Exerpt from Textiles: a handbook for Designers by M. Yates

The Modern Textile Industry:
The Designer's Projections of Market Trends

In the manufacture of fabrics, as in any other discipline of design, maintaining and even surpassing high aesthetic standards are a designer's primary goals. Proportion, balance, and texture are attained through expert draftsmanship. Tasteful and innovative use of color is an innate ability developed through study and practice. However, in any commercial enterprise, formulating a general assignment for design of product lines must also involve accounting for both the suitability of the design for the end product and maximizing use of available materials and manufacturing capabilities. For fabric designers, the technical facets of this problem should be studied in textile science courses and through several excellent texts. Without an understanding of how visual ideas can be used in manufacturing processes and an ability to articu late these ideas to technical personnel, a designer's innovative ideas may be wasted.

In industry, textile companies look to designers or stylists to see, understand, and capture current and future trends in color and pattern. A designer must guide a company to use its capabilities fully in producing new, different, and timely fabrics.

In addition to keeping abreast of technical information and keeping artistic skills well honed, a designer/stylist must be able to anticipate future trends and coordinate the release of new fabrics at the time for best marketability.

How are future trends anticipated? In part through awareness of past and present work in the field. Historically, certain trends are cyclical, largely because consumers tire of one look and want a change after some time has passed. If black is prevalent in clothing one year, it will probably appear in home furnishings the next year, and color will then seem a refreshing change in clothing. But will black be followed by bright colors, or by brown with colored accents, or by pastels? Through intuitive ability and research, a designer must commit to the coming trends well ahead of the time that clothes appear in stores.

Historical fabrics may be studied from books and old magazines and are a limitless source of inspiration and information. Local museums and historical societies may have textile or costume collections. Some textile companies maintain extensive archives that are almost museums in themselves.

Exhibitions of fabrics in major museums are wonderful for study and may also effect a trend by drawing attention to a particular era of fabrics. The "blockbuster" exhibitions of the seventies and eighties have been replaced by small shows and greater cultural awareness, ensuring that influences come from a diverse array of sources.

To keep abreast of current trends, most designers in the industry read trade periodicals and reports from forecasters, and travel to the major trade shows in the United States and Europe. Manufacturers or designers of fabric, clothes, or furniture display their newest group of products-called a line, collection, or range-to buyers, individually, in their showrooms. In each segment of the industry the lines are ready to show at the start of a particular selling season. Often companies in one area of the market assemble together at the beginning of the selling season. Buyers come to these trade shows during market week to place orders or to make plans to place orders soon thereafter. These shows also allow everyone a chance to see what is newest in the market. Trade shows are often abused by competitors looking for items that can be readily knocked off (that is, copied). When these markets are used as intended, they serve as a healthy forum for all to observe new designs that are already selling. These exhibitions are open only to members of the trade and the press but are also thoroughly reported in current periodicals.

Women's Wear Daily (WWD) is probably the most widely read trade periodical. Because trends in women's apparel affect all segments of the market, WWD is read regularly even by home furnishings and men's wear executives. Vogue and Bazaar magazines, both of which are published in American, French, and Italian editions that cover their respective markets, are at the forefront of fashion reporting. Other magazines published abroad (Linea Italiana, Gap Italia) and domestically (Glamour, Mademoiselle) are excellent sources of information.

In men's wear, Daily News Record (DNR) is the equivalent of Women's Wear Daily, and DNR also covers technical news of the textile industry. Vogue, Linea, and other periodicals publish a men's wear edition. Gentlemen's Quarterly is a popular American source.

In home furnishing/contract interiors, most designers read Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Interiors, Interior Design, and Metropolitan Home. European periodicals such as World of Interiors, Elle Decoration, Casa Vogue, and Decoration Internationale are popular. Home Furnishings Daily is the weekly that covers furniture, textiles, giftware, and electronics

.No designer has time to read all of these periodicals, but most regularly read a few that they consider most valuable and frequently glance through others. Periodicals are an easily accessible means of viewing developments within the entire industry.

In addition to periodicals, various market reports are excellent vehicles for study of current developments in the industry, and they may be available in some libraries or schools. These various color and trend forecasting services in the United States and Europe obtain their information in different ways and therefore offer various points of view.

Some forecasters do essentially the same research that designers and textile executives do; but because market research is the main profession of forecasters, they may see more than one designer could. A forecaster also sees textile manufacturers' developmental fabrics a few weeks before the finished line is shown to customers. The forecaster is thereby able to draw conclusions about the overall marketplace before the start of the selling season. A designer, on the other hand, would be able to see his competitor's line only after it is already on the market. A report projecting the coming season well in advance (geared for a specific segment of the market such as women's wear, men's wear, or interiors) may consist of a color palette of solids, good color combinations from the palette, and information on important types of textiles (figure 1-6). Fore casters also advise their clients (the designers who subscribe to their reports) individually.

Most color forecasters also forecast "trends" in clothing silhouette, construction, and types of fabric that will be suitable. An individual forecaster may emphasize one of these areas over another.

Promostyl, founded in the 1960s, is the oldest forecasting service of this type. Pat Tunsky, Inc., established in 1972, forecasts color, fabric, design, and interior color trends geared to American manufacturers. The Color Box and Huepoint provide color information. Trend Union is the most important French source. Originally a men's wear trend service, Design Intelligence, based in London, is still very strong in men's wear. Interior View, View on Color, and Textile View are periodicals that offer such information to a broad audience.

The Color Association of the United States (CAUS) has been issuing color projections for women's wear since the 1920s and for interiors since the 1950s. Projections are based on the palette selection made by a panel of successful designers and marketing executives selected by CAUS from industry. This provides a different type of information from that provided by the aforementioned services. Rather than showing information obtained specifically to be forecast, the CAUS palette shows the thinking of certain "leaders" within a segment of the industry. The International Color Authority (ICA), based in Europe, operates similarly to CAUS.

Other groups, especially in Europe, are similar in operation to the original concept of CAUS. Representatives from a group of mills, usually in a particular country, will develop and promote a palette for their products. The Societe de la Federation de la Soierie in France is such an organization, as is Comitato Italiano del Colore in Italy. Likewise, organizations such as Cotton, Inc., and the Wool Bureau, which are supported by producers of the appropriate fiber to promote its use, develop color forecasts.

The Color Marketing Group allows interaction and discussion among designers from all disciplines at large national meetings. Members discuss in small groups and then vote on a palette which is geared to a particular segment of the market.

No service provides an absolute answer, but information and interaction among design professionals help to inform everyone. Additionally, forecasters not only observe and predict but effect trends. For all of these reasons designers must be aware of these reports, which are a considerable force in the business of design.

Some magazines have departments that cover specifically the fabric market. Editors from these magazines report seasonally their findings in the market and from the major shows. Presentations are made by Vogue, Mademoiselle, Bazaar, and others to designers, buyers, and other fashion executives. Large buying offices for major stores also make similar presentations. Likewise, the major fiber companies (Eastman, Hoechst Celanese, Monsanto, etc.) forecast colors and make seasonal market reports to their customers. Fiber companies were among the first to make these reports; but because they produce synthetic fibers and sell mostly to large mills and manufacturers, their reports are geared to the volume (middle) market.

Designers also study direct market response to their specific product. Sales reports within an individual textile firm are broken down by customer, type of fabric, and color so that the company's personnel may draw conclusions about rising or dying trends. By working directly with customers (for example, manufacturers of clothing or furniture, and distributors of fabric who sell to architects or interior designers), textile designers learn quickly what items and ideas are acceptable and at what price. The relationship works in two ways: a designer's job is not only to respond to customers' demands but also to cultivate taste within the public. When a designer receives negative reaction to a product that he believes indi idea but tries to find a way to show the idea in another way that will be better accepted. Textile businesses involve a lot of middlemen; at each level the customer (who is sometimes a designer himself) must choose the newly designed fabric before it reaches the retail customer. If the product is not considered to be salable, the public will never see the design.

In addition to occurrences within the textile-related industries, any current trend will affect design. A popular movie with costumes from the 1920s will influence the next season's fashions. For example, a major museum show, a Broadway play, or a new First Lady with her own sense of style all whet the desires of the consumer and therefore the textile industry. The availability or shortage of certain materials affects design; if cotton is in short supply, other fibers will be developed and styled into fabrics to simulate cotton fabrics. New developments in lighting will affect trends in interiors and therefore the kinds of furniture and fabrics that will be desirable.

Probably one of the best sources of inspiration is from images in other art forms that can be applied to textiles (figures 1-9, 1-10, 1-11). Images, techniques, and color combinations in art history, graphic design, or illustration inspire fabric designers. An Italian fresco could make a beautiful fabric. Or the way that a certain color works with another in a Cezanne painting could inspire a color line of fabric.

As a designer studies and observes, reference files of interesting subject matter, technique, and color are compiled. This file may contain photographs of color looks, fashions, flowers and plants, or scraps of fabric and paint chips that can serve as color references. It is even more important that designers keep notebooks and sketch books of interesting images (figure 1-12). Quick, small sketches from daily life can serve as an excellent reference which can be further developed.

A good designer must keep up with any facet of life which can affect the design world but, more importantly, must never be confined to work that has been done before or is being done currently. The textile industry, like any business, likes to continue with products that are known to be salable. However, a new idea, expressed in a new way and well presented, will boost sales. In essence, textile design is the marketing of these new ideas.