I N S P I R AT I O N P E O P L E
Tex
Savvy
THREE INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS COMMUNICATE THEIR AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
Saana Baker
When Saana Baker took an aptitude test in high school, she was told she’d make an excellent mortician. She recalls thinking “how depressing” and believes she was pegged as such because she looked a bit goth plus she said she liked to work with her hands.
Baker studied textile design at FIT. Figuring to pursue the more fashion-oriented print design side, she instead discovered a love for wovens. Her first job was in the design department of a mill that specialized in upholstery fabrics. Her second was for Schumacher. When she moved back to California — Baker is from Berkeley — she started working with Barbara Barry on her collection of textiles. That relationship lasted ten years.
Fast forward to a typical day at school that would set her trajectory. She was doodling — working with her hands — when a fellow student peed at her scrawl and remarked, “That’d look great on a t-shirt.” Right then, Baker had an epiphany. “In that moment I realized someone is responsible for all the patterns in the world.”
Today Baker lives in San Francico. She is a fabric consultant, ghost designing collections for other designers like Jiun Ho whose sixth collection she is presently working on. Baker is also the creative force behind The Textile Eye, a quarterly trend report launched in 2019 that she calls her love letter to the fabric industry.
Fabric design consultant/editor of The Textile Eye
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D E S I G N E R S T O D AY
Photos of Saana and The Textile Eye: Robyn Willson
PASSION FOR TEXTILES THROUGH PRINT, PHOTOGRAPHY
