In the past twelve months Digital Fabrics has grown and developed, thanks in part to our valued customers and as such will be moving on to bigger and better things! In a couple of weeks time (from November 18) you’ll find us just around the corner from Huntley St in our new digs Unit 6, 1a Coulson St, Erskineville.
Our phone number stays the same as does the great quality printing and service you know and trust at Digital Fabrics.
As you all know, last week we held a women’s scarf exhibition in conjunction with St George TAFE students fashion show, where students presented their super creative final collections. Every corner of students dedicated space was well thought through, fabric design, garment construction, space styling and branding etc . Here are few names that we would like to share with you.
Rebecca Harding
Jessica Reynolds
Kamellia Allaf
Last week we exhibited all the scarves St George TAFE Fashion Design students Designed for our Local Produce scarf competition, On the opening night we announce the winner and 2 runners up. For those who couldn’t make it
The winner of our “local Produce Scarf competition” is:
Madison Watson-Hicks
1st runner up:
Katelyn Phillips
2nd runner up:
Natalie Hick
Judging these scarves was not an easy task. Student did an excellent job executing their ideas into scarf design, you’re all winners in our eyes.
Scarves are now on sale at Limelight Gallery in Central, Sydney.
After some time deliberating over the beautiful print submissions we had to choose our winner and 2 runner ups. What we were looking for was a overall repeating print with unique elements that would translate well into their overall collection designs. Students quickly realised that when digitally printing even a pixel can make a difference, here are our winners.
The Winner is:
Sarah Smith
We chose Sarah Smith’s design as the winner for her unique hand drawn designs, inspired by the crusades.
1st Runner up is:
Malani Biasetto
We loved the collage of texture displayed on Malani Biasetto’s repeating print. We thought it was a great way to display an array of prints inspired by Morrocan tiles
2nd Runner up is:
Jacqueline Wong
Jacqueline Wongs repeat came in 2nd runner up for using an image of a shipwreck inspired by a nautical theme into a textured all over print.
Along with our competition with TAFE we were also asked to contribute to the 2nd year Fashion Design capsule ranges.
We wanted students to build on their knowledge about printing and how to get a print to repeat. We gave students colour palettes to work with and asked that they design a repeat print to go with their collection.We received 22 submissions which we had the very difficult task of choosing the winner and 2 runners up. Here are the 22 designs, which are your favourites?
Amy Stivicic
Rebecca Strickland
Olivia Gow
Maysam Naaman
Malani Biasetto
Madison Watson-Hicks
Kristy Micallef
Keone Raiwi
Keang Tong
Katelyn Phillips
Hikaru Todoroki
Jacqueline Wong
Gemma Della Bosco
Despina Gregoriou
Cerrie Chan
Bing Dimaporo
Bianca Makdessi
Belinda Ireland
Wan Li Li
Sarah Smith
Rebecca King
Last week Digital Fabrics was asked by St George TAFE to exhibit the scarves their students designed for a competition for us.
For those who couldn’t make it we took the liberty of photographing our space for all to see. What do you think?
You Design We Print
Digital Fabrics Exhibition at the MUSE, ULTIMO
Printed scarves on show
printed samples table
wall of printed scarves
We are kicking off this week with images from our scarf photo-shoot in which we tried to capture an amazing scarfs that were designed by fashion students from St George TAFE for our “Local Produce” woman’s scarf SS14 competition.
Here we go: model our Barbara Brayovic, photographer Maria Tanygina and you are be the judge.
All scarfs were printed and made at Digital Fabrics.
This pretty tote is one of the examples of what we do at Digital Fabrics. Made last week from scratch, designed, hand painted, printed and made at Digital Fabrics.
We live in a very “international” age where it’s pretty impossible to live in any part of this country and not have access to information about a plethora of subjects and issues spanning the globe. And whether or not you pay much attention to it all or a little bit, at some stage you’re bound to come across sign posts for key factors that essentially impact Australians and their economy.
For example, perhaps up until this year you had paid little to no attention to where the clothes on your back were actually produced and then there was the absolutely devastating building collapse of the clothing factory in Bangladesh.
Perhaps this tragedy has highlighted some significant areas for consideration including what is the best production practice for Australian fashion houses. This brings us to print runs produced off shore, predominantly in China but increasingly in Korea and India, compared to printing on our own sunny shores. Should we be pushing for one over the other or is there a happy medium that can be forged with cooperation from members of the TCFA industry bodies and government?
Clearly price point is a huge factor and although the minimum wage for factory workers in these countries is well below what we would consider acceptable for ourselves, if we were to take away their source of income altogether by ceasing production completely, what does that do to their livelihood? And yet to support innovation and growth within Australia for both screen and digital printing is to continue to promote our own economic growth with an increased work force and encourage companies to stay local.
You can’t deny that China in particular has a rich history of fabric innovation being the first to cultivate and produce silk. Neither can you dismiss India and her surrounds for their impact on international printing trends and practices. But it would be great if right here in our own backyard we were given the opportunity to establish a stable and reliable fashion printing industry on a large scale.
The printing that is currently offered here in Australia has some key advantages and should be taken advantage of. Companies can deal directly with printers giving them a greater amount of control from initial strike off to full bulk runs. This in turn reduces time pressures by limiting the back and forth waiting for shipments or time zone constraints. Minimums are generally lower which means sampling can be produced with a lower risk and greater flexibility of having multiple print styles. And on an environmental note, the freight back and forth overseas is greatly reduced lowering emissions.
So keep up to date on all that international news, live globally, but support Australian industries, print local, print with Digital Fabrics!
Status – As an indication of wealth or opulence, uses the motifs (but not limited to) of gold chains, jewels, animal skins and ornate scroll work often all in combination and in rich vibrant colours.
Checks/Spots/Stripes – patterns of squares, circles and rectangles of varying size, colour and orientation i.e. horizontal/vertical as well as edge definition. A broken or ‘non symmetrical’ circle is still considered a spot.
Scenic/Pictorial – Traditionally called a Toile de Jouy, uses figurative scenes of an illustrative quality (now more photographic) and often with a narrative and generally in a horizontal orientation. Traditionally printed in monochromatic colour on a plain white or ivory ground.
Paisley – Stylised tear drop motif often with abstracted floral elements in accompaniment, now seen with various combinations of many types of fashion prints. Paisley takes its modern name from the Scottish town which saw a great deal of production of these patterns in the 1800’s. These motifs are now most recognisable as Indian or Middle Eastern from where its tradition is embedded.
Tribal/Ethnic – Perhaps more appropriately termed World Cultures, using motifs and elements specific to a nationality or culture with a western interpretation. Popular areas of inspiration are Africa, India and Arabia but also include the folk arts of Eastern Europe and South America. Care must be taken not to use motifs or symbols of a spiritual or special meaning to the culture being used as inspiration.
