The month of March is usually an exciting one with lots of new book and fabric launches, in particular, the new nani IRO collection! Just like the previous years, I will have to split up the collection into different posts. Today’s post will cover the all new designs for this year’s collection. In subsequent posts I will be covering – a shrink test for a couple of new substrates, as well as my makes and new fabrics in the basic and colors range.
First up! Harbe – if you look closely at the print, it is actually made up of small flowers. Apparently inspired by the herbs and wild grasses in Naomi Ito’s garden. This fabric is available in both lawn and thin linen. The picture above is of the thin linen range and I have touched it personally and can tell you that this year’s thin linen is a lot softer than the ones from last years. I was actually comparing the encounter linen with this and although the encounter linen does get softer after washing, this Harbe linen is already soft and pliable without washing. The lawn is even softer since the weave is really fine. I notice that there are quite a few designs with metallic details this year, like this lawn version of the Harbe.
The next design is the Après la pluie – this design comes in single gauze and thin linen substrates. The design is supposed to mimic the dance of raindrops on a car window as it moves in the wind, you know those long trails of water droplets? Naomi Ito created the image using an antique typewriter, which is why this print looks like raindrops from far and when you go up close, you can actually see words being formed.
The thin linen is quite similar to the thin linens from the past, but single gauze seems to be making its presence felt this year. I always thought of single gauze as a very wrinkly, similar to bandage looking fabric, but the fabric is actually very smooth. The weave is loose and sheer since it is just a single layer of gauze which makes it perfect for double layering. I actually made two tops using single gauze which I will share pictures of in the coming weeks. You might have already seen them on my IG feed as well.
The next design is probably my favorite range of the whole lot. It looks rather simple but I really like border prints, especially these muted colors which look like layers of water colors. This design is called Temps and I think I bought every single color of this design because the colors are just so soothing and calm. This collection is available in both single gauze and thin linen and you can use it cross grain or straight grain and it will be such a different effect. More about this in upcoming posts because I already made something with this as well!
This design is called Saison which is actually French for Season if I’m not wrong. According to the designer Naomi Ito, she was trying to convey the 4 types of weather, 4 feelings and 4 flows of time in this collection. This piece is a collage of prints and watercolor strokes. And this design turned out tops in our poll which is why this is our chosen design for the #winaboltofnaniiro giveaway! Have you joined yet?
At first glance, I thought this was the same as saaaa saaa from previous years. Then I thought it looked like camino from last year. So I had to do a side by side comparison.
Saaaa saa has single irregularly spaced lines that are sketched with a ballpoint pen. Camino is more regularly spaced with thin and thick lines, and Riviere is more like double lines with a wider space in between!
So you can see now how they are stripes but different? 😛 The centre piece from the picture above, is really nice. It’s a white on white color which is not obvious from far, but the details are so pretty when you go up close. Definitely a keeper if you are a stripes lover like me!
The last new design in this series is At random – which is really a combination of random moments and movements that the designer was inspired by. I actually like this abstract print better than saison but the colors are more muted which I guess might be the reason why it is not as popular? This range is only available in thick linen and although it says thick, it is not thick like canvas, more like regular linen weight. Definitely suitable for making clothes.
disclaimer : all photos are from online.naniiro.jp for purpose of showing the different colorways in a single shot. No copyright infringment intended. Please visit online.naniiro.jp for more inspiration pictures of makes with the new collection!
Next post will be the results of a shrink test I did on a couple of new substrates. See ya!
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