K Clothing's Ajrak Story . . .

We, at K Clothing, constantly strive to implement ancient textile traditions to contemporary clothing.  The Indian textile tradition is nothing short of magical – the detail and perfection of hand dyeing and printing never ceases to amaze those new to it. One of our best sellers is our Ajrak Printed dress.

Ajrak is a block-printed textile that is resist-dyed using natural dyes like indigo and madder. It is made by the Khatris community in Kutch, Gujarat and is distinguished by its color- blue with red - and its complex geometric and floral patterns. Its name is derived from 'azarak', 'blue' in Arabic and Persian.

Ajrak is a legacy craft passed on from generation to generation. It takes skill and patience to make Ajrak. There are between 14-16 different stages of dyeing and printing, which take 14-21 days to complete. The resulting cloth is soft against the skin and jewel-like in appearance, pleasing to touch and appealing to the eye. Common colours used while making these patterns are blue, red, black yellow. Our dresses use a combination of all these colours!

The level of geometry on the garment comes from the usage of a method of printing called woodblock printing in which prints were transferred from geometric shapes etched on the wooden blocks by pressing them hard on the fabric. Ajrak craft products are made with natural dyes. The entire production of the products includes both vegetable dyes and mineral dyes. Indigo is key dye.

Read more about our Woodblock Printed and Indigo Dyed clothes in our upcoming blogs.