Types of Fashion Prints – part one

Fashion prints are as trend driven as colour and garment style. Fashion prints are becoming an increasingly utilised tool in a fashion designer’s tool kit.  Therefore although the following is a general run down of the various types of fashion prints, depending on the season and year, some maybe more popular than others.

Floral – associated with any plant form depicted whether it be a flower bud or tree. There are names descriptive of the scale of the floral such as Liberty or the style such as Ditsy.

Geo – Geometric prints range from colour blocking random shapes to the tessellating patterns inspired by Islamic art. Geo prints can also fall under Abstract or Graphic.

Graphic/Abstract – Abstract is used to describe unrecognisable forms and motifs, mostly because they cannot be described any other way. Graphic is descriptive of the boldness of a print. Refers to predominantly modern designs and sometimes goes hand in hand with another of the types listed here i.e. Graphic Floral.

Animal/Skin – Printed replicas of various animal skins not necessarily the full body of the animal itself i.e. leopard, snake, alligator, zebra etc.

Conversational – Recognisable images such as everyday objects and animals generally taken out of familiar context or placed in conjunction with out of context images i.e. human legs carrying houses. Often ‘cartoon’ in rendering and with a whimsical feel, also called novelty prints.