Pattern Pulp

Beauty: Gothic Facial Palettes




1cfacial-palettes_beauty

For beauty, music and art lovers, it’s been an interesting few months. All three have merged to form a trend that reared it’s head in early March. We labeled it expressive story telling and it’s managed to evolve from the art and photography worlds to the beauty, music and marketing arenas.

These images of Enya Bakunova, Lady Gaga, the goth models walking Vivienne Westwoods’s weekend fashion show, and Shu Umera’s recent print campaign all pay homage to Mario Testino’s 2001 portrait of Kate Moss.

This wave feels a bit more gothic though, more geisha, more painterly. The emphasis on the eyes, the lips and the cheekbones provide a sculpture-like interpretation to compliment Guim Tió Zarraluki’s abstract and piercing renditions.  As we’ve said before, portraiture represents more than a moment- it’s the culmination of a mood, an outfit, a setting and a style. What do you think of this artistic execusion, is it effective?

 

Graphic Storytelling & Color Accents




graphic_storytelling_bergdorfcatalog

Bold contrasts make incredible statements when striped down to the basics. Just as camoflauge, florals and animal prints are staples, so are colorless patterns. When you add a singular hue to the mix though, you’re setting the mood – red/black/white screams news(!) while a canary yellow conveys alert(!) Eggplant still has a regal feel to it and kelly green feels playful and unexpected.

Last night, while paying bills, canceling memberships, and catching up on articles saved, I also paged through piles of product from Bergdorf Goodman, Madewell, LandsEnd, J.Crew and Anthropologie. These three images sold a story to me: Manolo Blahnik’s houndstooth, polka dotted and striped heels, Proenza Schouler’s textured clutches and Anthropologie’s cotton upholstered Astrid Chair. All loose, lyrical, rigid and of the moment.

 

Photorealism & Engineered Placements




photorealism_morgancarper_marykatrantzou

No one’s complaining about the heat today. We all know it’ll be ending soon, and this last bit of summer is the perk of the season. The breezy nights, the refreshing jog at the end of the day, the back-to-school wardrobe consisting of  jackets, jeans and sandals…these swinging temperatures usher in Fall.

Which brings me to a textile trend that’s an interesting one. It can be difficult to assemble, but once you have your patterns and your placements down, it’s extremely cool in execution: photorealism and landscape textiles. Morgan Carper’s Fall Collection reflects her travels to California’s Big Lagoon, while Mary Katrantzou’s Resort Collection is a dichotomy of urban and country dwelling. Both have voyeuristic vibes and  surrealist moods. I’m very much a fan, what do you think?

 

Trends in Overlapping Textile Mediums




houseofmaryanne Louisa Crompton - Knitted Textile Designs2Louisa Crompton1epsteinrichterstearns

As artists, we’re often thrown for a loop and inspired to create our own interpretations from normal everyday oddities. On Pattern Pulp, we celebrate the thinkers and makers who combine, reference and refresh traditional mediums. Let’s have a look at a few works that straddle varying mediums and are tied together through vibrant, modular, unexpected overlap:

1. Maryanne Moodie and her woven tapestries. Like other instagrammers on the hunt for fresh work-in-progress, House of Maryanne‘s feed is a fabulous one, sharing asymmetrical tapestries, DIY classes and vintage clothing.

2. Louisa Crompton and her knitted textiles. Each design has a tetris vibe that celebrates modular graphics as 3D knits.

3. Robert Otto Epstein‘s vibrant colors, patterns and pain-staking details are digital, pixelated and asymmetrical.

4. Gerard Richter’s Tapestries, which we covered a few months back, where he converts paintings to woven works, breaking down each stroke into thread. In a similar but also radically different fashion, we mention Philip Stearns, who’s known for his blankets and tapestries inspired from lovely patterns formed from digital glitches.

The basic idea: “Transcode glitches in the cold, hard logic of digital circuits into soft, warm textiles.” When you think about the three, we have utilitarian textile patterns transformed into art, art transformed into tapestries and a fleeting digital moment captured forever in utilitarian tactile objects. What do you think of this trend?

 

Trend Tracking: The Rounded Row




Rounded Rows

Every designer’s got an eagle eye. We’re always watching and consuming, noticing the details. Thoughts like, her eyelashes uncharacteristically long, to woah, the brim of that hat’s asymmetrical in an 80’s-kind-of-way, to boy, the tip jar’s fuller than usual – maybe it’s the pop culture reference, are on constant loop during my daily commute.

Designers are trained to catch the obvious and less apparent commercial trends, then track their origins. Today’s feature pulls from yesterday’s instagram reel. We have rounded overlapping rows in three varying scenarios: as a vibrant leather clutch from Antik Batik, as a silk 2D tunic on the street in Soho and as a crochet basket from Calypso Home. Sometimes it’s easiest to document, review then compile. What’s your strategy?

 

Footwear Trends from Paris




1footwear_paris_patternpulp 2footwear_paris_patternpulp

Here’s a quick collage of some footwear trends selling in Paris at the moment. Just the tip of the iceberg in terms of shots – but that’s what the blog’s all about – a few highlights! Between Bensimon, Vanessa Bruno, Sandro, Valentine Gauthier, Bonpoint, Surface to Air and Twins for Peace, we’re seeing florescent contrasts, beaded patterns, sport-inspired lacing, floral color-blocking, metallics, spikes and embroidered fringe. For a more in depth view, feel free to get in touch.

Which one’s your favorite? I grew rather attached to the snakeskin strap wedges…

 

Tracking Repetitive + Awesome.
On Instagram.