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Meet 5 Textile-Focused Dutch Designers Exhibiting at Ventura New York

This year, Ventura exhibited their Dutch Edition at ICFF for the first time, venturing into new territory from their typical WantedDesign Manhattan takeover. In the center of the massive furniture fair, a booth filled to the brim of work from 15 different Dutch designers brought a bright, joyous and material-focused perspective to NYCxDesign. One of the main trends we noticed from the show-within-a-show was a focus on textile innovation, with five of the 15 projects centered around finding new creative ways to work with both traditional fabrics and even unexpected ones like Colback. Below is an overview of the five textile-focused works, which are all on display at ICFF until tomorrow, May 22:

The Composition Table by Creative Chef

Creative Chef combines product design and food to create meaningful dining experiences. Keeping with their mission to bring everyone together over food in unexpected ways, the designers decided to transform one of the most common dining accessories: table linens.

At first glance, the textiles appear to be just a colorful, visual treat, but their pattern is actually scannable sound waves, which when scanned create a musical composition to listen to over a meal. The idea is that the phone with the scanning app can be passed around the table, and each time a guest scans their placemat or section of the tablecloth, a new sound is added to the piece.

Kaumera Kimono by Nienke Hoogvliet

Nienke Hoogvliet’s goal is to find ways to make the textile industry more sustainable, with a specific focus on working with pollution and starting a movement against fast fashion. For her exhibiting project, Kaumera Kimono, the designer created a new material from wastewater that can be used during the dyeing process.

Hoogvliet discovered that Kaumera, an alginate like material derived from wastewater, actually makes textiles absorb dyes better. So, in turn, less water is needed in the dying process. To add color to the textiles, she used two natural dyes extracted from wastewater: Anammox and Vivianite. Kimonos are garments that, unlike fast fashion pieces, are passed on for generations, so Nienke decided it would be the ideal garment to apply her research to.

BLOCKO Cushions by Aleksandra Gaca

Aleksandra Gaca’s 3D woven textiles, aptly called Architextiles, have already been seen in the fashion and automotive worlds as cozy, sound dampening pieces. But the process to bring this technique to a point in which it can be manufactured for use in the industry did not come easy. In fact, Gaca has been working to develop this technique for around 20 years—working to refine both the design and manufacturing process (now she is able to produce them by machine instead of by hand).

At ICFF, the designer is exhibiting a step into the home decor world with a series of cushions using her sound absorbent fabrics. The cushions provide a visual, tactile and auditory experience with a surprising gradient color effect as you move them around in your hands.

Colback Table by Rick Tegelaar

Rick Tegelaar discovered that Colback, the same material dryer sheets are made from, can be 3D printed, so he decided to customize the FDM printing process to accommodate yarns made from the material. The designer also developed a method of adhering the printed yarn over non-woven Colback material to create reinforcements, add rigidity and create tensional strength.

To make the table on display at ICFF, Tegelaar used this same technique to create a graphic layer on non-woven Colback to enhance the appearance of a material we all know from our laundry supplies.

Cafe´ 6116 Coffee Table by Ruben van Megen

In many portraits painted by 17th-century Dutch masters, Persian carpets are often seen being used as tablecloths because they were thought to be too beautiful to put on the ground. As a new take on this tradition, Ruben van Megen is exhibiting a table that features a tabletop made from a real Persian rug covered in resin, thus preserving both the beauty and the scars of the carpet.

There’s still time to visit Ventura Projects at ICFF—the fair runs until tomorrow, May 22.