Sketch Pad: The Laurence King Blog

Carlene Edwards

British textile designer Carlene Edwards recently returned to the UK after working for Friulprint in Italy. Edwards is now based in Edinburgh and currently collaborating with fashion designer Joey D (www.joey-d.co.uk) as well as producing her own print collections. This week, Carlene's first independent collection since leaving Friulprint was launched at Indigo at Premiere Vision by her Agent Allan Thomas. Check out her site:www.carlene-edwards.co.uk


Carlene's edgy urban prints caught my eye about three years ago. I interviewed Carlene and included a big feature on her work in my book 'Textile Designers at the Cutting Edge'and several other authors have written about her also. Urban life has been her biggest source of inspiration so far, resulting in collections such as ‘Inner City Living’ and ‘Hip Hopular’. ‘I like my work to tell a story,’ she said. ‘For one collection, I studied the pages of the Hackney Gazette, which was my local newspaper at the time, to find articles about children's projects, artistic performances, musical events and cultural festivals. It wasn’t easy to spot them immediately, because they were eclipsed by the headline articles about violence and crime that dominated the newspaper. I realised that inner city areas even get bad press locally, with little media attention given to the wealth of creativity that exists in the community.’

Carlene decided to capture all aspects of local life in her prints. ‘Not just my own experience, but the things that make up the background of so many people’s daily routines,’ she said. ‘I wanted to create prints that reflect how we live, our surroundings and environments.’ Her ‘Inner City Living’ collection evolved from sketches of the area and personal photographs taken around the borough of Hackney. The prints are poetic portrayals of the derelict buildings, fencing, scaffolding and graffiti-covered brick walls that characterise parts of Hackney, but also capture the neighbourhood’s artistic and cultural characteristics. ‘The “Hip Hopular” series was inspired by young Hackney. Hip Hop culture, parties, style, fashion and attitude all fed into the designs.’

The gritty edges of Carlene’s urban decay imagery are often softened by pattern repeats and contrasting colour-ways. ‘My colour schemes are deliberately vibrant and positive,’ Edwards said, ‘to reflect the fashion sensibilities of most inner city communities. Colours and motifs from sportswear, high street fashion and African textiles have been a source of inspiration for me. I mix these elements with my drawings and photography, and other elements of youth culture such as Hip Hop music. That’s where motifs such as trainers, shoelaces and headphones come from.’

Her acute insight into street fashion has enabled Carlene to identify shortcomings that she hopes textile designers can make up for. ‘There aren’t enough cool prints for women's street wear,’ Carlene lamented. ‘Here we are, left with florals again. Not that I don't like flowers, but I'd like to see more edgy designs. Men’s street-wear prints are much more diverse. Some fashion labels are starting to use interesting womenswear prints, so hopefully that will continue.’

Posted on 12/02/2009 by Bradley Quinn