Premier Vision

Earlier this year I went on a study trip to Paris. It was a lot of fun, but I was actually rather disappointed in Indigo. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Direction By Indigo: February 2009

Various companies were clearly thinking about sustainability, some – like Design Works International or Paper & Cloth – through the use of digital print, which is less chemically harmful to the environment. Others, like Beyond Retro and Ancienne Mode, were recycling vintage textiles, retro patterns and full garments. However, not all were. Many companies seemed to be designing with the sole thought of profit at any cost, particularly those whose generic patterns had been seen time and again on the high street and showed no innovation or thought put into use of materials. The use of traditional weaving, screen printing, natural dyes and other historical methods could be seen at several booths, including Helena Gavshon’s. They also used digital print, but seemed much more interested in preserving traditional methods and materials. There seemed to be a number of other companies still using traditional screen printing, but the trend seemed to be towards digital print, whether because of reasons pertaining to sustainability, decreased cost/increased profit, uniformity of design, increased use of new technologies and computer aided design or time saving techniques. Innovation seemed low overall, digital processes in themselves are still considered innovative, but their use was not, on the whole, interesting or unusual. It was mainly used for creating flat prints and patterns; laser-cutting and digital construction of surface textures, etc was minimal to non-existent. There was an awful lot of similar design from stall to stall and most of it was the same as or very similar to designs available for the past couple of years. A lot of florals in the same colours and very similar arrangements, a lot of it was not even particularly well composed. The majority of companies seemed to be playing it safe, which is, perhaps, understandable to a certain extent in this current economic climate. However, lack of profit or immediate saleability should not be an excuse for being ‘safe’, ‘boring’ and lacking in innovative thinking. Many of the companies appeared to be interested purely in design as aesthetics and surface pattern. I did not notice any scientific or technologically imbedded textiles at all, but this may have something to do with the aspect of Indigo as somewhere to sell patterns to industry, but it could easily be so much more than that. Admittedly, there were many empty booths due either to companies having sold out or not wanting to deal with students, so there could have been anything on them during the selling days. Attitudes towards us as students were mixed, many companies were willing to talk and answer questions; some even offered work experience or contacts. Others, were not so friendly, many would not even say hello and some wouldn’t let people look at their products. Surprisingly, the worst offenders of this terrible attitude were a couple of the University stalls. This is not a good way for companies to behave, just because we are students at the moment with little to no influence on industry does not mean we will always be. Many of us may go on to be their bosses; some of us may remember their attitudes and base decisions partly on that. Particularly the Universities, they may have just lost a highly talented future student or lecturer.


Now, I wouldn't base my job decisions on that, but I may walk if those attitudes continued. I probably would for a University place though, atmosphere is everything. It really is not a good way for the industry to act though becuase students are not just students, we're future professionals who, may indeed have control of their paychecks one day.