Taylor’d with Style
Fetching Florals By JeanAnn Taylor
J
ust like perennial flowers returning year after year in our gardens, floral fashion makes a comeback each spring with energizing and cheerful prints and colors. The floral style trend never gets old or goes out of fashion because simply put, flowers are pretty. Flowers can represent many emotions: playful, edgy, romantic, modern, and feminine are just a few. Floral prints are available on a variety of materials including rayon, cotton, silk, chiffon, leather, and lace. With so many possibilities and ways to create fashionable floral looks, I thought it would be interesting to identify some of the many types of floral fabrics. Asian florals are credited with being the first floral fabric. During the 12th century, peonies, carnations, and cherry blossoms were embroidered on silk fabric along with images of birds, butterflies, leaves, and trees. These nature-themed designs are now printed on everything from satin to duck. The coloring of Asian prints is often deep, rich, and sometimes has a mystical energy. Abstract floral designs represent the natural flower in a surreal way. The use of unusual shapes and colors may only allude to true flowers. Botanical florals depict blooms in a realistic manner. Some prints even have words included to name or describe the flowers. Calico is a woven, cotton fabric originally from Calicut, India. The fabric is frequently printed with a small, all-over Page 16 | 50+ Living | May 2019
flower print which has resulted in the name “calico” becoming synonymous with the cotton fabric. Calico actually refers to the cloth, not the design. The flowers frequently printed on the solid color background may have only two colors or a blend of many hues. The design can be bold and bright, or soft and subdued. Calico has many uses including clothing, tote bags, home decor, crafts, and quilts. Ditsy florals. I traveled down a rabbit hole in order to decipher and define this relatively new way to describe tiny, floral prints. The flowers in a ditsy print are small and scattered about. The pattern is pleasing to the eye and appears to be random. Using “ditsy” to describe the floral print probably originated from the same expression used to describe someone who is silly or scatterbrained. Unlike calico, ditsy refers to the design not the fabric. Festive florals are adorned with holiday symbols of poinsettias, berries, and ribbon. The colors are often traditional red, pine green, and gold. Modern colors of lime green, bright pink, and silver are becoming more popular. Liberty florals were developed by Arthur Liberty. His long career in textiles eventually led him to handprint un-dyed fabrics in florals, paisleys, and abstract designs. The “Liberty Prints” with small flowers have muted colors with little or no empty space in between the blooms. The fabric is available in silks and corduroy, with the most popular choice being Tana Lawn cotton. The drapability and silky feel of Tana Lawn makes the fabric ideal for dresses, blouses, and lightweight skirts.
