Crafting the Digital

The paper was presented at the 6th International Conference of Textiles, Tirana, Albania on 20th November 2014. The conference focused on ‘important topics and issues of European and global science in the field of textile materials, technologies, fashion design and marketing’. The paper was submitted under the Textile Design and Fashion/ Textile Education topic and discussed the development of embroidery software and hardware in response to the designer client base that enabled richer surface effects to be achieved. The paper considered through three case studies how students and practitioners are exploring both digital and hand processes to achieve luxury surfaces and the possibilities of outcomes that may result. Abstract: Historically the labour and materials involved in producing lavish embroidered textiles have made them the perfect medium through which to express great wealth and status. Materials with intrinsic wealth or rarity were used to denote rank, separation from the masses and position, whether secular or religious, in addition to being aesthetically desirable. The development of computerised embroidery and embellishment equipment, both software and hardware, has enabled the possibility for customised fashion at reduced cost. Ready to wear has been influenced by a resurgence of interest in couture and traditional textile craft techniques have been rediscovered and reworked in combination with the use of new technology and industrial processes. Embroidery software and hardware developers have responded to their designer client base by developing sophisticated tools enabling richer surface effects to be achieved. How are students and practitioners exploring both digital and hand processes to achieve luxury surfaces? This paper will consider through student case studies how designers are exploring the possibilities of craft and digital for textile design for fashion and what type of outcome may result