Print Concept Textile View Magazine Issue 117
Design Union were commissioned to produce a print forecast. ‘The Great Refusal’ – an autumn/winter collection.
The trend is Individualism.
We live in a time of exceptional uncertainty. Our age echoes the 80’s _liberal values threatened by new nationalism and the populist vote. Being part of the group no longer works, we have chosen badly, moved in the wrong direction and we cannot win by being whole. The Great Refusal is about the rejection of conformity, normality and the ideal, we want now to live without anxiety and the autocracy of search engines, we need immunity from filters that mirror previous choices and offer only versions of things already experienced.
Creative Director: Eileen Gleeson
Photography: Jane Hilton www.janehilton.com
Creative styling: Design Union team
Hair and Makeup: Natasha Lawes www.natashalawes.com
This filter bubble has cut off new ideas recommending only mediocrity and acquiescence, the stellar is hidden, the view myopic and we cannot gain attention from overfitted consumers who are bored with the same old.
In this post-truth era the individuals and splinter groups will present more discreet ideas in a very broad range of themes, an almost cubist approach to design. Consumers need to feel they can make a choice that identifies them as distinctive or particular from a small clan.
For AW this composition is about sampling patterns with different histories, torn and sectioned then curated and put back together showing the mends. The motif might not be easily described; there is always more than one thing. Clothes have more volume so print needs to spread further.
Colours are intuitive and oscillating, hesitating to commit to entirety, smudges blurs and aura, a union of the senses, reassuringly serene.
To design print we have to move away from the screen, break the algorithm of the browser. Images seem more beautiful when we cannot easily tag. Bypassing the filters gives our idea longevity and value. We are fixated on childhood and mythology, express ourselves like vexed adolescents and then find safety in flowers and nature.
Humour is necessary to cope with this austere future.
We refuse….