Behind the fabric

SCREEN PRINTED SILKS





Each season in our ready-to-wear collection, a proportion of the silks featured in the designs

 are hand screen printed in collaboration with charity Women’s Interlink Foundation, 

based in Kolkata, in association with Key To Freedom. The charities work to

 rehabilitate and reintegrate women back into society who have been victims 

of human trafficking and the sex trade, and provide them with a sustainable livelihood.

A true artisanal skill, screen printing has been

 a popular technique in both the fashion

 and art world, with artists such as 

Andy Warhol using it for his infamous 

portraits of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.

Screen printing is a stencil method of printmaking in which a design is imposed on a screen

 of polyester or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance. 

Ink is forced into the mesh openings by the fill blade or squeegee and by wetting the 

substrate, transferred onto the printing surface during the squeegee stroke. 

As the screen rebounds away from the substrate the ink remains on the substrate.

 One colour is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to 

produce a multicoloured image or design.


Traditionally the process was called silkscreen printing as silk was used before the invention of polyester mesh. 

This has been used for three of our silks for 

Spring Summer 2017, including our 

coral tile print which is seen here in three of our designs.