Word: silke
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Cavalli is as famous for his prints as he is for his full-on approach: think giraffe spots on chiffon dresses, beaded psychedelic silk-satin shirts and rhinestone-studded jeans. Stars like Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Lopez and Lenny Kravitz cannot get enough of it. Valentino may be known as the chic one among Italian designers, but Cavalli is the playboy. Dressed in his uniform of jeans and black leather jacket, he's a rugged-looking 65-year-old with a healthy head of salt-and-pepper hair who has the former Miss Universe wife, the beautiful children, the Tuscan palazzo...
...would make weekly trips to Cuomo?the capital of the textile industry?in a tiny Fiat 500 and then hang around the factories and watch the silk-screen-printing process. "The moment I learned something new, I was driving back to Florence to use it." His printing unit grew from one man helping him to a factory of 30 workers in 1967. He was the first to print patterns on suede and leather, a technique that turned out to be lucrative when both Hermès and Pierre Cardin in Paris snapped up Cavalli's materials. By the early...
Walking over to the square printing screens that are stored on a rack on wheels, Cavalli chooses one that depicts a zebra stripe and, with the help of an employee, places the screen over a table that is stretched tightly with plain white silk. Cavalli checks that the screen is clicked in place on both sides of the table, pours out a thick glob of black paint, grabs a wooden bar and smears the paint to the other side with it. Afterward, he lifts up the screen to show the design. Ten minutes go by, and the process begins again...
There is one step in the printing process about which Cavalli swears nobody else in the world knows. He walks over to where a young technician sitting in front of a computer has scanned a design that is being printed out on yards of white silk using a machine called the Monna Lisa. "After an hour, I can have material in my hand," Cavalli says, considerably impressed. "It's good because it allows me to try ideas out and see them immediately. It stops me from making mistakes...
...still no obvious Thai look. Some designers target Bangkok teenagers, others Paris socialites; some are foreign-educated, others are self-taught. But there are certain shared qualities: an attention to detail, a preference for handmade materials and designs, and a taste for natural textiles and light fabrics made from silk and cotton. Much of what distinguishes Thai fashion, in fact, is in the details?made possible because of the country's vast supply of skilled craftspeople, whose traditional styles get incorporated into utterly contemporary final products...