end of the year

i have been busy production printing for what seems like forever. it is hard work but the reward of seeing lengths and lengths of hand printed fabric is still worth every broken nail. here are my favorite backing cloth pictures from 2010:

hunting for dinosaurs

everything is everything

the museum of everything, a brilliant collection of miscellaneous objects curated by peter blake. a real circus theme this year, creepy puppets, glass eyed dolls, the bearded lady, dirty embroidery, boxing rats and a fully functioning miniature fairground. so good.

ted willcox embroidery

it had to be horrockses

i recently had a lovely afternoon looking at old photos with my granny. granny brown had so many beautiful printed dresses, of those she hadn't made herself a few special pieces were horrockses. horrockses fashions was established in 1946 as a ready-to-wear women's wear brand and encompassed day, evening and beach wear. horrockses were particularly clever with marketing, regularly advertising in vogue (at the time filled with couture) and being worn by well known models and many in the royal family. dresses were covered in distinctive prints, designed by contemporary artist such as eduardo paolozzi and graham sutherland.

i visited the horrockses exhibition at the fashion and textiles museum (which if you miss look out for the book written by the exhibitions curator christine boydell) filled with great examples from the archives. i particularly liked the bikini and play suits and of course the beautiful prints, my favorites including a green and yellow banana print and crazy 50's atomic styles.

an illustrated fashion advertisement, vogue june 1949

hand painting in the design studio

princess margaret in her horrockses dress 1956. fabric designed by louise le brocquy

harry and mike

after learning about navajo weaving i read about a pioneering couple. harry and mike goulding founded a trading post in monument valley during the 1920's. trading woven wool blankets and artifacts with the navajo's linking them to the rapidly changing world. during the late 30's harry and mike travelled to los angeles to meet with film director john ford. many films were subsequently shot in the navajo reserve including the western 'stagecoach' staring john wayne and claire trevor.

john wayne and claire trevor starring in stagecoach 1938

harry trading with a navajo woman wearing a pendelton blanket

navajo weaving

a few weeks ago i was lent an amazing book about monument valley, containing these great photos of navajo weaving.

blankets and rugs were woven in wool, coloured using natural dyes (later substituted for modern dyes to allow greater range of colour). navajo weaving is highly distinctive and certain patterns can be used to trace the time and place an item was woven.

blankets have a particular importance to the navajo population. used both every day and ceremonially, they also hold value and were used for trading. in 1909 pendleton woolen mills manufactured their own trading blankets which were sold to the navajo people. pendleton designer joe rawnsley researched colours and patterns popular to tribes. these were then translated using modern weaving techniques.

the pendleton blankets were highly prized, the last photo show a navajo woman wearing a pendleton blanket in the 1940's.

unique

printing for topshop unique was so much fun this season. delicate sheer pieces sprayed, printed and foiled. made to layer the skin and float around beautifully. this was a real girly project and i have to say i've been won round: my favorite piece... the foiled bikini.

gray days

so exciting to be part of the louise gray show for s/s 2011, and of course proud of the amazing prints. my favorites are the tasseled harnesses and bleached out three colour repeats. here are the show pieces all hand printed by us in london:

prints please

here are some swatches of the prints that i sampled for louise gray's s/s 2011 collection, pretty intense! (click to get better view)

70's sanderson

following my post on the sanderson exhibition i did a little exploring through my magazine collection and found these great photos used by sanderson during the 70's to advertise their designs. i particularly like the poppy design in the middle with great bold colours and scale.

summer by the seaside...

francis alÿs

the other week i visited the francis alÿs exhibition at the tate modern. a show spanning painting, film, installation, animation, sculpture and drawing the bredth alone is inspirational. i particularly love his dreamy mark making style, the results witty and melancholic:

kerpow

photos of the dress sample, screen printed for whistles way back at christmas. there are always great print designs at whistles and this dress has my favorite name ever: kryptonite dress.

iconic imagery

Anonymous, Une jeunesse que l'avenir inquiete trop souvent

(a youth disturbed too often by the future)

top work

these are photos of the tattoo screen print that were sampled for the new a/w 'dark nouveau' collection for topshop. in the same collection i also worked on some devoré samples which i will post up when they are available online.