Where to buy Ankara and African wax print in Toronto

How to buy real wax print in Toronto, tell it from the wax-look copy, and work out how many yards you need for a full outfit. The fabric shops to start with, and the one question to ask on the phone.

Ankara is sold by the piece, not the metre. A full piece is six yards, which is roughly what a top and a wrapper take with a head-tie left over, and it is why the price on the shelf looks large until you divide it by everything it makes. Buy less than a piece and you risk running out halfway through a garment with no way to match the batch. That is the first thing to know before you go looking.

The second is that a lot of what gets sold as African print in Toronto is not wax print at all. Both have their place. Knowing which one you are holding is the difference between an outfit that lasts twenty years and one that fades after three washes.

Real wax print, wax-look, and how to tell them apart

Real wax print is dyed through. The pattern reads at almost the same strength on both sides, the cloth has a slight stiffness and a faint crackle to the wax, and the good brands put their name on the selvedge: Vlisco, GTP, ABC, Woodin, Hitarget. It costs more because it is made differently, and it holds colour through years of washing.

Wax-look is printed on one side, usually on lighter polyester. It is cheaper, it drapes softer, and for a lot of garments it is the sensible choice. There is nothing wrong with it as long as you know that is what you are buying and pay accordingly.

The test takes two seconds: turn the fabric over. If the back is a pale ghost of the front, it is printed wax-look. If the back reads nearly as strong as the face, it is real wax. Check the selvedge for a brand name while you are at it. This is the same test the general fabric-buying guide uses, and it is worth repeating because it is the one that decides everything.

How much to buy

• A full piece is six yards. Enough for a top and wrapper, or a long dress, with a little spare.
• A head-tie (gele) is two yards of something stiff enough to hold a shape. Buy it at the same time, from the same run, so it matches.
• Aso ebi, the coordinated cloth for a wedding or a funeral, has one rule: everyone buys from the same bolt or the same dye lot. Two pieces of the "same" print from different batches will not match under photographs. If you are buying for a group, buy it all in one trip.
• Always buy the extra half yard now. Ends of a bolt are common, and coming back for more of a print that has sold out is the most avoidable mistake in the whole trade.

Where to look

These are the fabric shops in the directory. African wax print is a specialist stock, so not every shop on this list carries it, and what is on the roll changes week to week. The honest move is to ring first and ask, in plain words, whether they have real wax print or wax-look, and in what colours. The number on each page is the shop's own.

We do not track which shop has which cloth on a given day, because it moves too fast to be worth trusting in writing. The list above is where to start. The phone call is how you check.

Before you go

Bring a reference for any colour it has to match, because shop lighting is not your lighting. Take a photograph of the selvedge and the brand name so you can find the same cloth again. And if the print is for something that matters, a ceremony or a gift, buy the whole quantity in one go from one bolt. Wax print is made in batches, and the batch is the thing that has to match, not the pattern.

Written by See The Six · kept current from the directory, last checked 2026-08-24