Cross Stitch Roses

Another season has finally come in and Fall 2014 is upon us. The new collection has arrived, it looks fabulous and boy do we have some fabulous prints to share with you! 

Last summer we at Mata Traders took a good look at the Fall 14 forecast and fell in love with this idea of crafts. We already have embroidery in every season and sometimes we add a bit of ikat into the mix, but for this season, we decided to focus on a pattern fully dedicated to cross stitch. As you know, I have personally become fascinated with cross stitching (thanks to my good friend Haley), but here was a chance to play with the image of the craft rather than actually cross stitching a dress. Now that we had our concept, we needed a subject. The forecast was full of vintage florals. We decided to merge the two ideas; vintage florals and an illusion of cross stitch. 

Cross Stitch Roses. Textile Design by Shifra Whiteman. Garments by Mata Traders.

Creating this particular pattern was really fascinating to create. From the beginning, we wanted colorful flowers with a dark background so that the colors, no matter what we chose, pop! We started with a grid made up of the letter "x" and used illustrations of 3 different flowers. Then, we used 3 different shades of the same color to show the shading between each petal and 2 shades of green for the leaves. After playing with 3 different types of flowers, we decided to use only roses. The next step was playing with scale. We had one word on our minds…BIG! We wanted everyone to see each "x" printed on the fabric.

Left: Oberlin Dress    Middle: Hello Dolly   Right: Loyal Love Dress

We held our breadths waiting for a sample to come back and see if this pattern would even look good.  Thankfully it did! The whole design team fell in love with it and the vintage look with a modern twist looks awesome. We love it so much that Mata Traders decided to make 3 dresses with the fabric! Check out the Oberlin Dress, a wonderful cut perfect for any lady (especially ladies with curves), or the Hello Dolly Dress which could be paired perfectly with a cozy sweater! But my favorite dress is the Loyal Love Dress. It is such an elegant garment that could be dressed down for work just as easily as it could be dressed up for a wedding. 

The Evolution of the Brazilian Floral

Florals are one of the most popular patterns on fabric. Walk into a clothing store and a floral print is guaranteed to cover a few garments. I myself have designed or refined a bunch of florals for Mata Traders like the Roses print and the Falling Florals print. You might be asking what makes this floral print different? 

One of many images from StyleSite Trend Forecast for Spring 2014.

We always start by looking at the trend forecasts to see if there is something we can adapt for the clothing we make. The image above hooked us in. Check out how intricate the designs are and how the colors are so vibrant that they pop off the screen! I immediately started researching tropical and local flowers of Brazil and started drawing. I had pages of sketches but ended up using 2 main flowers as my focal images to then construct the grand repeat. For weeks I worked on using 4 or 5 vibrant colors weaving them in-between each flower in a vision of a dress bursting with an energetic floral. Towards the end of the design period, reality set in and the entire design team realized that we needed to change our perspective on this specific print. 

Yes, having a super crazy colorful dress would be awesome but how many of these colors can we really get with the natural dyes from our cooperatives? Would 5 colors be too much to produce? What if it doesn't translate to a dress? With a new vision, we scaled the colors back from 5 to 2, we produced the print on a large scale and made one color variation in similar blues and one in red and purple. 

From right: Parisian Book Shop Dress  &  Isle of the Sky Dress 

The dresses came back wonderfully! The scaling back of color makes these dresses seem so much more sophisticated. The Isle of the Sky Dress in the blue fabric is calming and almost has a floating feel to it, while the Parisian Bookshop Dress in the red and purple color combo is vibrant and gives of a dramatic vibe. 

This is a perfect example of evolution in a print. We started with a wild vision of different Brazilian flowers cascading in many colors across dresses and ended up with a simpler and calmer version. The design team had to figure out how this fun and crazy trend could work for us and our abilities and facilities and in the end created a wonderful print. 

Secret Santa

Being the Jewish girl that I am, I can count on my hand the few times I participated in the thrilling seasonal activity, "Secret Santa". This year the staff at Mata Traders organized a "Secret Santa" and the big reveal was at our holiday party last Friday. The theme was "My favorite color is..." and while some people strayed away from the theme, the gift given to me was for many reasons the most awesome gift ever!  

Fair Coast leather clutch with my textile design as the lining!

Last month I learned about a company called Fair Coast. They are a local company based in Chicago that makes handmade leather goods. I met the Fair Coast husband & wife duo at a holiday fair a few weeks ago. They are the sweetest people who are passionate about handmade products and working with companies and people who are local and ethical. They came over to Mata Traders and bought a handful of damaged dresses (garments with broken zippers, misprints, minor tears...etc.) and repurposed the fabric as lining for their leather clutches. 

Katie Gavenda, my "Secret Santa" and marketing associate at Mata Traders (not to mention an awesome graphic designer) really hit the ball out of the park with this gift. It means so much to me that she thought of this awesome company, but she also picked the lining with my original design! When I opened the box and saw the Fair Coast logo stamped on the protective bag, I knew exactly what it was I was receiving and started jumping up and down like... oh I don't know, a kid on Christmas morning! 

Fair Coast envelope clutches with repurposed Mata Traders fabric as lining. 

Bringing Patterns to Camp!

For many summers, I had the amazing opportunity to attend Camp Tel Yehudah, Young Judaea's Teen Leadership camp. Summer months as a camper were spent mastering the art of kissing with braces, challenging ourselves creatively on how to best raid the boys bunks and learning a thing or two about Zionism, leadership and Jewish identity. I spent these same months as a counselor figuring out how to connect teenagers with art & Judaism. However, one of my favorite parts as an art specialist was preparing for the last night of camp, otherwise known as "Banquet". Banquet is a huge themed night where the typical dining hall is transformed into something special and spectacular... and the entire staff dresses up according to the theme... It's a kind of a big deal.

 Last summer my amazing, talented younger sister, Leah Whiteman, was the supervisor for the art program at Camp Tel Yehudah. After 2 weeks, she decided on "Africa" for the 1st session banquet theme. Besides sharing genes, Leah is also a wonderful artist who is currently a senior at the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design,  and has taken a few fiber arts classes (I swear we have differences!)

Within the theme "Africa" she wanted to focus quite a bit on traditional African kente cloth and African Dutch wax batik prints.  Kente Cloth is a type of interwoven silk and cotton fabric, native to the Akan ethnic group of South Ghana. Each color used in the cloth has a different symbolic meaning. They are beautiful pieces with rich traditions and history. African Dutch wax batik prints are patterns printed on one side of fabric using both wax as a repellant of ink in addition to ink and dyes. This is a common but beautiful process in African textiles and the fabric is used on many native garments in the region. Incorporating traditional elements of African textiles added a respectful and authentic touch to the theme while also made it look so cool! I wish I could have a backdrop like this at one of my own parties!

Painted panels of traditional Kente cloth and African Dutch Wax batik prints.

Using camp art materials like butcher paper, tempera paint, cardboard and paper mâché, Leah and her team of art specialists truly transformed the dining hall into a beautiful African paradise!

Check out these panels of replicated fabrics! They managed to create an elephant sculpture and a staff member took on the challenge of dressing up as a giraffe! Disney's "The lion king" played on theTV screens in the background and I'm sure the campers were in awe of the space and had quite a memorable "Banquet". 

Animals were created and welcomed! ...Also, check out the awesome Mata Traders dress Leah is wearing!

That's the Cats Pajamas!

Last weekend I went on a vintage adventure! Cats Pajamas is a vintage clothing, jewelry and textiles show/sale that takes place twice a year in Elgin, Illinois. Vendors from all over the midwest (and country) come to sell their goods, and let me tell you, I had a field day! 

My dear friend, Yonit the costume designer, has been telling me about this show for the last 2 years. She has gone and acquired many a funky pieces of jewelry, clothing and accessories for herself as well as costumes for shows she has worked on. This year I was FINALLY able to join her. We met up with another fantastic costume designer Rachel Healy, grabbed a few breakfast treats and drove out to Elgin. 

My textile design heart stopped dead in it's tracks! I began to hop from one booth to the next, combing through the racks of vintage clothing snapping photos of fabulous prints that I came across. The quirky florals with ribbons to the geometric ladders and spots, watercolored florals and paisley galore - they were all screaming for me. I began documenting every piece of fabric that seemed interesting, humorous, dainty, funky... you name it, I photographed it! 

I was surprised to find myself drawn to the crazy animal prints. I managed to find quite a few since this was a vintage sale and the 1950's were all about quirky prints & textiles. I clasped my hands and started to laugh when I saw a sweet little print that seemed like a few illustrations of Winnie the Pooh characters in repeat. It was so darling and yet so specific. It included honey pots, red balloons, piglet and Pooh bear! Another wonderful print I found were seals swimming across a pair of shorts. I kept imagining a teenage boy wearing these shorts and it made me chuckle. I have a special place in my heart for peacocks and when I found a dress sporting a hand drawn peacock and floral print, I instantly starting snapping photos of it. 

Kelly in the dress that stole our hearts!

At one point Yonit and I came across the most beautiful cream colored dress from the 1920's. We both fell in love with it and of course it wasn't either of our sizes. However, if it was and would have fit, I would have found my future wedding dress.  We then ran into one of Yonit's costume design friends Kelly. After showing her the dress that caught our hearts, she decided she would try it on. It fit her perfectly! According to the shop owner, it's a magical moment when a dress finds a lady with the right size and body shape to pull it off. She then ran over and found a hat that would pull the whole look together. Kelly happily purchased the dress and is now waiting for a special occasion to wear it.

At one booth, Yonit and I found a 3 piece vintage luggage set, in perfect condition and the price was a steal!  We talked it over and decided to split the set (first photo, bottom right corner). It is a wonderful funky paisley in blues with a hint of red & yellow, and we will always think of each other while traveling.  

This adventure was as fun as it was inspiring. After 5 hours of diving into wonderful clothes and jewelry of the past, I came away with a new excitement about textiles, prints and patterns. I have a collection of reference images of patterns that has grown dramatically since this trip and I am ready to start designing again.