Unforgettable Textile Design in Everyday Things

If you look at the objects that you encounter in a day you will more than likely find that at least one of them is touched by design with cultural antecedents outside your own.  Many of the designs we see in everyday life come from textile surface or structural design that have been passed down through multiple generations proving that they are unforgettable and continue to have appeal.  Textile surface design or applied design is when a finish of some type is applied to a textile.  Embroidery, painting, or tie dyeing are examples. Structural design incorporates the design as fabric is produced, such as weaving a tapestry or creating lace. What is fascinating is when that surface or structural design is incorporated into a different type of object than for what it was originally intended. A pair of socks could have a Navajo geometric design knitted into them.  A tray might have an Incan Tocapu design painted onto it.  An African Kente Cloth design might be printed onto a fabric shower curtain.  Now the materials and the way of creating the design have both changed but the visual idea of the design is still dominate.

Producers decided how far to take the use of the design on which they base their work.  Is it a direct copy and has it been approved by the original creating group?  Is it an inspired piece that uses ideas from other works?  Is it a piece created in traditional ways by a group in the same ways as their predecessors? Is it even a textile or another form of media that uses like graphic ideas?  These are questions that play into the design process of the producers, values, and perception and evaluation of the design.

A selection of nine projects from Clothing, Textile and Interior Design 446 Cultural Dynamics Course at The University of Alabama are presented. Each project has a representative everyday object that can been found in today’s global market.

Japan Shibori

The Technique

What process was/is used to make the design in general?

In order to create a shibori design, a pattern must be in the dyers mind. Shibori is basically creating unique patterns by binding or folding the fabric so that the dye does not reach certain areas. With that in mind, the dyer must have his pattern in his head. Once the pattern is in the dyer’s head, he can then bind, sew, fold, or wrap the fabric to create this pattern (Wada, 1983). Each of the above techniques will give a very different pattern, as seen in the images for part 1.

Wada, Y., Rice, M. K., & Barton, J. (1983). Shibori : the inventive art of Japanese shaped resist dyeing : tradition, techniques, innovation. Kodansha International.

Is it surface, structural, or a combination?

Shibori is a surface design. It takes pre-made fabrics and uses binding and folding to manipulate the area the dye reaches when dipped into a dye bath.

What materials were/are used for the design?

The basic materials used for shibori are fabric and dye. However, depending on the method used it can vary. If using the binding method, the additional materials needed are string or rubber bands. In the sewing method, the materials needed are a needle and thread. In the folding method, the dyer will only need something to keep the fabric folded such as string, rubber bands, or something heavy. In folding,  the materials vary depending on what the dyer has as many different objects can be used to create the same affect. However, in wrapping (similar to folding), the dyer will need a pole or stick of some sort. This is so that the fabric can be wrapped around it and create a pattern similar to folding, except can be directional.

Who did the work?

In Japan, shibori was dyed originally the regular fabric dyers (the exact gender is unknown). However, as time went on, the dyers began to specialize in the type of dyeing, and dyers who just did shibori became known (Wada, 1983).

Wada, Y., Rice, M. K., & Barton, J. (1983). Shibori : the inventive art of Japanese shaped resist dyeing : tradition, techniques, innovation. Kodansha International.

What was/is the purpose of the textile with this surface design?

Shibori has been discovered in multiple places around the world. One of the oldest being in Peru. Thus, there is no true origin that has been discovered for this technique as of yet. However, it has been determined that this technique was originally used as a way of “reserving” the original color of a fabric while dyeing it (Wada, 2001).

Wada, Y. I. (2001). Memory on cloth : shibori now. Kodansha International.

Is the technique still being carried out today by the culture? Do they still practice the technique, teach it, and produce objects with the technique?

Shibiro is an important part of Japanese history in the textile industry. However, because of the amount of time and labor to create a shibori pattern, it is not frequently used today. In some ways it has turned into a dying dye technique. Usually this technique is now done for one-of-a-kind garments or by people at home.

Popular Culture Today

How is this surface design or structural design or combination produced today?

The Shibori Dye technique can be incredibly complex but at its simplest form it is a resist dye technique that often uses string to fold and bind a fabric. Because of this it varies in complexity due to the experience level of the person binding it and dying the fabric. Today the surface design has changed from being produced by hand to a machine. This allows more complex patterns to be made with far fewer man hours and makes the design accessible to more people (Roth, 2014).

Roth, Katherine. (2014, January 28). Shibori, an Ancient Japanese Dying Technique goes Mainstream. https://globalnews.ca/news/1113014/shibori-an-ancient-japanese-dying-technique-goes-mainstream/

Has the visual of the surface or structural design been used in material culture production today in popular culture or the fashion world?

Image 1: The Shibori style print in Diane Cvon Furstenberg runway show in 2013.

Image 2: Collaboration of Indigo Weavers

Image 3: Urban Outfitters bedding

Image 2 shows the way in which the Japanese tradition of Shibori is being honored by its people. And the ways in which designer Nikki Joshi is collaborating with the weaving village Andra Pradesh to create Shibori designs that are both authentic and honoring to its founders while bring it to the masses. While Images 1 and 3 show Shibori being adapted into western culture without giving proper credit. The urban outfitters bedding calls itself Shibori without containing many of the traditional elements. But Diane Von Furstenberg honored the tradition by using its design technique but calling it “Shibori style” since it was not created in traditional style.

Is it copied or used as inspiration?

It is both copied and used as inspiration. Throughout my research I saw companies who were recreating it with impressive accuracy and then I saw companies that were appropriating the name for advertisement. The biggest example of this was at Urban Outfitters, I saw many indigo designs that were simply tie dye that were being called shibori in order to make the item seem unique. But there is an upsurge in Japanese fashion  and textile designers that are bring the transitional method to the 21st century and including it in their collections (Nakamura, 2019).

Nakamura, Jun. (2019). Shibori and Contemporary Faswhion London-based Japanese Designer Reinterprets the Art of Shibori for the 21st Century. Japan Partnership Holdings.

What materials are used in the production?

The traditional materials used in shibori are indigo dye and cotton fabric. But because it has been accepted into the mainstream it has been made with other dyes and fabrics. It has been adapted most into home goods but can also be seen in scarfs, tops, outerwear, and many other items (Uchida, 2007). 

Uchida, Takashi,. Okamura, Masaaki. ( 2007). Study of the Generating Mechanism on Mokumenui-Shibori Pattern. Seni Gakkaishi. Volume 63 (Issue 9), Page 218-222.

Where can it be purchased?

It can be purchased at home good stores, apparel stores like urban Outfitters and Anthropologie and more traditional methods can be purchased from artisans and stores such as 1000 villages. Of all the methods studied in this course I would say that Shibori has become one of the more mainstream. With many Americans not knowing the historic background of the “blue and white tie dye.”

Who is producing it?

Shibori is being produced on a large scale by national and global fashion companies. But that is typically a watered down/appropriated version of the original. In the past decades the dye method has decreased in traditional form, but a new wave of Japanese designers are seeking to bring tradition Shibori back into the mainstream (Mcinnes, 2019).

Mcinnes, Paul. (2019, February 15). Jun Nakamura on Shibori and Contemporary Fashion: London based Japanese Designer Reinterprets the Art of Shibori for the 21st Century. https://metropolisjapan.com/jun-nakamura-shibori-contemporary-fashion/

How much does it cost?

There is an extremely wide range of price for Shibori dyed goods. Anything from a $5 shirt at target to incredibly complex designed by artisans can cost in the thousands of dollars.

Legal/Moral Issues

    END

    Has the culture group who produced the technique you researched given permission for the use of their work with the examples discussed in Part II?

    Seeing as how the Shibori dyeing technique has been around since as early as the 8thcentury the technique has been passed down generation to generation. Shibori is just main a dyeing technique which has unlimited way to be accomplished. As stated in in From East to West, Surface Design Journal some Japanese teachers traveled to California to teach the dyeing techniques so it can be argued that permission was given, more so in an underlying tone (Stabb, 1997).

    Stabb, J. A. C. (1997). From East to West. Surface Design Journal

    Discuss the laws that govern cultural intellectual property in the country where the culture resides.

    Japan does share the same the concept of intellectual property as the US. They have four main laws that offers protections, which are patent law, utility model law, design law, and trademark law. The country also has other types that can serve as protection such as copyright and other industry specific laws. Since Japan takes things a little more serious they are stricter and have set laws that protect things they consider “sacred” for the lack of better terms or the something that originated or only come from the Japanese culture. In concerns to the Shibori technique there are no laws that protects it per say, but if there may be a certain design or pattern that is created it can be protected under the design law.

    What laws in the US govern cultural intellectual property?

    On the surface there are four types of intellectual property, which are trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and patents. These types of intellectual property serve as rules as well as enforces the legal rights to artistic works, inventions, and design. It is stated that “The purpose of these laws is to give an incentive for people to develop creative works that benefit society, by ensuring they can profit from their works without fear of misappropriation by others.” (Intellectual Property Law, 2019). Copyrights are the particular branch of intellectual property law that deals with things surrounding artistic expressions. Anything that has not been documented or captured in a medium are not protected.

    Intellectual Property Law. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2019, from https://www.hg.org/intell.html

    Is the design considered sacred and should not be reproduced because of its sacred nature?

    In terms of the Shibori, it is not considered sacred and can be reproduced. Now there may be different sentimental values that stems from community to community such as a family specific way of creating a design but it is not a sacred practice.

    Is the technique/visual representation of the culture’s work considered public domain?

    The Shibori technique can be considered public domain. Referencing back to the sacred aspect of it, there are no right, wrong, or true steps you have to follow by the book everytime, so it is just what you make it and you have free range to be inspired and create however you please.