zine akuatextiles
Black Britain A personal project into finding the self. An amalgamation of West African heritage and the young black Brit subculture. What reminds us of our roots that are still prevalent in England? Hairstyles, music and dress. How does this relate to textiles? The colour palette and pattern drapes around African heritage but in a western style of haute couture fashion for womenswear and childrenswear.
p u s a l u l t r c e t h a i r e g
Photo by Arsyah
Design Approach All of these designs shown have been dyed and screen-printed by myself. The materials include silk satin, silk organza and bamboo silk. The concept behind these printed fabrics was sculptural forms and layering of prints. I found that the periwinkle organza sample highlights this. A combination of acid dyes and foiling has been used to evoke a subtle print, followed by a screen-printed laser-cut net made of bamboo silk.
Testing
Fabric Dyeing
Collection
Dyes for Printing
Fabric dyeing is one of my
With these test samples, I
When testing for
favourite parts of creating textiles, as it is one of the
also wanted to observe the designs to see how
composition styles and motifs, I found that a navy
main factors in screen printing. I found that
they look like a collection, thinking about the balance
reactive dye (used for cellulose fibres) made the
different fabrics will hold the same colour slightly
of colour, scale and variety.
dye bleed out and stain the fabric. However, Acid
differently, but I found it gave it variety and interest,
dyes (used on protein fibres) were always
for example, the organza and cotton.
consistent and gave a lovely clean print.
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Creating mood/concept boards is my favourite aspect of textile design, being able to collate lots of research and secondary information. However, the moodboard above is primarily my own work that evokes the idea of haute couture womenswear/ childrenswear fashion. My design process usually takes a more unusual route. I like to make collages of my artwork to form fashion illustrations, in which I then ‘print’ the illustration onto fabric. It encourages me to create more unusual designs that are less likely to have already been seen. Using a range of drawing media also allows me to design a variety of texture and colour, such as oil pastel and paint for dense colours.
Photo by Holger Kilumets
I created the artwork (on the left) on paper using acrylic paints and oil pastel. In preparation for digital printing, I had to edit the artwork on photoshop as a print test showed that it was overly pigmented, and looked nothing like the artwork. It has been digitally printed onto silk viscose. The fashion illustrations to created more designs and colour proportions.
Sublimation Printing This fabric sample was inspired by Matisse and Bonnard and their use of pattern and colour. The process was a sublimation print of mock silk and screenprinted foiling over the top. Sublimation is a good way of printing as I find it the most accurate representation of the painted design.
I went to do some market research at Dover Street market in London for types of garment shapes and aesthetics. I took interest in fashion designers such as Simone Rocha, Miu Miu and particularly Cecilie Bahnsen. I tried on the ‘Fenja Dress’ by Bahnsen and it was stunning. The open back gave a superfeminine shape to the garment as well as breathability for Spring/Summer. Fabric: Poly/cotton Price: £1690
A C N E
Contextual Research Observing colour, garment form and fabric choice.
Hand drawn design on silk viscose. Drawing media included, paint, oil pastel, markers and collage. This was a large-scale placement print idea.
Cross-dyed silk viscose using screen-printed Devoré.
Acid dye screen print on hand dyed silk organza/ silk satin.
1. 1. (Headscarf)Screen printed hand dyed silk organza, with laser cut screen printed bamboo silk appliqued on. 2. 2. (Dress) Digital print and Devoré.
Hand drawn digital print design on silk twill, inspired by one of my fashion illustrations
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zine Kelis Akua-Tima Darko