Last week I gave a presentation on Digital Textiles 'Now' to the V&A participants, focusing on the growth of the pro-amateur and home grown designer that are creating there own textiles by utilising local digital textile print bureaus and in turn revitalizing local textile industry. For example Bonbonkakku and Beta Fashion offer a democratic voting system through crowd sourcing for which the winning design designs go into production and are sold. 'Spoonflower' offer the amateur and the professional on-line community to share design work and final products through bespoke digital printing. I love this approach to design, digital printing is making it possible to design, print and produce fabric, share and sell on-line, thus changing the way design is consumed.
The Pira International report 2009 states 'Textiles production has moved to countries with low labour rates, but digital printing may change that. Short runs and agile manufacturing are set to force some production back to North America and Western Europe. More of the cotton that is shipped from the US to China will stay at home, to be made into fabric that will be digitally printed locally to satisfy design-savvy consumers locally, while digital print will allow more designers to create and test new designs more quickly'
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