Talking Textiles - Lidewij Edelkoort #4

The fourth issue of TALKING TEXTILES explores how contemporary textile creativity is vibrant and wild! This trend magazine is filled with remarkable developments in textiles, art, clothes and interiors, from artisans and artists to mills, manufacturers, designers and innovators as well as talented graduates from around the globe. Including an A/W 2021 yarn and colour forecast by Li Edelkoort and a multitude of articles, TALKING TEXTILES brings together inspiring imagery and detailed analysis about the past and future of fabrics.

As Li Edelkoort observes, the textile domain moves fast forward into the future, sampling colour from the garden and waste from with matter from kelp and mushrooms and more. High tech and slow craft merge effortlessly into new hybrids, able to combine additional functions. The impetuous pace of innovation deals with folding, coiling, braiding and knotting; rethinking textiles first invented in the Bronze Age. Archaeology and anthropology are major sources of both knowledge and inspiration, as more and more textiles take on cultural and humanitarian endeavours.

Textiles are talking loud and clear, becoming activists pleading for peace, fighting fear and interrogating mutinous mental states. Much needs to be healed in today’s society, from questions surrounding rape and abuse to the challenges of our own species’ survival. Awareness is growing fast, giving voice to the textile world at large, obtaining new materials, designing new systems, encoding new programmes and adorning in a recalcitrant manner. Several international exhibitions dedicated to Planet Earth have been clamouring a wake-up call; reaching larger audiences, teaching new generations and convincing die-hard sceptics. Analysing the lament and dissecting the pain while proposing other design solutions, giving us hope for our future in a moment of mild optimism. We might be able to conquer our destiny after all. The assertive artistic vision of contemporary weavers and designers heralds a heroic attempt to save the field, to grow the sphere and to spread the word.