Suno NYC SS10 - Surfside Style + Prints Galore

Collections like the one above make me loath the nonsensical showing of Spring fashions in the Fall. Oh, how I long for this set...

Suno NYC presents an extremely timely range of punchy, Kenyan-inspired prints on covetable separates for S/S2010.

I'm not even sure if the orange printed bottom on the model above is a skirt, a pants, or a dhoti, but I do know that I want it, like yesterday!

Created by Max Osterweis, the line marries a chic, contemporary aesthetic with the bold designs and earthy feel of Kenyan textiles.

The inital 2009 collection featured a limited set of 1000 pieces - designed in NYC and produced in Kenya - and served as the kick-off for the Suno brand, all with a focus on treasuring and supporting the Kenyan textile industry.

So worth a buy!

LMN Harris.

NB Images courtesy Suno NY

A Material Girl's Textile Love, pt1 - Wax Kangas

Between constantly drooling over those Pilar pieces, and doing a loads of research on Pan-African art forms, I've been happily stuck in an Afro-print wonderland, these days!

And thus, I thought I'd let you in on the goodness, by showing you this absolutely gorgeous print I found. It's a swatch from a Kanga; in case you're wondering, I'm not going on about the Brit cap brand, here.

Kangas are basically lengths of brightly coloured, wax-bonded cottons that are used by African women as beautiful wrap skirts and such.

But note: These simplistic, patterned textiles are not of the kitschy, 'Kente cloth' ilk; Kangas are at once decidedly tribal and traditional, and also extremely contemporary-cool.

To really up the cool factor, do something a tad different with it. Buy a yard or two, cut out a large square or rectangle shape and mount it on your wall, in an ornate, Louis XIV-esque frame.

For the cost of the material and the frame, you'd have gotten a high-art caliber piece on a relative dime!

LMN Harris

NB image courtesy Middlesex Textiles.