Khalid Shamsuddin Arshad began as a batik artist at 19. He fell in love with batik as an art form as soon as he got in touch with it and never left his craft. He knew right away his future would be in batik.

In his twenties, Khalid had established himself as a batik designer, known in particular for his trademark hand-painted pareos. This was the time when he and his wife lived on the island of Pangkor and opened their first shop from the Pangkor Island Resort. They reckon that this had been a successful approach as they met a lot of people and were able to actively pursue promotional activities while the batik scene in Malaysia was nowhere.

In 1988, batik began to gain popularity in the country. Khalid and his wife opened a second and a third boutique, this time in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Unfortunately, a serious downturn in the batik industry occurred in 1993. One of the reasons was that fashion industry interest shifted towards Korean silk. As a result, Khalid and his wife had to close their operations in Kuala Lumpur.

Furthermore, the economic recession in 1997 forced to give up the boutique in Pangkor Laut. This time, Khalid, his wife and their 2 children were solely relying on a cheap rented shop in Kuala Lumpur to pursue their passion.

In 2002, this last shop had to close down as well. The couple was close to giving up but somehow did not. Thanks to his network of contacts, Khalid got the chance to participate to batik promotional trips to Japan, Australia and Europe.

According to Khalid, the batik industry only started to recover when the Datin Seri Endon Mahmood introduced the Malaysian Batik For The World Movement in 2003. Khalid benefited from the movement by participating in batik related initiatives.

Since then, the family has been able to regain their boutique at Pangkor Laut Resort and reopened shops in Kuala Lumpur.Khalid eventually succeeded in establishing his own batik wear brand - Khalid Batik.

Along the way, Khalid got tremendous support from his wife who helped him right from the start first in their batik life through the batik creation process & modeling, guest relations etc. Last summer, as part of a promotional action organized by Tourism Malaysia, Khalid became the first Malaysian batik artist and Malaysian to have his work on display at Harrods in London, one of the most famous and exclusive department stores in the world.

(New Sunday Times Magazine Photo)

At the same period, some of his pareos creations were also worn by Miss England pageant finalists in Leicester.

These latest achievements enabled Khalid to get a truly international recognition for his work and talent.