Think Positive Designer Prints

Jade Verticil

Andéol is the very special side proejct of Think Positive designer Emilie Cacace. Her recent lookbook is a record of her time in India, shooting her collection of digitally-printed silk scarves on the beautiful people of the Rajasthani desert.

In the introduction to her lookbook she explains:

Each scarf from Andéol’s collection ‘Vedas Maya’ is created from photographs taken in Guatemala, where the last collection ‘Symmetry in Chaos’ was shot. Everything from textures, textiles, peeling paint, flowers, tiles, people and places were captured to be used as the basis of each print artwork. Andéol is about discovering a new place every year and each collection is an abstract expression of these experiences. By creating each collection from travel photos and keepsakes and taking them on a new adventure, Andéol hopes to reflect the intrinsic spirit of the place that inspired its creation, while exploring somewhere new.

Both India and Guatemala are unique cultures, but often in life when things are right cosmic connections and coincidences arise, if you look hard enough. The ancient Mayan people of Guatemala have predicted a powerful evolutionary change will occur when the earth reaches the end of a great cycle marked by the alignment of the December solstice sun with the Galactic Centre (the rotational centre of the Milky Way) on the 21st December 2012. Their predictions were derived from ancient cosmology, beyond occult superstition or religious prophecy, that are still popular beliefs across Central America.

For the astrologers of the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Vedas, these rare occurrences of alignment were also considered important markers in the Vedic calendar, signifying new periods of transition. That both civilisations recognised the existence of the Galactic Centre with their naked eye (the exact coordinates were not found until 1918) and monitored our periodic alignment is a striking connection between two cultures that had had no contact.

Modern researchers have interpreted these mysterious periods of transition with varying degrees of concern. Many have warned of an impending apocalypse, while others predict a new state of consciousness. Whatever is in store for 2012 Andéol hopes to continue exploring new ways of thinking and expressions of living.

For the rest of her lookbook and collection, click to see (more…)

Swash London Spring Summer 2012

We were beginning to despair that the beautiful illustrated prints of Swash were no more. After a period of inaction on their website they are back with a brand new site – a true reflection of their work and well worth a visit (as you scroll up their prints become animated!). Each garment from the London-based duo is emblazoned with their hand illustrated watercolour placements and repeats, consisitng of flowers, animals and bric-a-brac motifs in incredible detail. Their work is the pefect amalgamation of digital printing technology and the irreplaceable work of the human hand! (more…)

Digital print vanguard Josh Goot, has released the lookbook for his Spring Summer 2012 collection. Floral reflections of budding orchids and blushing roses are placed on the familiar Goot-style structured skirts, dresses and tops, with a mix of baroque print paneling. (more…)

Mselle Keita, 12th July 1969

Malick Sidibé is an African photographer, famous for his documentation of Bamako, Mali, his hometown, from the 1950s to the 1970s. Known as the Eye of Bamako, the story of how he came to be a photographer is one of chance; a series of events that in many ways seem to be the fulfilment of some predetermined destiny.

Sidibé (b.1936) grew up in a peasant village, 300 km outside of town, where his family were animal herders. At a young age Sidibé was chosen by the village chief to attend a white boys school. From there he caught the attention of the Major who sent him to the crafts school of Sudan. In 1957 a local French photographer requested from the school a student to decorate his studio. As the best painter in his class, Malick was chosen. Fascinated with the immediacy of photography, Malick was enthralled with the potential on this new medium. While many photographers would not let their assistants use the camera, Malick’s boss allowed him to take photographs at local African parties, while he would cover the European parties.

The 60s was an exciting time in Mali. Western music – rock, hula-hoop, swing – revolutionised the local social scene. Young African people would hold dances, which Malick was invited to photograph, where they would dance closely till the early hours of the morning. Sometimes there would be up to 4 parties a night, all of which Malick would attend, taking photos to be pinned up at his studio for party goers to purchase the following week.

In the 60s Malick began taking studio portraits, which were a popular social tradition. Many would come with their families and friends to have their portrait taken, often bringing along their most prized possessions–their girlfriends, their motorbike, sometimes even livestock. As one of the very few who had access to photographic technology, Malick recorded the local faces and characters of Mali, who would otherwise have been lost in history.

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Recent holidays to the Swiss Alps have left a lasting impression on both Guillame Henry of Carven and Tsumori Chisato, with both designers incorporating photo placement prints of snowy peaks and chalets for their recent collections. For Carven’s Resort 2012 collection Henry used vintage postcards of the alps, printed on silk, to create shorts, shirts and shift dresses–perhaps a strange choice for a spring collection, but what the hell.

Tsumori Chisato’s took a more literal approach for her Fall 2012 collection. She created a winter wonderland using her own holiday photos of frosted treetops, gondola cable cars and ski runs down snow-covered mountain tops. (In one print Chisato’s shadow remains in the foreground.) The results were digitally printed on jeans, skirts and shift dresses, complete with snow flake embellishments and ski goggle style sunglasses. (more…)

Flying overland, an aerial view provides a thrilling, detached perspective of the world – patterns emerge; colours pop; lines shape; and the world feels smaller and looks more ordered than you may have already thought. Alex S. MacLean is trained as an architect and a pilot. He has covered large areas of terrain all over the world, documenting the relationship between natural and constructed environments. His porfolio covers patterns of land usage, titled ‘Going’, ‘Dwelling’, ‘Playing’, ‘Deserting’, ‘Growing’, and ‘Beaches’ (our favourite). Glittering oceans and colourful beach umbrellas against muted expanses of dry sand. Here is a selection from his ‘Beaches’ series… (more…)

For Fall 2012 Mary Katrantzou, Balenciaga and Peter Pilotto offered a selection of beautiful prints, from classic floral interpretations to those a little more strangely inspired.

Print vanguard Mary Katrantzou looked to the everyday for her Fall 2012 collection. (For her team this involved buying up boxes of yellow school pencils and pink erasers.) Despite a simple concept, the results were far from ordinary. Spoons, typewriter keys, rotary telephone dials and garden hedges were ordered, patterned and reflected as bold placement prints against her structured angular designs. Each season Katrantzou continues to produce a print fantasia, sourcing new inspiration to be translated into an illusory visual feast, theatrical, yet somehow wearable.

For Fall 2012 Balenciaga became Balenciaga Inc.: an eighties, sci-fi inspired office of power-playing business women. In the midst of Ghesquière’s reliable turnout of technical innovation and precisely executed tailoring, silk satin sweater tops, emblazoned with ambiguous slogans like ‘Join a Weird Trip’ and ‘Out of the Blue’ added the essential element of surprise. Citing Steven Spielberg’s 2001 ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Micheal Clayton’ as sources of inspiration, Ghesquière, succeeded in setting the scene for his eighties-anchored projection of a futuristic sterile corporate world, cemented by his choice of location; the 27th floor of an office building in the business district of Paris.

In 2011 Peter Pilotto and design partner Christopher De Vos, journeyed to Asia to meet their sleek and sophisticated fan following. Stopping in Hong Kong and Beijing, the trip was not just a meet and greet, the pair returned with new ideas for their print art, creating their signature crisscross prints from Japanese trucks and Chinese opera masks. But our favourites were the hyper-coloured macro florals resembling the opening of an orchid (in royal blue, purple and grey colourways) and the blooming Asian-native chrysanthemums cradled by electric green foliage.

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THINK VINTAGE PRINT IN 3 COLOUR WAYS

Intricate geometrics have proven to be the leading print for Fall with Miu Miu, Prada, Jonathan Saunders and Aquilano Rimondi leading the way in rich wintery colours like burgundy, eggplant and amber. Traditionally, complex repeats of points, lines and curves are mostly identified with Islamic art. The teachings of the Qur’an preach undivided devotion to Allah; the adulation of humans and animals is prohibited. Although mandates against figural representation in art are not outlined specifically, these teachings were rigidly appropriated by the early leaders of Islam.

Principles of unity, symmetry, order and logic have influenced art and design cultures across the world for centuries. Geometric patterns may have reached their pinnacle in the Islamic world but similar ornamental designs are also evidenced in late antiquity among the Greeks, Romans, and Sasanians in Iran. There is an indirect, yet close connection between these dizzying patterns and the development of mathematics and astronomy. Many artists of these geometric designs were unaware that they were preceding the development of complicated mathematical formulae centuries later. (more…)

Think Vintage Library oriental collections; numbers 205, 681, 687, 2357

Famous for rich brocaded silks figured with traditional flora and fauna iconography, East Asia has a long textile history which has inspired exotic fashion prints since the 1800s. For AW12 Dries Van Noten raided the archives of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, photographing their collection of kimonos and dragon robes. The photographs were then reworked into patched placement prints, carried on from the spliced print arrangements of his SS12 collection. While Proenza Schouler created their own silk brocades fashioned with blooming chrysanthemums and traditional Chinese-style leafed patterns in three different colour ways.

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Laurence Airline is a Parisian-based menswear label that is not only inspired by ethnic textiles, but works to promote and encourage responsible manufacturing practices with local African communities. Their AW 2012 collection is a anomalous mix of Japanese polka dots, Scottish plaid and wax-printed peacock feathers, constructed at their workshop on the Ivory Coast. Designer Laurence Chauvin-Buthaud works onsite, teaching local employers couture sewing techniques. The profits from her collections are invested back into the company, to continue building a stable learning centre, teaching fashion-making skills to help encourage future business.

For their SS 2012 collection Laurence Airline made a beautiful film in collaboration with Under Current magazine, shot in Abidjan, the economic capital of the Ivory Coast.

ABIDJAN: LAURENCEAIRLINE SS/12 from Under/Current magazine on Vimeo.

To view more of the AW12 collection and photos from the workshop…

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