By TINA WILSON
I recently returned from eating and shopping my way through Paris in glorious weather. I was in the city of lights to attend Interfiliere and Unique/ Mode City. In between binging I found time for inspiration, the kind of inspiration I desperately needed. My first day was reserved for galleries and exhibits, namely the genius of Martin Margiela in a retrospective at the Palais Galliera, musee de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. This powerful dose of creativity got me to thinking about “what is inspiration”?
Interfiliere /Mode City is divided into two sections; one for brands to showcase their lines of intimates, swim and sleepwear to buyers from all over the world. The other side of the fair is for manufacturers of laces, fabrics, and trims to showcase their products to the designers of such brands. I was there to be inspired by both, but will focus on the textile design half of the show.
Imagine a convention space with high ceilings, fairly good air conditioning and huge windows that start 20 feet from the floor and one pavilion away from the Game of Thrones Convention.
Imagine hundreds of small pristine booths of various sizes, with thousands of fabrics, trims and laces hanging neatly and numbered for easy perusal.
Imagine hundreds of people flown in from around the world to show and sell these wares. Imagine long bathroom lines that moved fast in areas that you never seemed to be near when nature called.
Imagine vendors of food, beverages and sweets scattered throughout and imagine yourself in this place for 3 days…running into friends, meeting new people, seeing and touching textures you’ve never seen before…. thus imagining my idea of heaven.
Color….as designers we need to be able to communicate color, it helps us paint a picture of the seasons, the moods, and about our intention. We get our cues from the streets, from nature and from those whose profession it is to help us analyze colors and group them together effectively, such as Concepts Paris who so brilliantly showed us an array of hanging colored pajamas and who curated the textures, trims, and laces that we sought, to pull a collection together.
Embellishment and laces…… There were many choices and companies like Iluna, Macra, Noyon, Tianhai, Union and Encajes came to the fair with innovation and modern beauty. Mixing the textures and colors of laces and fabrics in almost a haphazard way was fresh and real, I loved the mood of “not trying too hard” to match and to be perfect. There were garments displayed to inspire us to be adventurous yet wearable, to be fun and light hearted yet functional and to be unafraid.
We live and create in a time when all design matters, when so many categories can influence us, whether it be interiors or food or accessories. We were treated to displays of socks, hosiery, footwear, swimming caps, towels, lace jewelry and headbands. With so many brands turning into “lifestyle” brands it is creating opportunities for the vendors of fabrics and trims to expand the uses of their respective products beyond their original intent.
One of the highlights in between the many trend seminars, panel discussions and fashion shows was a splendid dance troupe moment, with each of the dancers wearing a unique active wear ensemble (I hate that word, ensemble, but am at a loss for another). The performance was energetic and a breath of fresh air.
Fabrics and fibers were on display and in brilliant form. There were fabric mills who produce functional fabrics that we use for intimates, swimwear and active wear. There were also yarn producers who produce only the yarns for those fabrics, such as NAIA by Eastman. I had the pleasure to illustrate the walls of their booth. I spent the final hours of the show in that booth on the last day sipping cocktails and nibbling hors d’oeuvres with old friends and new friends before we all ambled out into the warm night and on to the Metro in search of unreserved dinner and good wine.
Merci
