Not So Chintz(y)! Saturday ]June 29, 2024 at 12 noon

What is Chintz?

Cotton cloth embellished by hand-drawing, hand-painting and block-printing through the application of mordants, resists and dyes. Paint applied through a "Kalam" or bamboo "pen"

Patterns ranged from floral for dress and luxury furnishings to scenes of battle, goddesses and everything in between

The meaning of the word chintz:

A Hindi word (cheent) meaning spotted, variegated, speckled or sprayed

Chintz was produced in the Southeastern part of India on the Coromandel Coast

South Asian conditions conducive to chintz production

• unique climactic conditions
• potent subtropical dye plants
• waters with special mineral properties that improved color, chintz production centers around rivers
• human ingenuity for growing cotton and developing complex chemical processes
• Unrivalled hand skills
• Local demand (village dress, temple wall hangings, decorating the courts and palaces of kings) provided energy and motivation for artisans to create

"It is exceedingly difficult to infuse cotton fiber with brilliant and durable color using natural dyes; yet craftsmen in the Indian sub-continent developed and perfected several recipes..." - Sarah Fee, "The Cloth that Changed the World"

• Indian artisans had mastered 2 special techniques: Drawing with a pen and creating wooden blocks and using them to print patterns
• In both techniques, Multiple rounds of dyeing, washing, bleaching, direct application of dyes, and then on again
• The printer was challenged to perfectly alogn impressions so as to mask breaks and navigate corners
• Pleasing wide range of customers and market
• Most demanding were the multicolored chintz requiring several dye baths and mordant solutions

The global desire for chintz

1. Chintz was greatly coveted for its vibrant and durable colors and intricate patterns.
2. European traders found that Indian chintz was a key commodity in trading for spices! They set up factories near major textile centers in India.
3. Their trade was so profitable they started selling directly to Europe.
4. Trading in Indian chintz was so profitable they began selling directly to Europe where at first chintz was popular as luxury furnishings for the elite. By the mid 1600s they were embraced in fashion. Because chintz was cheaper than silk it became the first "mass fashion"
5. At its peak in the 1680s, Indian cottons accounted for 74 percent of the homebound cargoes of the British East India Company, - upto 1 million pieces annually, while 57 percent of French cargoes were constituted specifically of painted Indian chintz.
6. But protectionism in Europe forced traders to look elsewhere (Africa, the Americas, Canad and Brazil) for their trade and chintz became a truly global commodity.

Manufacturers in other parts of the world, especially Europe, created their own printed versions of chintz as they felt threatened by the massive demand for Indian chintz in their own countries. The fabric became so popular as to earn the nickname "chintzy". Yes, this is, the origin of the word!

Governments, for example, the British, gained control over the cotton trade and colonized India. Other governments did the same.

Chintz artisans have survived the ups and downs of political upheaval. Demand was down, but there is a recent resurgence and revival/

Chintz Today

My Cotton Collection - Show and Tell

Block-printed kaftan