Interview with Siobhan: Stories Woven in Textile

Hi everyone! 👋 I'm thrilled to introduce you to Siobhan, our incredibly talented textile and print designer! 🎨👗

As you read on, you'll get to know more about how to style for your petite frame, how print scale can affect your proportions and the behind the scenes process of creating a print design for fashion.

I first connected with Siobhan through my friend and fashion business coach, Vicki, who also freelances as a Creatives Coach. Siobhan's expertise lies in swimwear and activewear, but her designs have a beautiful and versatile touch that perfectly matches my brand's – Chocolat Couture - resort style.

Her creativity is truly inspiring as she combines digital and hand drawings with stunning colors, creating prints that tell fascinating stories. What amazed me the most is Siobhan's dedication to her work, taking care of every detail from the initial idea to the final print. She creates flattering and harmonious looks with great attention.

Siobhan's extensive experience as a personal stylist gives her a keen eye for colors, and her talent goes beyond being a stylist and designer; she's also an artist who weaves captivating stories through her prints. Her passion and attention to detail have truly left a lasting impact on me. 🌟

Now, let's enjoy the interview!

Linda:

Siobhan, when it comes to creating your unique and beautiful designs, the choice of materials seems to be a key factor. Could you tell us more about the materials you prefer to work with and why they play such a vital role in achieving your design goals?

Siobhan:

Thank you so much for asking. It really depends what kind of print I am making but for me, inspiration is a very big part of my design process and this also determines what materials I will be using for the print.

I tap into the feeling of the print I am making while also considering the client's wishes and interpreting these ideas in my own way. I work with mood boards and photography elements but also with drawn elements. So I would say a mix of digital and hand drawings - when I use hand drawings there are a few materials I would use like watercolours, pastels or markers. But I also really like drawing digitally in ProCreate because there are so many effects and brushes that also already look like drawings. Adobe Fresco is also a program I really like working with, they have digitally made watercolour brushes that look so real and can even mix colours. So there is just so much choice but that's why it's also so important to concentrate on a few programs, for example, I don't use Illustrator or Affinity design for prints. 

And not to forget Photoshop, one of the most important programs to use, where you can clean the print elements and do repeat prints and actually do so much more.

Linda: 

Siobhan, as a textile and print designer, we know you have a lot of knowledge and experience in creating beautiful and unique designs. We'd love to hear more about your creative process and how you bring your ideas to life. Can you walk us through the steps of taking a design from the initial concept to the final finished product?

Siobhan:

Thank you so much, Linda. I love making prints and bringing ideas to life on a garment. For me it really depends what kind of project I am working on. But there are some steps that I usually go when making a print or a print collection or a single print. The most important part for me is tapping into my creative intuition and really seeing what is right for this print and combining this with my client's wishes. There is also a difference when I make a custom-made print or a print for my print library that can be sold directly from there without a brief before.

My process:

1. Preparing the print

a) Inspiration - depending on the project, if my client gave me direct instructions on the look of the print or if I am making a print collection that is ready for direct sales - I would make a mindmap on paper of what topics interest me at the moment and see what comes up in my mind. I also look at photographs I took on holidays or just in nature to feel inspired. Based on that I would pick a rough topic and go to the next stage of the process.

b) Research - making mood boards, making trend research- seeing what is on trend right now but also what will be in trend for the coming seasons like A/W23 (Autumn/Winter 2023) and SS24 (Spring/Summer 2024) right now. I often look at trend websites like WGSN to see if I am on the right track. Taking into consideration what garments are planned to have prints on them and specifically researching in that area.

For the mood boards, I take personal photos and for the trend boards I would take photos of my trend research.

2. Print development

a) Sketches - on paper and on my Ipad, making sketches with a pen for example of flowers and to get an idea of how the print elements and the layout.

b) Drawings - making drawings in ProCreate, Adobe Fresco or even Photoshop - depending on what kind of effects I would like the prints to be. As well as doing hand drawings or effects like stripes or effects for the background.

c) Print elements - picking out print elements from the drawings, scanning in drawings and seeing if every element is needed. As well as taking elements from the mood boards either interpreted in drawings or photography elements.

d) Colours - this is a very important step - changing up colours and seeing if they match the whole print and the concept. It is very important to see that they look good together and also looking at the mood and trend boards and what colours I already picked out for the collection.

e) Photoshop - cleaning the print elements, depending on if they are scanned in from paper or if they are digitally drawn, there are different processes. I pick out the elements that fit together and see that I can create a good-looking layout for the print. For a print collection it is important that each print has different print elements and it is not repeating.

3. Finalising the print

a) Repeat print - if I am satisfied with all the print elements that I picket before I will view the layout again and will start making the repeat print in Photoshop.

b) Review - After a few days I will look at the prints and see if everything still fits and looks good. Sometimes it happens that after a few days, you can see something that still has to be changed to make it perfect. It is also essential if I work on a collection that it fits together and they go well with each other but still look different from each other.

Linda:

Siobhan, you have a great sense of style and expertise in colors, which is especially important for petite women like me. I've learned that the right color palette can make a big difference in how we look and feel. I'm curious to know how the size of prints can affect shopping choices for petite women. Can you share your thoughts on this please?

Siobhan: 

Thank you so much for this question Linda. I do have to say for my other job I do style menswear more but I also have a little bit of knowledge about womenswear styling. For the scale of the print it is important that the items of the print are not too big and take too much focus and are just too heavy. It is a good choice to choose prints with smaller elements as well like the golden splatters and items that are in your print that I made for you. 

Linda: 

Siobhan, as part of our design team and the mastermind behind the beautiful marble culottes textile design, we value your fashion expertise. Can you suggest colors for tops that would complement and go well with this unique design?

Siobhan:

First of all I think it is a very good choice to add a printed item to your outfit as it just shows that you put some thought to it as well as bringing colour and joy to the world. But the most important thing is that you really like the print and feel comfortable wearing it.

So for the colours it is first of all quite good to have something uni coloured for the top in contrast with the printed culottes. What always works is if you wear a uni coloured top that has a colour that repeats itself in the print so for example a dark blue, a light blue but also neutral colours like white, beige (that would complement the gold coloured details) or pastel colours that are in the same colour scheme as the print - I would say stay in cooler tones like a pastel lilac or blue tone.

Linda: 

Siobhan, we are always excited to hear about new projects and collaborations. Can you give us a sneak peek into any upcoming ones that you are currently working on? We would love to know what you have in store for us and the rest of your fans and followers.

Siobhan: 

That's a wonderful question and I would love to talk about this. I have a lot of things planned in the future and I am currently working on creating new print collections for my upcoming print library on my website, where brands can directly buy a print design. I am also working on a new course about print design  - as I love teaching in that area very much as well. I recently decided to niche down my services and only concentrate on offering print designs, trend research and mood boards. And all in all I am concentrating on and making prints full-time as I am just in love with making them. 🥳

I hope you all enjoyed our interview with Siobhan! If you'd like to learn more about her work and potentially collaborate with her, you can follow her on Instagram or send her a direct message. You can also explore her portfolio and get in touch through her website. 😊

As we continue on our fashion journey, we invite you to dive into our sustainable petite brand story and learn about our focus on sustainable fabrics. But that's not all – we have so much more to offer! Our blog features a wealth of petite styling tips to help you find your personal style that reflects the unique you. 

If you'd like to stay connected and receive more petite styling ideas, fashion insights, and sustainability tips, we invite you to sign up for our email list. You can also find us on Instagram and Pinterest, where we occasionally share our inspirations.