Transforming Embroidery with Technology

Get to know: Alice Archer

Alice, a London-based designer, has created an innovative way to incorporate the use of technology into her embroidery. Her studio is filled top to bottom with inspiration. Her walls contain color charts, while her shelves contain art books and rolls of thread. The process she uses to imprint fabric is quite unique. Archer creates a digital design using a computer program, planning every single stitch. Next, she takes the design pattern she created and feeds it into a high-tech embroidery machine. Thankfully, this machine does all the hard work for her. Archer carefully watches the process as a standby, making sure every stitch enters the fabric as planned. Although the process sounds quick, it takes a week of preparations before the action truly begins. She explains that "old-fashioned methods would be even slower; without this software, she says, one person could not deliver a heavily embroidered, 20-piece fashion collection each season." (Crisell)

Alice capitalizes her collection on her love of the beauty of color. She is known for her intricate designs and creativity. In one of her past designs, she had taken the detail from the woman's cheek from the painting "The Surprise" by Claude-Marie Dubufe and transferred it onto white, flowered embroidery.

Archer has only completed three collections thus far, but her creativity will continue to flourish as she develops her techniques and process even further. I am excited to see what is coming next!

Below are a few photos of Alice and a few of her pieces:

Information and photos taken from: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/t-magazine/london-fashion-designer-embroidery-technology-alice-archer.html?_r=1

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