KAREL MARTENS x LIBERTY FABRICS
Liberty Fabrics unveils a new collaboration, created in collaboration with experimental Karel Martens. Featuring the Dutch graphic designer's distinctive layering of colour and shapes, the collection was developed in close collaboration with the Liberty Fabrics design team to create wearable textiles.
Karel Martens started setting the basis for his hand printed monoprints in the 1960s, as a student at the Arnhem School of Art. Studying sculpture and painting expanded Martens' understanding of shape and colour, and contributed to his career as a graphic designer and typographer.
Famed for organic approach to design is demonstrated in his hand printed portfolio, ranging from stamps and book designs, Karel Martens graduated from the Arnhem School of Art, Holland in 1961, from time before the ease of technologically produced art. Honouring both Martens and Liberty Fabrics' legacy, the collection is a celebration of colour and form, painstakingly recreating the designer's layering of shades onto textiles.
Printed at the Liberty Fabrics mill located near the banks of Lake Como, using both cutting-edge technology and traditional techniques, the series mixes hand drawn motifs with digital collages to achieve a vibrancy of colour that is faithful to Martens' originals. The resulting collection is modernist in spirit and offers a new approach to textile design for the British company.
'There is something archetypal in colour that opens your eyes, with three primary colours, you can make all the colours in the world,' says the designer. 'In printing, when you layer colours you get a surprise, you can never tell what is going to happen.'
We brought that same spirit of fun into our shirts, utilising the colors and geometry to highlight their architectural form.
Only available for Made-to-Order, these exclusive (yes, Shirt Number White carries this capsule exclusively in Singapore) prints are limited in quantity and can be made into any shirts from our archive!
To see more of the prints and shirts, head on to our lookbook.
To book an appointment to order your shirts in this exciting Liberty x Karel Martens capsule, click through here.
