Epson, FOR.TEX and F.lli Robustelli present the Print Your Vision project involving four young designers and the Antonio Ratti Foundation
Epson, For.Tex and F.lli Robustelli will present the Print Your Vision project at the 17th ITMA the world’s largest exhibition of textile machinery to be held November 12-19, at Fiera Milano Rho. The project was created to promote digital textile printing. The four young designers, at the project’s heart, were asked to reinterpret designs preserved in the Como Antonio Ratti Foundation Textile Museum’s archives. They will implement them through the infinite possibilities of the MonnaLisa®[1] digital printer and the Genesta inks.The innovative Print Your Vision project results will be showed at ITMA, at the three companies’ stand (Hall H18 Stand D101 – D102 – D103). It will be decorated for the occasion with beautiful tapestries depicting the four designer’s final creations. Visitors can learn about the latest developments in technology and see how the textile tradition may be revisited by the creativity of the designers and revitalized with the help of the three partners’ digital printers.
Print Your Vision coordinator Matteo Augello is a fashion and popular culture historian who selected the designers. He commented: “With Print your Vision we wanted to show how digital printing technology can be a great resource for fashion.It is a way to revisit the past in a modern way through the study and reworking of ancient fabrics. It means they can find the most diverse uses, from interior design to high fashion. Print your Vision is a link between past and future, making it possible to combine the vast, important Como cultural heritage with the new technological scenarios that will influence the textile industry in the coming years. “.
Vital to the Print Your Vision project was the support received from the Antonio Ratti Foundation which provided the MuST (Museo Studio del Tessuto) archives to the designers. The MuST collection has more than 3300 single textile artefacts, and more than 2500 sample books that illustrate the textile history from the third to the twentieth century. Since 2007, the collection has been recognized as being of “exceptional interest” by the Italian State and subject to legal protection.“MuST offers a consulting service for young designers so they can see a vast archive of ancient textiles preserved in the museum and reinterpret them in a modern way for new collections. This is exactly what Antonio Ratti did when he collected this precious heritage,” said Margherita Rosina, Director of the Antonio Ratti Foundation.
The four young, creative and avant-garde women who were the project’s chosen designers commented on their involvement in the initiative:
- Mariagrazia Cuccuru,24, designer at Cotonificio Albini: “Digital printing allows a freer design, without the limitations that traditional printing brings. Drawing for digital printing technologyallows me to have more space and a creative lightness.”
- Silvia Lo Presti, 25, works at Etro research, development and graphics: “The textile printing creative process comes from a spur-of-the-moment inspiration. Details that attract my attention can be processed according to the project’s needs.Thanks to inkjet printing enhancing my work I could make a project for Print Your Vision. “
- Arianna Moroder, 30, Mantero Seta S.p.a designer who founded in Prato the research centre Lottozero for textiles said about her research at the historical archives of the Ratti Foundation: “I searched through many antique textiles which were linked to rituals, liturgies and traditions.I was interested in focusing on a fabric that was strongly linked to antiquity and tradition to then rethink it with a new and contemporary technique. “
- Teresa Ribeiro, 29, Gabel designer: “Compared to traditional printing, digital printing definitelyoffers more freedom and creative possibilities, such as using colours or shapes to be developed.”
The designers spent a day with the Epson, FOR.TEX and F.lli Robustelli team at the Textile Solution Center to learn and understand all the secrets of digital printing. They later visited the MuST historical archives where they identified the artefacts of interest to use for their projects. They are making their own creations. Each will create a design using MonnaLisa digital printing and Genesta inks. Those creations will be used in the panels that will decorate the ITMA and an ITMA Special Edition scarf.
