On the Horizon

Print and pattern trend specialist Pat Nugent explores this season’s top five trends and explains how designers find inspiration for these latest looks.

It’s said that beauty transcends all ages and if such is the case with prints and patterns, then designers seeking contemporary beauty need look no further than Patricia Nugent Textiles. The firm’s organized collection of fabrics continues to grow and now includes thousands of floral, geometric, ethnic, plaid, stripe and conversational styles spanning 200 years. In addition, there exists an array of antique embroidery, beading, knit, suiting and weave swatches. “By shopping vintage and antiques, designers find inspiration,” says director Pat Nugent.

Known for a high level of taste, excellent selection, trend-oriented ideas, and reasonable prices, Patricia Nugent Textiles excels at anticipating designer needs. The deep archives, which also features quilts, garments, blankets, shawls and accessories, is housed in an 100 year-old, craftsman cottage nestled in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The half-million swatches available date from 1790 to 1970.

The company, which works with leading active/outdoor brands, has been inspiring the design industry with these antique and vintage textiles since 1992. Formerly Sarah Truitt Textiles, the business was acquired by Nugent in January of 2005. Her background as a ski and outerwear designer, along with her experience as a vice president at Cutter & Buck, offers young designer’s today not only valuable trend perspective but an intricate knowledge of textiles.

Here Nugent discusses her top five trends for the 09/10 seasons and offers insights into why these trends resonate:

1) Future Past: Very complex layered kinds of patterns. “Exploded” patterns. Ikat looks, warp prints. “This is trending quite hot right now. Ikat is an over-riding trend in different categories,” says Nugent. “Trends in fashion for apparel and home, whether prints, patterns, colors or shapes, reflect what is going on in society. So prints that look exploded and fractured reflect that aspect of society and politics right now.”

2) Global Geo: Geometrics being used with a folkloric feel. These could be African, Scandinavian, American Indian but it is more a sense of geometry – it’s coming from someplace but not sure exactly where. It’s global, but with the edges blurred.

3) Light-hearted and Hand-made: Cheerful, playful prints represented by color in off-beat conversational prints, in cartoon-like prints and even kids’ drawings. The idea here is of being hand drawn. “Handmade or hand painted (hand crafted in any way) is over-riding,” says Nugent. “I believe it is a desire for the logical balance to fast-paced lives over-stuffed with impersonal technology. The desire for some good news, some lighthearted news is reflected in the appeal of lighthearted, non-aggressive, softly colored prints.”

4) Artful Science: A linear and hard-edged look. There is a strong sense of line and maybe a touch of the 60’s in the optic look. “There is a little more masculine feel to this trend,” says Nugent. “It is great used for boarding prints in bottoms for snow and surf, for example.”

5) Modern Botany: Botanical looks but not painstakingly executed, more like someone actually sat at drafting table to do these prints. A feminine feel.

“The outdoor industry has been working hard to develop its own version of sportswear, and is becoming much more print-driven now. The clothing is more versatile, with garments that can be casual as well as performance,” says Nugent, who elaborates on the viability of these trends in active/outdoor. “Modern Botany, for example, translates well to printed fleece for women. Global Geo works great on fleece for men, women and kids. For companies doing some embellishments, the light-hearted, hand-made trends would work well as prints on knit tops or on a cami for baselayer.”

On the Horizon is underwritten courtesy of Concept III Textiles International. Patricia Nugent Textiles exhibits at the Printsource New York trade shows. The company Web site is http://www.patricianugenttextiles.com.

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