For me the most exciting thing in design right now is digitally printed fabrics, we've seen a boom in designers work with this technique and it now has truly made an infinite option for textile prints. Imagine sitting at your computer and designing an image and going 'that'd look great for a dress' and clicking print, voila you have this amazing unique dress at your disposal. I have so many images that I want to be printed on silky tee's, slim pants and even blazers ... I may have to save for a while or wait for this technology to be 'nano-ized' before I can print them, but it's definitely something that will be common practice in the near future.
The process? from what I read it sounds so interesting. When I last read about it (I think a year ago) there's two dying processes one is pigment-based inks and the other is dye-based inks. Pigment inks are more environmentally friendly and are more cost effective as you don't need to go through a colour fastening process, you can also print on a wide variety of fabrics. The let down with Pigment-based inks is that they are more difficult to streamline through the Ink Jet nozzles due to their thickness. With dyed inks you have to go through a process of fabric preparation for dying, colourisation with printing, a colour fastening process and a coating wash out (from the preparation process) The let down is that its really bad for the environment and costs more, but compared to the thickness of Pigments it's easy to use with the Ink Jet system. I'm sure these days it's improved somewhat due to the wide use in textile work. Look it up if you're interested, I'm sure you'll get a better and more scientific explanation...
Tian Wang with this really cool mixture of sky and city print. This whole collection had a mixture of earthy skies meets man made city and over all had some great tailoring.
I've already discussed my obsession with McQueen's prints and designs, but look at this amazing print! love it!
I absolutely love Cosmology! In fact I actually read about it in my spare time and tackled a book about Quantum Mechanics (It was intense!! but highly informative) But to actually print gorgeous star and planet images really excites me! This is an amazing laser cut dress with a galaxy print by Setareh Mohtarez. I really want some pants, blazer or a tee-shirt in this print... not all at once though cause it'll look like the new denim suit and I'll be the poster child of fashion faux pas for sure!
I absolutely have a style crush on Marni Skillings right now, how gorgeous is this dress and the fit is just amazing. The tones really suit this model with the auburn hair tying off nicely with this earthy toned print.
High waisted skirts are always stylish in my book. Marni Skillings has yet again done some great styling with this piece, a form fitting high wasted skirt with a ruffle sleeve blouse is a great combo. The print is awesome and the fabric feels great in real life
Josh Goot has been experimenting with digitally printed fabrics with his last two ranges and has produced some amazing works. I love this maxi, not only does the fabric feel soft and flows nicely but the print really has an air of nostalgia for me. This print just reminds me of primary school in art class, it has that feel of placing dyes in water and dropping paper on top to give you those interesting rainbow prints. It's great and so are the rest of his designs, look him up or go to The Corner Shop in The Strand Arcade to feel the fabric
Christopher Kane the 'It' designer of the new season. We saw a Gorilla printed top/dress earlier this year for his TopShop collection and he's progressed further in his new season. From what I viewed of this collection it seems Kane has been influenced by war images and violent nature, Atomic explosion printed Maxi's, barren lands with smoke rising on dresses and I even think I spotted a volcanic eruption. Although these images are quite harsh and rough they work quite well with the soft and feminine designs, a great juxtaposition that seems to be a reoccurring theme with designers.
I know we've all mucked around with a photo copier and if you haven't you MUST try it (btw do not sit on them!!) Alpha 60 have created a quirky and fun print for their range, uber cool street wear meets office antics. I absolutely love the middle print and over all this collection has left me wanting, loving and needing a tee-shirt printed like this. Santa did you catch that? (I'm obsessed with my list for Santa!)
I'm looking forward to what's to come with digital printing, hopefully my idea of 'nano-izing' the technology will become streamlined and affordable, that way I can play around with my scanner and get some goofy tee's earning me some "street cred"
Mitch. S xx
Copyright © Mitchell Steed 2009
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