The design of textile surfaces
A textile is a cloth or fabric made from a network of natural or artificial fibers. It can be woven or knitted, crocheted, felted, or knotted. Textiles can satisfy an enormous range of requirements from the strictly utilitarian to purely decorative, they can be extremely strong and durable or delicate and fragile. The cultural significance of textile designs, as well as the techniques used to produce them, can be traced back thousands of years.
The design of textile surfaces that have been woven, knitted, felted, and so on, has a history that dates back many centuries. The production of weaving (which has been dated to the early Stone Age based on impressions left in fragments of clay) went hand in hand with a desire for ornamentation by means of patterns (an individual motif repeated). The possibilities for applying a design to a textile surface are diverse: printing (woodblock, wax resist, roller, silkscreen, tiedye), embroidery (including beads and sequins), and appliqué (from fabric to feathers), to name a few of the most common processes.
The process of weaving also offers design possibilities. There are three basic types of weave: plain or tabby weave (one over, one under calico, organza, canvas, taffeta); twill (two or more over, one or more under with a steplike offset making a diagonal pattern denim, gabardine, tweed, chino); and satin or atlas (a warp-dominated weave four or more over, one under and a two to eight thread offset, yielding a slippery, smooth fabric with a shiny and a dull side). Each has a different surface structure resulting from right-angled intersections of warp (the lengthwise threads in the loom) and weft (the threads inserted crosswise to the warp). By combining and varying these three basic types and their derivations, it is possible to produce a large number of structures, both one after the other and next to one another. Velvet, plush, and terry are among the weaves that introduce a third dimension: the upright tuft.
Using warp threads of different colors or inserting colored warp threads results in lengthwise and crosswise stripes, respectively; single warp or weft threads of a different color can produce other geometrical patterns, including checks. Figurative patterns (which date back to about 2000 BC) were made possible by an elaborate process: a dobby loom, for which the “draw boy” raised/pulled the warp threads according to a specific system. All of the hand processes for producing textiles have been mechanized over the past three centuries. Industrialization began in the mid-eighteenth century (the first spinning machine, the Spinning Jenny, appeared in 1767 and the first mechanical loom in 1787). The invention of the Jacquard loom, named after its designer, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, made it possible to produce colorfully patterned and figurative weaves mechanically. In the industrial era, patterns ceased to be the unique assets of a weaver or printer but were created by specially trained pattern designers. There continued to be artists who produced patterns for textile products (not just fabrics but embroidery, carpets, and tapestries), but for a long time they were not identified by name.
The first training center for pattern designers was established in the silk factory in Lyons in the early nineteenth century. In the mid-nineteenth century, the suitable and contemporary form of a pattern began to be discussed. William Morris (Arts & Crafts) and Christopher Dresser made use of medieval motifs for their designs of decorative fabrics, tapestries, and carpets, and translated the old formal idiom into a contemporary form that took into account the two-dimensional principles of textiles. On the European continent, in studios and workshops like the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops 1903) and Deutscher Werkbund, the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, was pursued, and textiles (both household textiles and clothing fabrics) were incorporated into this. Until that time, artists (such as Raoul Dufy and Sonia Delauney) or architects (Henry van de Velde and Josef Hoffmann) had provided the designs for patterns, but the Bauhaus in Weimar and later Dessau trained the first industrial textile designers (including Gunta Stçlzl, Anni Albers, and Hajo Rose). The Bauhaus also experimented with especially tightly woven yarns (known as Eisengarn, literally, iron yarn) and other synthetic materials like cellophane.
At the Bauhaus, there were no pattern designs for printed fabrics (printed patterns were considered ornamentation additional to weaving); weaving and using colored weft threads were the only methods used to create patterns for the surface design. That was not the case in Russia, where artists such as Ludmilla Popova created special printed patterns (which were particularly inexpensive) with political messages and images of tractors and airplanes for the masses. In Krefeld in the mid-1930s (1932–38), the Hçhere Fachschule für textile Flächenkunst (Advanced Technical School for Two- Dimensional Textile Arts) was established, with Johannes Itten as its director. In 1938 it was turned into a master class directed by Georg Muche, having been absorbed by the Textilingenieurschule Krefeld (now the Hochschule Niederrhein). There, as at the Bauhaus, weaving patterns were created based on weaves and colored weft threads, but they also produced new types of printed fabrics with painted surfaces and glow-inthe- dark pigments. Not only artificial dyes but also the first artificial yarns had appeared by the end of the nineteenth century.
Until then, all fibers had been naturally occurring, derived from plants (flax had been made into linen, cotton used for voiles, cambric and calico) or animals (wool from sheep for serge, suiting and tweed as well as rarer or more precious fibers such as camelhair, cashmere, angora from rabbits, mohair from goats, silk from silkworm larvae and alpaca). Artificial silk (viscose) was one of the main attractions at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889. Viscose (cellulose extracted from wood by means of sodium hydroxide) was the first synthetic fabric (1884) and it was followed by man-made threads produced from synthetic materials: nylon, the first commercially successful synthetic polymer (1935), polyester (1941), acrylic (1942), and spandex or elastane (1959). Synthetic fibers did not have the same properties as natural ones, such as the ability to absorb moisture, be permeable to air and so on, but they had different features, including being tear-resistant or wrinkle-free.
In contrast to natural fibers, they could be produced directly without extensive preparatory phases, and were considerably cheaper and more versatile in terms of use. Meanwhile, the productivity of weaving was increased by further mechanizing the weaving process (inserting the weft thread by means of a jet of water or, later, air). The rising demand for textiles could be met in this way from the mid-twentieth century onward, and this accelerated fashion trends (Fashion Design, Trend) in the clothing sector. Colors and patterns changed every season, reflective of an increasing preference for printed fabrics.
The technical preparations were not as elaborate as for woven patterns, but here too technical innovations accelerated the production process (screen printing was patented in the United States in 1907 and rotary screen printing was introduced in the 1960s). In 1940s London, Zika and Lida Ascher brought together experimental techniques with artistic design, screen printing designs by Henry Moore, Matisse, and Jean Cocteau to produce collections of high-quality silk scarves. The surfaces were distinguished by elaborate weaving structures and pastose, together with the flexible application of color. After the Second World War, working with designers became more popular in the case of household textiles, as well.
Textile designers trained at the Arts & Crafts schools of the prewar period shaped the corporate image or founded their own companies: Tulipan of Tea Ernst in Germany, Marimekko (1951) in Finland, Lucienne and Robin Day in England, Fritz Hansen and Alvar Aalto in Denmark, and Florence Knoll in the United States. The Deutscher Werkbund experimented with a Wohnstudio (living studio) in Berlin to create models for contemporary living that responded to the frequently changing textile trends, as people wanted to be fashionable in their homes as well as in their dress.
Whereas up until the 1950s textile designers had typically followed the centuries-old tradition of creating floral patterns, they increasingly began to take their lead from contemporary art, creating emphatically linear, geometric, and psychedelic designs inspired by artists such as Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Victor Vasarely. The oil crisis of 1972–73 and the general growth of environmental awareness triggered a transformation that was felt in all aspects of daily life. The sense that there had been a loss of quality due to mass production led to a return to the crafts and to individuality.
Several exhibitions (for example, De main de maître, in Paris in 1988) addressed the cultural legacy of textiles and their associated techniques. Old craft techniques were increasingly employed during this period; small quantities of fabric were produced on hand looms, yarn was dyed and patterns printed with natural colors, bleaching was done by traditional methods.
The British designer Georgina von Etzdorf worked for a full year to produce her hand-printed fabrics featuring rich colors, abstract patterns, and natural fibers such as velvet, chiffon, and silk. This return to traditional methods also led to an increased awareness of the tactile and other sensory qualities of weaving.
Natural fibers began to be preferred and new structures were produced. In Japan, Makiko Minagawa experimented with simulating the character of handwoven fabrics by computer. His compatriot Junichi Arai (who worked for Issey Miyake, among others) used unusually strong yarn to give his woven fabrics an extremely stretched structure to lively effect. The computerization of the textile industry that had begun in the late 1970s was increasingly exploited by designers: new and old pattern elements were digitalized to produce new composite patterns, as found, for example, in the work of the French designer Nathalie du Pasquier.
The use of plotters made it possible to apply different elements and groups of patterns in quick succession to the fabric. The American Jack Lenor Larsen, by contrast, worked primarily with woven patterns and found inspiration in non-European motifs produced in new colors. The computerization of the Jacquard loom, which had already produced a revolution in patterning two centuries earlier, concluded this development by making digital weaving a possibility. In recent years, the areas in which textiles are employed have increased: in addition to traditional areas such as clothing (athletic attire and sportswear have made particularly innovative use of synthetic and functional fabrics) and household products (featuring transparency or luster, and easy-care properties), exciting new developments in textile design have arisen in the fields of architecture (inflatable halls) and in medicine (antibacterial fabrics and woven materials for heart transplants).
Many of the most important elements of textile design cannot be perceived through sight alone, and much is embedded invisibly within the fibers of a given fabric. Some aspects can be perceived by touch, such as laminated surfaces, bubbled structures alongside delicately worked velvety areas, or applications of flexible paint. Some characteristics can only be appreciated when wearing a garment: protection from cold or heat; wind- and rainproof materials that are nonetheless permeable to skin moisture; protection from ultraviolet radiation; or blocking perspiration odor while releasing perfumes (tiny molecules in swollen fibers). Even while taking these aspects into account, textile designs must simultaneously continue to fulfill aesthetic expectations.