Dries van Noten is one of our favorite designers and one of our most popular. Kelly Petersen, the manager of the Wendy Foster Dress Shop and Sportswear, has done some research on the Orbis fabric which the designer uses extensively in his recent collection. The following are some notes prepared by the designer…
“Orbis Wirth was a Swiss born inventor of whom little is know.
In 1920s he invented a revolutionary fabric printing technique that allowed for the simultaneous laying of an infinite amount of colour onto fabrics of many qualities, long before the inkjet techniques of today rendered this a common occurrence.
The unique unstable process involved the mounting of many layers of fragile wax imbued with vivid pigments onto a wide metal cylinder. Once these heavy cylinders were rolled over wet fabrics the pigments were transferred almost in a precise form of smudging. No two meters of printed fabric were alike. Each roll was exhausted after a very limited amount of meters were printed.
The result was a marble-like print of real and exaggerated proportions, often blurred yet mostly astonishingly fine and sharp, with seemingly endless flashes of colours. An often psychedelic quality of the vivacity of the motifs and the acidity of the colours used often trick the eye of today into thinking that these fabrics date from the 1960s rather than their original period.
The technique quickly became considered as unreliable given that each wax cylinder could only be used once and it was also impossible to repeat an exact pattern. It was for this reason it ceased to be utilized and had long since been forgotten.
ORBIS WITH THE JAKOB SCHLAEFPER COMPANY
At the beginning of the 1980’s, the world renowned Swiss fabric company Jakob Schlaepfer researched Orbis’ technique and recreated the wax pigment cylinders as he had done fifty years previously. They used some of his motifs in their original colour ways as well as creating a few new print designs of their own. Again the difficulties inherent in the technique and its almost exorbitant cost made it almost impossible that they continue their experiment and so production was abruptly ceased. A few wax rolls remained and were stowed away with no use in sight.
DRIES VAN NOTEN WITH ORBIS
& THE JAKOB SCHLAEPFER COMPANY
In early 2007, in Lyon, France, a member of the Dries Van Noten design team was perusing a book archive on fabric printing techniques for inspiration. He happened upon a book dating from the 1930s that described and depicted Orbis’ technique, it even included swatches of the original fabrics. On his return to Antwerp his find was quickly presented to Dries Van Noten and immediately Orbis; work struck a resonant chord. We needed to find a way of continuing this fascination work.
Some detective work ensued and the Dries Van Noten design team were quite quickly lead to the Jakob Schlaepfer Co., their archives and that stock room. Those last wax cylinders were found.
In collaboration with Dries Van Noten, Schlaepfer printed up the last meters of these Orbis prints possible using those last few remaining wax rolls, creating, what would become, limited edition, exclusive pieces within the Dries Van Noten Autumn Winter 2008/09 collection.
In continuation of and as an homage to Orbis’ original work Dries Van Noten also created new print designs inspired by the original fabric swatches from the 30’s printed in the modern inkjet technique.”
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