Textiles are great! They can be a source of beauty and joy. Rather than highlighting a particular body shape, the color and pattern of clothing can be beautiful on anyone. In the post-scarcity world of my dreams (which is also post-cringe) we will wear all the batik, geometry, and cephalopod prints we ever wanted.
This H&M store I would not describe as a source of beauty and joy.
Textiles I love:
Fabrics I love, mostly thrifted
Is this just a girl thing?
In Western dress, women’s clothes do get a lot more interesting colors and patterns than men’s. But this doesn’t have to be the case; see the Balinese shirts above.
Men’s plaid pajamas and shirts are often remarkably ugly, with a lot of grey and brown tones. My favorite of Jeff’s flannel shirts has less muted colors.
Fun clothes at contra dances
There’s a type of watercolor-y rayon batik that’s popular among contra dancers; I think of this as NEFFA fabric. It’s beautiful and soft, and is often cut to move a lot as you dance.
Clothes I saw this week at a contra dance event:
Fabric design
The serious home of beautiful but expensive patterned fabric, both grandiose and subtle, is Spoonflower.
Tiny Malachite Green Ink Hexagons with Textured Yellow Gold Outlines bymicklyn
Why aren’t there more interesting clothing patterns?
Maybe:
- Most people just have different tastes than I do currently.
- Prints are harder to match / coordinate than solid colors and especially neutrals
- Price discrimination: brands like Boden are charging more partly for beautiful prints. (But some of the most recognizably expensive prints, like Burberry plaid, look ugly to me.)
Favorite sources for interesting fabric / clothing
When I see a brand with patterns I like at a thrift store, I sometimes find more on Ebay, Mercari, or Thredup.
- Mata Traders
- Modcloth
- Lularoe has a wide variety of beautiful prints, but on cheap polyester fabric.
- Liberty London, though I don’t love the tiny prints they’re famous for
- Fabindia
- Indian block prints / searching used clothing sites for “made in India.”
- Global Mamas: Ghanaian fabrics
- Boden
- Rock Flower Paper – I wish there were more companies doing Western-ish styles in Indian fabrics
- Indonesian batik
- Children’s clothing with beautiful prints are much more plentiful. Some include Boden, Tea, Hannah Andersson, Ade + Ayo.
The UK company Seasalt Cornwall also have really nice printed fabrics.
I’m also not sure what’s the deal with how unfashionable prints are. Part of it is a general “super-clean” aesthetic at the moment (interior design and architecture have that too).
Yes, I usually don’t come across UK brands in the US thrift stores, but the other week I saw a Seasalt Cornwall dress and liked the fabric!