Aalto University’s fashion, clothing and textile design students came up with new ways of digital textile printing in a competition organised in collaboration with Epson. The results were presented at the FESPA Global Print Expo 2022 in Berlin.

Textile and print design is facing a new era. Technological developments are constantly opening up new possibilities, and Aalto University fashion and textile design students are increasingly using digital textile printing to design printed fabrics and products for fashion and interior design. This is one of the reasons why textile printer manufacturer Epson has been collaborating with Aalto University in the field of digital textile printing since 2019.

This spring, Epson and Aalto University organised an Epson Textile Print competition in conjunction with the Advanced Textile Workshop courses for Master’s degree students, where students used Epson’s textile printers.

The competition kicked off with a two-day masterclass workshop led by Daniel Henry, a Belgian textile designer visiting Aalto University. He is a founder of Daniel Henry Studio and an internationally renowned designer who works with several fashion houses. The project was led by Anna-Mari Leppisaari, Lecturer in Textile Design at Aalto University.

The competition and winners

Students were tasked with designing a collection of at least four fabrics, creatively combining woven, knitted or otherwise modified print bases for digital printing on an Epson direct-to-garment DTG or sublimation printer.

The jury unanimously selected the collection of Nour Ainasoja, a student in the Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design Master’s programme, as the winner of the Epson Textile Print competition.

The jury also awarded a special mention to Sanna Ahonen, a student in the Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design Master’s programme, and Takako Akimoto, a student in the Textiles, Material and Structure minor, for their high-quality work, which creatively combined both print fabric design and woven fabrics.

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What is the future of digital textile printing? on Aalto University News