Million Designer Wear

Stencil printing The art of stenciling on textile fabrics has been practised from time immemorial by the Japanese, and found increasing employment in Europe for certain classes of decorative work on woven goods during the late 19th century. A pattern is cut from a sheet of stout paper or thin metal with a sharp-pointed knife, the uncut portions representing the part that will be left uncoloured. The sheet is laid on the fabric and colour is brushed through its interstices. The peculiarity of stenciled patterns is that they have to be held together by ties. For instance, a complete circle cannot be cut without its centre dropping out, so its outline has to be interrupted at convenient points by ties or uncut portions. This limitation influences the design. For single-colour work a stenciling machine was patented in 1894 by S. H. Sharp. It consists of an endless stencil plate of thin sheet steel that passes continuously over a revolving cast iron cylinder. The cloth to

Methods of printing A perrotine printing machine The  perrotine  is a block-printing machine invented by Perrot of Rouen in 1834, and practically speaking is the only successful mechanical device ever introduced for this purpose. For some reason or other it has rarely been used in  England , but its value was almost immediately recognized on the Continent, and although block printing of all sorts has been replaced to such an enormous extent by roller printing, the perrotine is still largely employed in French, German and Italian works. Operation The machines mode of action is roughly as follows: Three large blocks (3 ft. long by 3 to 5 in. wide), with the pattern cut or cast on them in relief, are brought to bear successively on the three faces of a specially constructed printing table over which the cloth passes (together with its backing of printers blanket) after each impression. The faces of the table are arranged at right angles to each other, and the blocks

Methods of printing There are seven distinct methods presently used to impress coloured patterns on cloth: 1] Woodblock printing on textiles  is the process of  printing   patterns  on  textiles , usually of  linen ,  cotton  or  silk , by means of incised  wooden  blocks. It is the earliest, simplest and slowest of all methods of  textile printing . Block printing by hand is a slow process. It is, however, capable of yielding highly artistic results, some of which are unobtainable by any other method. ↑Design for a hand woodblock printed textile, showing the complexity of the blocks used to make repeating patterns in the later 19th century.  Tulip and Willow  by William Morris, 1873. Preparing the block Woodblocks for textile printing may be made of  box ,  lime ,  holly ,  sycamore , plane or  pear   wood , the latter three being most generally employed. They vary in size considerably, but must always be between two and three inches thick, otherwise they are liab

                                            PRINTS The World's Oldest preserved garment, discovered by Flinders Petrie, is a "highly sophisticated" linen shirt from a First Dynasty Egyptian tomb at Tarkan, c. 3000 BC: "the shoulders and sleeves have been finely pleated to give form-fitting trimness while allowing the wearer room to move. The small fringe formed during weaving along one edge of the cloth has been placed by the designer to decorate the neck opening and side seam. Preparation of cloth for printing Cloth is prepared by washing and bleaching. For a coloured ground it is then dyed. The cloth has always to be brushed, to free it from loose nap, flocks and dust that it picks up whilst stored. Frequently, too, it has to be sheared by being passed over rapidly revolving knives arranged spirally round an axle, which rapidly and effectually cuts off all filaments and knots, leaving the cloth perfectly smooth and clean and in a condition fit to rece

                                         THE FIVE THINGS I WANT TO START WITH There are considerable overlaps between the terms clothing-/garment-, textile- and fashion industry. The clothing sector is concerned with all types of clothes, from fashion to uniforms, e-textiles and work wear. Textile industry is less concerned with the fashion aspect but produces the fabrics and fibres  that are required for tailoring. The fashion industry closely follows - and sets - fashion trends to always supply the latest in non-functional clothing. RETAIL TALK In the Middle Ages or 16th and 17th centuries, a cloth merchant was one who owned or ran a cloth (often wool) manufacturing or wholesale import or export business. A cloth merchant might additionally have owned a number of draper's shops. Cloth was extremely expensive and cloth merchants were often very wealthy. A number of Europe's leading banking dynasties such as Medici and Berenberg built their original fortunes as c