It's crazy to think that in the fashion industry we have to design a collection a year in advance! One cold winter day in 2013, the design team at Mata Traders sat around a table, enveloped in sweaters, hot tea/coffee in hand, flipping through the spring 2014 trend forecast shining from our computer screens. These wonderful images of warmth and color that symbolize spring gave me a sense of hope that maybe we would soon see the sun, but more importantly, got our brains racing for possibilities for new textiles and garment.

My eyes were immediately drawn to a series of images of little houses like the ones above. These colorful homes toppling over of each other, create a cozy and friendly feeling of neighborhoods and community. I fell in love with the concept and decided we MUST have a "Little Houses" print in the Spring 2014 collection.

I began with hand drawing a few sketches of houses, scanning them into my computer and layering them on top of each other using Adobe Photoshop. Finally, after days of piecing together the perfect repeat and choosing the best color combo, it all came together.

We love the print so much that we are using it in 2 different styles! On the left is the Summerfest Dress Houses, which is only 1 of 4 patterns available in this dress! On the right is the Starboard Dress. I absolutely love the playful orange piping and solid panels on this garment. Both dresses are simultaneously bold and playful, sure to turn heads and many will compliment your fashion style and choices.

Left: Summerfest Dress (Houses)      Right: Starboard Dress (Houses) — Left: Summerfest Dress (Houses) Right: Starboard Dress (Houses)

WOW! It has been way too long since I have written a post, but that just means I have been working like crazy these last few months, and boy do I have some goodies to share! Within the next few weeks I will be writing about all my projects but for now I thought I would start with an exciting announcement.

Textile designs by Shifra Whiteman. Garments by Mata Traders. Sold through ModCloth.

ModCloth is, once again, selling garments with my textile designs! I designed these fabrics for Mata Traders and ModCloth ordered these garments to start Spring '14. On the far left, is the Perennial Picking Top, in the same floral print I designed for the Fall '13 Meet Me in the Meadow Dress. The cascading roses make this top look so sweet. Next to it we have the An Enchanted Evening Dress. This dress was designed specifically for ModCloth but the same fabric can be found on other dresses in Mata Traders' Spring '14 collection (available on their website in April). The following dress is the Give You a Print Dress in Hexagons. I designed this print for Mata Traders' Spring '13 collection but it was so cute that we decided to use it again! On our far right we have the Carry On With Confidence Top in Sailboats. This was a fun collaboration textile which I will write about in the next few weeks. I love how nautical the top looks with that tie in front.

This is literally just the tip of the iceberg! Each of these designs has a story behind it, which I will write about and cannot wait to share so stay tuned!