Last week’s Direction and Printsource textile shows featured designs with strong tribal and ethnic influences that outshone parochial prints. In the textile industry’s own little melting pot, designers took inspiration from all corners of the globe. Printfresh, a new Direction exhibitor from Philadelphia, showed bright, multicultural prints on cotton jersey. “Anything with a Scandinavian-meets-African feel has done really well for us,” said Amy Eldon, creative director of the firm. “Textiles with strong hand elements like pronounced brush strokes, scribbles and irregular patterns are doing well also.” Marilyn Kern showed an appealing set of hand-painted silk georgette pieces. “There are so many trends happening at Direction, designers can really put their own spin on anything,” she said. “Here, we’ve pulled in the metallic treatment from Europe and applied it to a tribal motif.”
At Printsource, Daniel Sager presented a stunning array of silk, hand-painted Moroccan inspired geo-florals. “People are really responding to color this season and borders are wildly popular,” he said. Others at Printsource offered prints that mimicked hand techniques. At Tag Sale Textiles, Wendy Greenberg showed a bordered wool blend print with an irregular diamond pattern alongside traditional batik prints and international vintage pieces. At the end of the day, a trip through the twin exhibitions at Manhattan’s Hotel Pennsylvania amounted to a trip around the world.