Surakarta batik maker partners with Disney

SURAKARTA: Batik Keris, a Surakarta-based batik producer in Central Java, has partnered with The Walt Disney Company to create colorful batik featuring famous Disney characters in an effort to take batik forward internationally.

“Children are accustomed to seeing and wearing batik clothes, but when they see batik with their favorite animated characters, they will love batik more and more,” said Djongko Rahardjo, a local fashion designer, who is also the head of the Association of Surakarta Fashion Designers, on Monday.

The Disney collection is in the form of printed batik. “Children love bright hues. Therefore we chose to use printed batik instead of hand drawn, because the colors would not come out perfectly if we applied a hand drawing process,” said Lina Handianto, Batik Keris chief commissary.

Heri Santoso of the merchandising division at Batik Keris said that the cooperation was aimed at introducing batik to children.

“Our main goal is to introduce batik to children, while at the same time to take the traditional garment to the international stage,” said Heri, who added that the Disney collection featuring Mickey and Friends was available in T-shirts, dresses and shirts.