• name: Vlisco
• field: textile manufacturer
• contact: www.vlisco.com
• duration: 6'11"

Since its beginning more than 160 years ago, the company Vlisco, based in Helmond in the South of The Netherlands, makes high quality printed fabrics using a technique adapted from the ancient Indonesian batik, a method the Dutch learned during the time Indonesia was still a colony of Holland. This delicate and time-consuming wax printing and color dyeing process defines the brand's strong, colourful and unique fabric range. Since 1876 Vlisco has been exporting these fabrics across the African continent where they became hugely popular and remain so today.

After a slew of successful collaborations with high fashion brands such as Comme des Garcons, Adidas, and Printemps, Vlisco re-invented themselves in 2006, as a fashion label in their own right. Customers now flock to Vlisco’s ever-increasing number of flagship stores in major African cities like Benin and Accra, coveting their growing range of products - from ready-to-wear collections, to shoes, bags and accessories.