Print is a wonderful vehicle to articulate that most British of things - our 'English wit'!" claims Christopher Bailey, Burberry's designer.
He was speaking not about the company's famous check - although that has been given some dramatic and witty treatments - but about his role as one of the judges next week at Texprint, a seed bed for patterns that flower across the fashion world.
Bailey is on a judging panel of the textile fair with his fellow designer Alice Temperley, whose exceptional knitting and weaving talents were discovered at Texprint in 1999.
Texprint was set up 34 years ago as an arm of the Design Council to help British textile students start their careers. Its current chairman, Julius Schofield, who is a director of the British designer recruitment agency Indesign and has been on Texprint's council for 20 years, believes that fabric innovation is more important than ever in bringing creativity to fashion.
"My ambition is that somebody does a fashion show like a conductor of an orchestra or a film when you see all the credits, not just for the star and the director," Schofield says, citing Natasha Lee, who went on from Texprint to create the white-on-white fabric effects at Chloé.
Even if fabric experts are seldom publicly appreciated, they need exposure to get a job in the industry. That is the point of Texprint, which sifts through 200 graduates - many of them international - recommended by British colleges.
Those selected by the judging panel go on show at London's Chelsea College of Art on Thursday and Friday. Then, after this first exposure, the fledgling talents are given booths in Texprint at Indigo, part of the Paris Première Vision fabric fair in September. Ultimately, the five competition winners are transported to Hong Kong to take part in Interstoff Asia in October.
Clare Tough's intricate and imaginative knits won an award at Texprint in 2004, after she graduated from Central Saint Martin's School. "Texprint was a good experience - especially going to Paris," Tough says. "Other people I went with benefited from freelance opportunities, and things started happening for me for my own label."
Tough was picked up by the Italian talent spotter Eo Bocci, who has an eagle eye for young talent. By working with a Turkish textile company, Tough has developed her own business, creating knits with a streamlined silhouette, but with intricate mixes of knitting and stitching, including inserts of metal chains and patches of crochet.
Textile effects have three different areas for creative imagination: in the original weaving, in knitting and in print and pattern. The latter is the most obvious, although, as at Burberry, all three can be brought into play.
Bailey shares Schofield's view that textiles are a key design factor, and that England is a major contributor, now and historically. He points out that the original Thomas Burberry was in fact a fabric maker, who invented the gabardine that launched the famous raincoats.
"Pattern, print and fabric are hugely important for Burberry with one of the most recognized patterns in the world, originating from the Burberry archives," Bailey says. "We have the most recognized and distinguished textile designers, such as Celia Birtwell, Liberty, William Morris and Zandra Rhodes, as well as newer designers like Jonathan Saunders - all originating from the U.K."
The Italian textile industry has produced its share of colorists, print- makers and imaginative knitters, including the famous Emilio Pucci and Missoni family. Yet Britain seems to have an enthusiasm for pattern that goes back to Indian paisley prints developed in the 18th century through the William Morris Art Nouveau designs to the 1960s work by Ossie Clark, with prints from his wife, Celia Birtwell.
Although the art colleges have thriving textile divisions, Britain's textile industry has faded away. Given the pan- European threat from China, the concept of supporting creativity is a wise investment.
Burberry, as the leading British heritage brand, sponsors the not-for-profit Texprint, along with Jaeger, with help also from Marks & Spencer, from textile manufacturers and even from overseas companies such as Cotton USA, Mantero Seta and Diane von Furstenberg, another company with a vital attachment to pattern and print. Nathan Jensen, the British-trained design director of DVF, has been an active supporter, presenting a Texprint award during the Indigo fair last year.
A good example of the power of textile training is Julien Macdonald, who started his career as a knitting expert and who was awarded an Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth last month for services to fashion.
So Schofield sums up Texprint's power: "If you believe that the ingredients are the vital quality of fashion design, textiles become of primary importance. They just don't get the limelight."
