Discovering Textiles - Antoni and Alison

In Roseberry Avenue, a small shop has often beckoned with inviting window displays of colourful dresses and accessories. 

Antoni and Alison met at Central St Martins in the 1980s and set-up shop in 1987. Their t-shirts emblazoned with funny statements were an immediate success and they have maintained that success for more than thirty years. The duo were pioneers in digital printing on textiles, that experiment born out of frustration with traditional methods of printing, and they have excelled in trompe-l'oeil effects since then. Their Go Out dress during the first lockdown, (seen in this photograph of the garment itself with a picture of it being modelled) captured some of the frustration that we all felt at the time and really caught the eye.  Combining their professions as photographers and textile designers, their current work uses photographs, paint, sewing, embroidery, applique...to create assemblages that are printed onto fabric and then made into humorous and very witty dresses.

See more of the designs, like this London dress, from Antoni and Alison's website and read a little more about them here. You can also see some of the work that the Victoria and Albert Museum holds.