Color Know How
05.12.2012 § Leave a comment
To be able to enjoy life is a great blessing, but to take on a challenge is more rewarding. It is both the painful process of overcoming the difficulty and the thrill of attaining the goal, the mixture of these two extremes that makes life more inspiring and meaningful. I suppose that is why I do what I do. In developing the Brentano line, I am constantly challenging the status quo and searching for new technology, new color sense and new points of view.
Making colors for natural fibers such as cotton, rayon, wool—the process is a sheer pleasure. They each have a noble characteristic when taking dyes. When finalizing the color selections for a pattern with a natural fiber, we are torn between so many good colors that exquisite colors often get left out.
Our aspirations for producing color are high regardless of fiber. The commodity type man-made yarns that we utilize to design fabrics (which are necessary to satisfy various functional needs as well as to fit in design budgets) are a challenge to color. When we want something subtle yet rich, it might turn out loud and bright. When we need to tone it down, it will become lifeless and muddy. There is a bit of agony in attempting a perfect color with a man-made fiber; it has become an ongoing crusade to perform miracles. I get extra excited when a good color turns out from man-made fibers, more so than the natural fibers, simply because it is a lot more challenging.
For our 2013 spring collection, Coloratura, a bold pattern made of all man-made fibers, presented a challenge with balancing color weights, while Vibrato was double the challenge in trying to cross dye a polyester and rayon in one dyebath. The cotton pile velvet Marimba, the viscose void epinglé Tempo, and the cotton and viscose drapery Rhapsody were relatively effortless.
Woven-Words 
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