Ugly Sweater Suits

If you don't already know me, fellow readers, you should know that my passion and love for textile design and patterns runs DEEP! That's why when I stumbled upon Shinesty  and their collection of mens Ugly Sweater Suits, I nearly fell over!  (The rest of the site is dedicated to kitchy holiday and themed attire) 

Naturally, each suit is 100% polyester and the brightest of colors. I would love to show up to a holiday party wearing one of these jackets over a black dress, or the pants with a solid top. Anyone interested in splitting up the red, white and blue suit?

70's Vintage Florals

As I sit curled up in blankets on my couch, staring out at the snow falling out the window, it's funny to think of anything floral related. However, if a little vintage flare is added to the mix, florals for a fall collection totally works.

Dresses by Mata Traders. Textile Design by Shifra Whiteman. 

Last spring, when the design team at Mata Traders came together for our seasonal brainstorm session, I kept feeling drawn to images of antique and vintage flowers. My favorite was a piece of 70's wallpaper bursting with mustard, pea green and brown flowers. My first reaction was "Gross!  The colors are horrible!", but the shape of the flowers caught my eye and I started to sketch them over and over again. I finally created a repeat that everyone on the design team loved, and then we started to play, what I like to cal "the color game". We tried using darker muted colors, bright colors, pastels…I'm pretty sure we tried every combination of colors under the sun. In the end, we chose a few purples, a cream and a punch of orange. 

Left: Hello Dolly Dress. Right: Oberlin Dress. Dresses by Mata Traders. Textile Design by Shifra Whiteman.

After receiving a sample pieces back, we knew we had made the right color choice. The colors are a nice change from the monochromatic winter wardrobe. The print came back so well that two dresses were created from the fabric. The Hello Dolly Dress is so cute and pairs nicely with chunky sweaters for fall, and elegant Oberlin Dress. 

My Deer Print

Last spring, the design team at Mata Traders gathered around and decided that for Fall 2014, we wanted to design a print with an animal. We started thinking about what would work best for Mata Traders' aesthetic. 

Paisley Ducks from Cukoos Nest Clothing,  Foxy sweater dress by Ravelry and Zebra dress by Anthropologie.

While researching, we found some awesome prints that already existed. Check out the crazy paisley duck print shirt by Cukoos Nest Clothing, this awesome fox sweater dress print from Ravelry (what did he say?), and this sophisticated zebra dress from Anthropologie. 

The Buck Stops Here skirt and the Near and Deer top. Loving the puns!

After getting inspired by all these cool animal print ideas, we finally decided to focus on deers! I played with adding different textures in the initial deer shape, like spots and stripes. In the end, we thought that hatches would look the best. It was traditionally screen printed and the samples came back so well, that Mata Traders designed a snazzy shirt and funky skirt! 

Buck Stops Here skirt and the Near and Deer top.

Check out the Buck Stops Here skirt, and the Near and Deer top! Gosh do I love those puns! They are both great casual looks that are a fun statement piece perfect for fall. On a side note, I am starting to fall more and more in love with neutral colors and the brown is a great change from my go to gray. 

Stay tuned for more goodies!

Cross Stitch Roses

Another season has finally come in and Fall 2014 is upon us. The new collection has arrived, it looks fabulous and boy do we have some fabulous prints to share with you! 

Last summer we at Mata Traders took a good look at the Fall 14 forecast and fell in love with this idea of crafts. We already have embroidery in every season and sometimes we add a bit of ikat into the mix, but for this season, we decided to focus on a pattern fully dedicated to cross stitch. As you know, I have personally become fascinated with cross stitching (thanks to my good friend Haley), but here was a chance to play with the image of the craft rather than actually cross stitching a dress. Now that we had our concept, we needed a subject. The forecast was full of vintage florals. We decided to merge the two ideas; vintage florals and an illusion of cross stitch. 

Cross Stitch Roses. Textile Design by Shifra Whiteman. Garments by Mata Traders.

Creating this particular pattern was really fascinating to create. From the beginning, we wanted colorful flowers with a dark background so that the colors, no matter what we chose, pop! We started with a grid made up of the letter "x" and used illustrations of 3 different flowers. Then, we used 3 different shades of the same color to show the shading between each petal and 2 shades of green for the leaves. After playing with 3 different types of flowers, we decided to use only roses. The next step was playing with scale. We had one word on our minds…BIG! We wanted everyone to see each "x" printed on the fabric.

Left: Oberlin Dress    Middle: Hello Dolly   Right: Loyal Love Dress

We held our breadths waiting for a sample to come back and see if this pattern would even look good.  Thankfully it did! The whole design team fell in love with it and the vintage look with a modern twist looks awesome. We love it so much that Mata Traders decided to make 3 dresses with the fabric! Check out the Oberlin Dress, a wonderful cut perfect for any lady (especially ladies with curves), or the Hello Dolly Dress which could be paired perfectly with a cozy sweater! But my favorite dress is the Loyal Love Dress. It is such an elegant garment that could be dressed down for work just as easily as it could be dressed up for a wedding. 

Making The Cut

I am so pleased to share another print of mine that made it to the Fall 2013 collection for Mata Traders. The crazy thing about this print is that I designed it way back when I was an intern in the fall of 2011 for the Fall 2012 collection.

Back then I was designing all sorts of patterns that were (in my opinion) great, edgy and contemporary. Unfortunately they didn't make the cut for the Fall 2012 collection. I am going to be totally honest and admit that I was upset and took it personally. At the time I was more interested in getting my work out there as soon as possible. Most people don't realize that as fashion and textile designers, we work on collections a year in advance. After designing 6-8 new prints for Mata Traders, they only chose 1 print to go through for Fall 2012 (and it wasn't the "Roses" print). 

What I wasn't thinking about at the time, was the collection as a whole. This is something I have learned loads about since my time as an intern. A collection needs to be balanced, have a variety of cuts and prints, staying safe but taking risks, and stay in a theme of color and direction. My 6-8 prints were great individually but didn't necessarily work well with what was being created in garment patterns or in unison with the other prints being used that season.  

"Roses" Dresses

Luckily for me, most of those prints made it into the Spring 2013 collection (which made me personally very happy and proud) but the "Roses" print still hadn't been used. Which brings us to Fall 2013. I am proud to announce after four collections from start to finish, that the "Roses" print finally made the cut! Here you can see the print in two different color stories and on two different dresses! The First Dance Dress on the left and the Meet Me In The Meadow  Dress on the right. This print has really taught me the lesson of patience and harmony. Sometimes we need to be patient in order to use something we created and wait for the right time for it to be used. When that time comes, it should be used in sync with the rest of what is created, in order to bring out the best it has to offer.