How the company is driving creativity and innovation in the interiors and fashion industries.
When MTEX burst onto the wide-format print scene three years ago it was with a view to presenting a direct-to-textile printer series that would meet the demands not only of the sign and display market, but which would also appeal to designers and creative professionals in the fashion, textiles and interiors
markets.
The fashion world is perhaps the best example of continual adaptation, innovation and re-invention of type - seasonally changing and evolving trends naturally generate a creative mindset and with direct-to-textile printing capabilities the traditional boundaries of surface print and design have been reached. MTEX has worked hard at proving the point
MTEX’s showroom and technical training centre is based in Santo Tirso, Portugal. Santo Tirso is a centuries-old international textile industry centre, and
choosing to work there was no accident. MTEX understands that inspiring a revolution takes dedication and commitment, and from the outset the company formed a working relationship with the design department at the ESAD university in Porto (recently awarded the status of best Design University in Portugal) to help final year students realise their creations. And it offered to stage the graduate fashion show.
The show featured outfits and designs by final year fashion students, whose brief was to use fabrics printed digitally and specifically for the collection, creating one-off pieces not otherwise achievable through traditional methods. The fabrics were printed on the MTEX 5032 and 1800 printers using disperse dye inks and polyester fabrics.
Designers differentiate themselves by their creative signature, designs and service. Hence, MTEX collaborated with the municipality of Santo Tirso to
deliver an international conference last autumn, on the theme ‘Design as the Generator of the Fashion Industry’. This sought to discuss the value of design
and creativity as a tool for promoting the value chain in the fashion industry. It also looked at how, through differentiation and winning new audiences and
markets, they can work together to drive an industry with tradition and a strong presence in the region to aneven more prosperous and secure future. The
conference featured international designers and speakers including Diogo Liz of MTEX and renowned Spanish designer Agatha Ruis de la Prada.
The showroom facilities at the Centre Textiles Santo Tirso also hosts a network of fashion and textile designers, each with a ‘cube’ studio space, which is funded by the Portuguese government to support Portugal’s textile market regeneration. MTEX is working with these up-and-coming designers to develop their designs, ideas and fabrics using their digital textile printers and finishing equipment on site. MTEX has also worked with Catarina Ferreira, a very promising fashion designer from Porto, and presented her digital collection at Moda Lisboa last September. The entire collection was fully printed on MTEX solutions.
UK-based MTEX Technologies has taken a similar approach this year and set to work with the fashion and textiles students at the University of Derby. The company recently collaborated with one of the textile design graduates, Bernadette Raeside, to create a raft of cleverly designed fabrics for fashion and
interiors, which was colour matched with printed wallpapers and accessorised with knitted cushions and blankets. The ability to create picture-quality artwork on fabrics inspired the collection and earned Bernadette a ‘First’ grade for the work. In Germany also, MTEX has opened a showroom and training centre, and is making inroads into working with German and Austrian universities to emulate the success in Portugal and the UK.
In January of this year, MTEX was one of the first ever direct-to-textile printer manufacturers to take a stand at the internationally acclaimed interior textile
show, Heimtextile in Frankfurt. Based in the ‘design’ hall, MTEX ran three printers, including the MTEX 5032, 1800 and TurboSub at full pelt for four days
onto new fabric materials made specifically for endurance and vibrancy.
Eloi Ferreira, CEO of MTEX comments, “If you are printing fabrics for interiors, such as sofa or chair coverings, it has to be extremely durable, washable and soft to the touch. There’s no point if the colour fades quickly or rubs off. This isn’t the world of temporary textiles, we are looking much further: this is full-on serious textile printing and taking a stand at Heimtextile showed that we were happy and ready to be scrutinised and questioned by the industry on the reliability, durability and colour fastness of our prints.”
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