Focus on: Textile trends

Technology is taking fabric into new directions. We round up five future-forward examples.
Posted 12 Jul 14 By Design Indaba Product Design Focus On Comments
3D fabric by the Bouroullec brothers for Kvadrat.
3D fabric by the Bouroullec brothers for Kvadrat.

Textile techonology

 

Aïssa Dione’s textiles seamlessly blend a traditional hand-woven Senegalese technique with a technological edge.

Read more about it here

Three-dimensional texture

Canal, Moraine and Gravel are three new collections of three-dimensional upholstery fabric by Rowan and Erwin Bouroullec for Kvadrat. Constructed using a double jersey knit that gives them depth, the textiles' surfaces appear quilted.

Flip through this fabric lookbook. 

Fantastical fabrication 

Dutch-Mozambican designer Zinzi de Brouwer experiments with materials and technology to create complex knits. Her 2014 Marvelous Realm collection includes snake leather embroidered with pure silk and organic cotton and metallic polyester yarns whose weaves shimmer with a delicate lustre.

Read more about her inspiration here. 

Woven textile wall piece

This woven wall textile by South African fabric label Fabricnation uses remnants of its own printed fabrics to create a pixelated effect. Two prints intersect to create a third pattern.

Read more about this clever design here. 

Flexible wood

Could wood be used as textiles? Dutch deigner Lenneke Langenhuijsen explores the fluidity of this natural fibre, taking her cue from the locals in Tonga.

Read more about her exploration here.  

Watch the Talk with Bouroullec Brothers

More on Product Design