New Horizons: Karina Klucnika

15 May 2012 by Joyce Thornton

Knitwear specialist Karina Klucnika has been very pro-active in seeking new work experience, and is currently interning for Stuart Peters Ltd, one of the UK’s leading knitwear suppliers. She says: “My current role is really varied, from creating knitwear CADs and trend boards to booking in test samples from suppliers, through to attending meetings with fashion buyers. I have learned more about how to communicate my ideas more successfully through 2D drawings, and gained invaluable knowledge of the various stages of garment production - from drawing to stitch and from yarn development to manufacturing. It is a very fast paced environment and I am always creating new pieces.

Karina Klucnika, recent work

“I really like the dynamic of my job - always doing something different, working on various collections at the same time. It has helped to keep my ideas current. In my personal work, I continue to develop my own projects - however, I want to have more time to play around, explore design possibilities and experiment more with raw materials, as this is where my passion lies.”

Looking back on her Texprint experience, Karina says: “Being selected for Texprint gave me confidence and assured me that I was doing the right thing by following my love for textiles. My work has been featured in the media and I met some really great, very talented people along the way – it’s a great honour to be part of Texprint’s alumni.”

Karina Klucnika, recent work

Karina’s advice to new graduates is clear: “Try to do as much work experience as possible. It will help you to gain and develop skills you won't gather at university, and enable you to make new contacts within the industry. You have to be pro-active, keep a positive attitude and be disciplined to pursue your goals.”

http://www.keikei.co.uk/

Article tags: knit (15), texprint 2011 (31), alumni (37), fashion (29)

Emma Shipley: Blogging for Browns

11 May 2012 by Editor

Legendary London store Browns, known for their support of the very best international designers and innovators, snapped up designs from Emma Shipley’s scarf collection following her graduation from the Royal College of Art.

An invitation to do in-store staff training, highlighting the inspiration, design process, materials and manufacturing of her brand, was followed by the suggestion that she become Browns guest blogger for a week - the latest in a prestigious line-up of guest bloggers on the Browns website including Mark Fast, Yasmin Kianfar, and Naomi Smart from British Vogue.

Emma delivering her scarves to Browns, London

Since graduating, and winning Texprint’s 2011 Pattern Award, Emma has enjoyed a whirlwind of experiences.

She launched her scarf label at London Fashion Week, in the exhibition at Somerset House; showing a new collaboration of bejewelled silk scarves with jeweller Tomasz Donocik.

Wolf and Badger in Notting Hill, London, a store specialising in promoting emerging designers, now stock Emma’s scarves.  They are also displaying and selling prints of her fascinating and intricate drawings.

Taking a completely different tack, Emma has been working on interior projects with automotive companies including Jaguar Land Rover, some of which will launch in the autumn, and has just taken part in VF Corporation’s Innovation Summit in North Carolina, USA, where she was commissioned to create an installation piece.

Most recently, Emma was confirmed as one of the winners of the recent Who’s Next Premiere Classe Young Designers Contest, winning the opportunity to exhibit at the fair in Paris in July, to coincide with Paris Haute Couture Week. Emma will also be showing at Scoop, the boutique tradeshow showcasing emerging, established and directional fashion collections at the Saatchi Gallery, London, in July.

We find Emma’s experiences over the past ten months to be yet another example of the inspirational ways in which exciting young textile designers can apply their skills, often exploring different aspects of their work in quite unexpected ways.

www.emmashipley.com  / Tumblr / Twitter

New Horizons: Amy Jo Lewis

09 May 2012 by Joyce Thornton

Weave specialist Amy Jo Lewis credits her 2011 Texprint experience as a catalyst for the launch of her exciting and varied career. “Texprint has been a wonderful platform from which to make connections and be exposed to opportunities that would otherwise be hard to come by. Among other contacts made, my internship with high end Italian weaving company Taiana (Tessitura Taiana Virgilio) in Como, Italy, where I worked as a textile designer for two months, was the most valuable and enjoyable experience. I learnt an enormous amount, as well as making unforgettable friends and contacts - I didn’t want to leave! I will hopefully be working with them again for their next collection on a freelance basis.”

At present, Amy Jo has a selection of her work on display at the new Aston Martin Showroom, Park Lane, London. In addition, her collaboration with designer Josefine Jarzombek has resulted in new garments, which will go on display in September as part of the Woolmark Campaign for Wool at The Mansion House, London. This project developed from her success at Indigo, Paris where she was highly commended for the 2011 Texprint Woolmark prize.

Amy Jo now combines her freelance design work with her role as a visiting lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, where she teaches second year weavers, together with print and embroidery students for a live group project with the German scarf company, Fraas. Amy Jo tells us, “I thoroughly enjoy combining teaching with my own creative practice - It’s wonderful seeing the student’s work develop and helping them with familiar problems that I myself have faced as a textile student.“

Momo Wang’s Third Hand Collection

04 May 2012 by Editor

Designer Momo Wang (Texprint 2011) has alerted Texprint to her latest collection, called "The Third Hand".  These are clothes and accessories that Momo has bought second-hand and which she has up-cycled in her typically imaginative mixed-media way, becoming the ‘third hand’ to give them a whole new life.

Momo, are you selling the collection?  There are 12 outfits in all, and currently I don’t want sell them because they cannot be reproduced.  Some of the accessories I might sell on Etsy.com later.  I recently had two exhibitions in Beijing, and also held a workshop to teach people how to up-cycle second-hand clothes, it all went very well.

Where were they made?  They were all made in my hometown Jinzhou in China. I bought all the clothes and materials from local second-hand markets there. The market is very cool.

Where were the film and look book shot?  In a farmer's house and the mountains near my hometown, in a very small and beautiful village outside the city.  View the video...

Momo, we love the idea of 'third hand' - any more thoughts or comments on your inspirations?  Are you planning to regularly create one-off collections like this?  The basic idea is to do what I can to refresh, renew, re-animate precious second-hand materials, and eventually deliver the beauty in them by my realization, and eventually have more and more people doing the same, or at least thinking similarly. A French philosopher once talked about third hand, Jacques Derrida. I like hands.

One-off is not really the major point, it is just that how I create makes it easier to have just one-off. I am happy with it, but I think I am open for other ways of working, such as, say, the conventional way; also, if it is possible, I don't think it is a bad idea to review my past collections and perhaps redo the projects.

Article tags: texprint 2011 (31), mixed media (23), accessories (14), sustainability (4)