Dating back many centuries, Ajrakh block-printing is a traditional Indian craft that uses vivid natural dyes and wooden blocks to print unique patterns on cotton fabric. The process is elaborate and laborious, requiring numerous stages of printing, dyeing, and washing to achieve the gorgeous designs.
Ethical Fashion Blog
Hello! I’m Katelyn, one of the textile designers here at Mata Traders. With our Spring/Summer ‘17 collection off to such a great start, I thought it might be fun to give you all a glimpse behind the creation process of two of our most popular prints this season! Taking a sketch from the initial concept and developing it into one of a dozen finalized prints in a collection can be a labor of love, but it is always worth it in the long run. I love seeing my work on so many beautiful Mata customers!
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Hi, I’m Elizabeth, a college student interning at Mata, and I’m here to share some styling tips for the fall season!
No matter what season it is, geometric shapes, edges, and angles are always in style. I’m constantly flipping through books in the library on all things design, because anything can become inspiration for a Mata pattern. My apartment is not only full of books on traditional textiles but also books on furniture, architecture and fashion– you never know what’ll stick. Every once in a while I find a piece of a chair, section of a building, or shape of a hat that I sketch, tessellate, and it eventually becomes part of the collection.
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Isn’t it hard to believe that we design these prints almost a year and a half before they hit the shelves? It’s especially difficult for us to think about the beautiful spring and summer weather when we’re experiencing the frozen mess that is a Chicago winter. Dreaming about warmer weather thawed my brain last winter, and I started to get excited about all the berries I would pick and eat once summer time rolls around! Thus began the inspiration for this print:
You might know it as a wine. But the color marsala, as full-bodied as its beverage counterpart, is receiving an honor it hasn’t before: it’s been named as Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2015.
It’s good news! It’s GREAT news, in fact.
If you’ve worn our clothing, you know we work with 100% woven cotton. We keep it simple and flattering, and we’ve worked with certain types of silhouettes for years that work with our fabrics. We love it and you love it, but we wanted to expand our options a little bit.
Sometimes it’s alright to get up to a little monkey business, especially if it involves swinging from a tree in your favorite Mata dress. Meet Lisa Marie Prang, a self-proclaimed fashion fanatic and the creator of LMP Collections blog. Lisa can’t say enough good things about our Zadie Belle Dress!
Do you ever notice that what you wear can change your mood? Or even make your day? “The Near and Deer Top” and “Buck Stops Here Skirt” from Mata Traders are those kind of pieces – instant mood boosters.
It’s crazy to think that in the fashion industry we have to design a collection a year in advance! One cold winter day in 2013, the design team here at Mata Traders sat around a table, enveloped in sweaters, hot tea/coffee in hand, flipping through the spring 2014 trend forecast shining from our computer screens. These wonderful images of warmth and color that symbolize spring gave me a sense of hope that maybe we would soon see the sun, but more importantly, got our brains racing for possibilities for new textiles and garments.
If there were ever a true cocktail dress, this is it, it, and it! The First Dance Dress, the Starling Pocket Dress, and ModCloth’s exclusive Toast to Coast dress.
Florals are one of the most popular patterns on fabric. Walk into a clothing store and a floral print is guaranteed to cover a few garments. I myself have designed or refined a bunch of florals for Mata Traders like the Roses print and the Falling Florals print. You might be asking what makes this floral print different?
Hello! Shifra here, back to tell you more about our original prints from last spring’s collection (quickly, before we’ve moved on to this spring!).
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I have really enjoyed telling the stories and processes behind some of the prints in the Mata Traders Fall ’13 collection and decided I should go back and do the same for prints created for Spring ’13. The great part is that these next couple prints I will write about are now on sale, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a good sale?
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Hello again!
Today’s blogger style post is brought to you by Marisa from Shades of Monet, who decided to take our Sailor Moon dress through sun, leaves, snow and blooms. With some simple but edgy styling, she jazzed it up with serious pops of color and seasonal accessories.