The Artisan Craft of Double Ikat

Our beautiful double ikat collection brings an ancient weaving technique to our contemporary styles


Our love of beautifully crafted fabrics is evident in every collection we design and this season, we are introducing a small range of styles featuring striking, handwoven ikats. Our design team collaborated with skilled weavers in India to create these distinctive fabrics, which are created using ancient artisan techniques. Patterned with striking blurred edge designs, these timeless pieces are truly special.

Double ikat takes time and skill to design and create. Seasalt designer Briony poured her passion and expertise into our ikat designs. Here she explains how they’re made and shares what she loves most about ikat.

“The craft of double ikat is an incredible feat of textile weaving. Every inch of the design is calculated and connected, to form unique and distinctive patterns on the cloth.” – Briony Yeates

Firstly, the weavers take our soft cotton yarns and tie them in sections at precisely measured distances. The yarns are then naturally coloured by resist-dyeing, before being hung in the open air to dry.

When the dye is set into the cotton yarn, it’s ready for weaving. This process is a labour of love, which takes each weaver eight hours to create 20 meters of fabric, lining up the sections of dyed yarn at precise intervals along the warp and weft. Woven on a hand-loom, the yarns interlock to reveal the beautiful patterns in the material.

As each bundle of fabric is dyed manually and handled individually, unique characteristics and a blurred-edge to the pattern arise. We love these variations in design as they are marks of the weavers’ craft and only add to the ikat’s character and charm.

Finally, our double ikat material reaches a sewing machine as the pattern pieces are joined together to make the beautiful Seasalt silhouettes we know and love.

These are truly special pieces to treasure for years to come, and we know you’ll enjoy wearing time and time again.

Seasalt textile designer Briony with samples of our hand dyed and woven double ikat material

“The time it takes to create, from in-house design, right through to the making of the textiles, brings a great appreciation of the craft.” – Briony