Mengkoedoe skills

The pattern is not really clearly visible anywhere and the fabric is not colored red. To get a red color from the mengkoedoe dye, you need certain skills – skills that the cotton dyers in the Netherlands did not have. For years they experimented with the dye, but the desired red color was never achieved.

The dyers were not all too critical about the color, but the buyers in Asia very much were. Because of that, they switched to dyes they were able to mix and apply multiple times to create a similar red color. Read more: http://www.asiantextilestudies.com/morinda.html