"Six Yards": An Exhibition of Ankara, a Dutch Product for Africans

Six Yards is an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and it is dedicated to Vlisco, the Dutch company responsible for popularizing something that most people associate entirely with Africa: the fabric known as Ankara. 


 Ubiquitous across most of Africa, the brightly-patterned fabric is seen as a reflection of our cultural vibrancy. Even the name Dutch Wax, which Ankara is also popularly known as, has not made it any less “African” in origin, but as Cosmic Yoruba (aka Eccenttric Yoruba) writes in The History of Dutch Wax prints, Dutch wax prints started out as cheaper mass-produced imitations of Indonesian batik locally produced in Java.


 Colonial powers, particularly the Dutch and the English, played heavy roles in industrialising the batik production techniques and popularising the resulting textiles in foreign markets.


Six Yards reveals the part Vlisco plays in African culture and its influence on international fashion, arts and photography. It touches on Dutch colonial history and some of the differences between the Western and the non-western countries with respect to the fabric. It also incorporates the views of various artists, fashion designers and local African market sellers.

Vlisco factory, Helmond

Vlisco was founded in 1846 in Helmond, the Netherlands. At the time, the Dutch were the colonial rulers of Indonesia, and the company’s machine-made imitation of Indonesian wax print soon made it the leader in the field. But after it lost Indonesia as a colony, it turned to the West African market, where it adapted the motifs and colours to locally prevailing tastes.

Incidentally, this information is available in the exhibition brochure, which you receive at the entrance to the exhibition, and the history is covered in the exhibition itself.

Vlisco Fabrics book

Members of the press also receive a copy of the book Vlisco Fabrics, a book whose main section includes 228 pages of high quality scans of Vlisco patterns, selected from the company’s archive of 350,000 patterns.

Vlisco’s 22% annual increase in revenue is now due entirely to the African market, at home and in the diaspora, and the Dutch call it an outstanding export. Meanwhile, some Africans feel uncomfortable with the idea of a Dutch company benefiting so much from something which they feel is part of African culture.

The name “Six Yards”
Vlisco textiles have always been sold in lengths of 6 yards (about 5,5 meters), hence the name of the exhibition. The exhibition was curated by Suze May Sho, an arts collective whose work is often a combination of fashion, art and design.

The Exhibition
The first part of the exhibition is a showcase for artworks and photography.