Patterns and Print

As a designer I am increasingly becoming more interested in patterns and print. Whilst designing I have found myself wanting to include patterns and printing my designs more and more. What I like about them is that they bring colour and interest to what could otherwise be a very dull design. I would really like to include prints/pattern in my design work for this collection of fall/winter as I think it is really nice to have a bit of colour and interest in winter clothes which are often dull and quite boring!
I found this article in one of the latest RUSH magazines, it looks at the designers Peter Piloto and Christopher De Vos, who are behind the label Peter Piloto. They use digital printing and I find them really inspiring and forward thinking...
"Chris and Peter are known for their prints, and deservedly so. They've really pushed the frontier of what print can do, and they keep re-thinking it" Sarah Mower, British Fashion Godmother.

"Its really important for us to push the print world forward" explains De Vos. "The starting point is usually from nature" ..."In digital printing there are endless amounts of colours and arrangements"...


Their prints are abstract and alluring, the colours amazing. I really love what they do.

I did a bit of online research and found that Prada and its diffusion line - Miu Miu - were very much print focused this fall/winter. I have put together a page displaying their colours and print styles. The prints were a range of geometric's and floral's but all in bright/solid and quite garish colours. The Miu Miu collection was very much 'pants' focused which I really liked. As a person I am not one to wear skirts often, if at all - and I love the idea of combining a masculine style pant with feminine prints or colours. These prints are all very repetitive and 'trippy' in a way - this is because of the composition and colour choices. I think it is unlikey that your everyday person would wear the matching pants and coat, as this could come across a little 'clown' like, but I can defintiely see people wearing one or the other as a statement. I think that they are a great way to cheer up winter.

I also looked into one of our very own designers Karen Walker. Who, I have noted, has been producing a lot of prints the past few seasons. As a designer I am really inspired by Karen Walkers work, I love her tom-boyish yet tailored and feminine style. Her pieces are all so simple but it is the prints and the colours that make them so special and beautiful. I think with a few of my pieces, I would really like to keep the styles simple but make the colours and prints exciting. Her prints are a mixture of geometric's and lots of florals too. Karen Walkers prints compared with Prada and Miu Miu are more girly I feel - but it the cut of the garments that keep the outfits not too girly.

Pages found in a recent Oyster Magazine.. Looking at Floral Print

People wearing prints...