Hand block printing is something that you must be seeing too much on fashion spreads, lately. With the recent surge in sustainable fashion (and thankfully so!), all your favorite influencers and celebrities are acing their ‘comfortable street style’ game through handcrafted and beautiful hand block prints. You might be out and about to incorporate some pieces in your wardrobe and be thinking about some basic questions about hand block printing. Well, Organic Vibes is here for rescue, so let’s walk over step by step.
What is Handblock Printing?
Hand block printing is an age-old craft of making beautiful motifs on silk, cotton, and linen fabrics using incised wooden blocks. These motifs are not brushed strokes but rather are stamped from an incised wooden block.
History Of Hand Block Printing In India
This timeless art, though likeably originated in China, but truly flourished in India. It remarkably rose in popularity around the 12th century, in the age of Maharajas, when abstract and geometrical designs were all the rage amongst fashionistas of that era. Block printing reached its creative peak in the Mughal era. Around this time floral motifs, leaf designs, and animal prints were introduced. The designs were exported everywhere in the world with each signature motif designating a different region of the country. But during, the “British Raj” heavy taxes were imposed on crafts and the Indians were forced to buy their own work at exorbitant amounts. Hand block printing saw an all-time low during British colonialism.