Spring Break
Kirstiansen lectures on textiles
Paulina Malek
Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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The lecture was to educate students about the Scandinavian designers that greatly influenced the world of textile and design, but more importantly that textiles cannot be merely reduced to fabric, but can also parlay themselves into ideas and products.
According to Kristiansen, textiles involve "a certain kind of way of thinking that makes a certain kind of product."
One of the pioneers of the textile process was Josef Frank who was invited by the Swedish government to create designs to be showcased in fairs that taught the working class how to live in cities. His work consisted of colorful patterns and large designs, and he was one of the first who learned how to create repeated patterns by turning the fabric on all of its angles and duplicating the patterns again and again. Kirstiansen pointed out that the ability to do repeated patterns at that time was a great feat as it was difficult and expensive.
"A part of the design process is knowing how to reproduce it," Kirstiansen said.
Another important name mentioned that night was Maija Isola, a designer that made the unikko design very popular. Unikko is a poppy design comprised of the same pattern of flowers in different colors and sizes. A work of Isola's showcasing the design is her 1965 pattern of black, orange and yellow flowers that were later made into sofa cushions. However, during the 1960's it was chic to create unikko in fashion, as even Jackie Kennedy purchased several dresses displaying the motif. The patterns are charming and dainty and one can see it making a comeback in fashion as well.
Kirstiansen also shined some light on some very talented students. A young woman whose name was not mentioned, but whose talent was made very apparent, had a flair for digital media as well as a hands-on approach to design. She created several beautiful dresses and gowns, one being a silky, blue checkered print with a dash of white, red and green. The gown was attempted to be made by physically painting the pattern onto the dress, but proved too difficult and it was produced digitally instead. Whether done by hand or not, the gown was one of the most striking dresses I had ever seen, as the colors together almost resembled the flow of water and the fabric moved very well on a feminine figure.
A new approach to design being used by students in Scandinavia this year is the application of lights and textiles. For instance, a student who attended the same university as Kristiansen created a light fixture that changed patterns slowly, unlike that of Times Square where a light changes in the blink of an eye. Instead, if one left and returned three weeks later, the light would show the same pattern. The fixture was rather original with interesting patterns and colors that had unique interaction with one another. Although innovative, the fixture proved to be too risqué for the government as it reminded them of the Red Light District and needed to be removed.
Thus, Scandinavia is a powerful force in the world of textile design as it actively uses it in almost every aspect of citizens' lives from fashion to furniture to architecture and most importantly in the imaginations of designers that have come before and will come after.
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