more common, while double kasuri requires advanced skills and is produced in limited regions, such as Japan, Indonesia, and India.[3]

The Global Spread of Kasuri

While kasuri remains a traditional craft today, its origins trace back to around the 8th century in India[4]. In Gujarat, India, Patola is a silk woven double kasuri that became a major trade item in the early modern period. Kasuri spread to the East and West. In Southeast Asia, it spread alongside the dissemination of Hinduism and Buddhism, and Indonesia is still known as a mecca for kasuri, where it is referred to as "ikat," a term that has also become the English designation. Additionally, in the village of Tuganian in Bali, a type of double kasuri called "Geringsing" exists. In Japan, kasuri was transmitted from Java to Ryukyu around the 15th century, and around 1798, Den Inoue of the Kurume clan in what is now the Chikugo region of Fukuoka Prefecture devised indigo-dyed, cotton-woven kasuri, which spread nationwide. The three major production areas of Japanese kasuri are known to be Kurume, Iyo, and Bungo.