Are you unsure if you should be undertaking trend forecasting for your next print? 

1. There are two types of clients who buy prints. The first being those that follow general fashion trends and will only buy a print backed by runway or consumer research and the second being those that want more of a rare concept, a print harder to find on the market - which I call an 'artwork' based print, where colours & patterns can be unique.
2. So, why do brands care if a print is 'trending'?  Generally larger brands need to know a print will sell well in the market before they spend money investing, designing and manufacturing products with a pattern on it. The more money to loose, the more research needs to be done. Many large retailers are inspired by runway items for this reason. Seasonal colours are chosen based on trend predictions and core colours are determined from last seasons best sellers. For example, if a specific Navy sells well, it is not often changed, and is named a 'core colour'. 
3. Who can take risks and why? Often smaller brands with more room to be unique and are able to make more creative “risks”. Thus they are more likely to buy and use a print because they like it, oppose to it just being inspired by a trend. On the flip side, market leaders can also take creative risks, knowing they help set these trends. Designers who understand their customer can also purchase a print because it is unique, knowing it fits their customer. 
4. 'On trend' prints usually consist of... a particular style of florals, animal, geometrical and scarf style prints. There are also key colours and scales that present each season. You may notice you are seeing oversized blurred florals in every store this season, or maybe a micro check.
5. Artwork style prints, have their own signature look and feel... Often you will look at one of these prints and know what brand it has come from. You would not often see a pattern of these designs throughout different retailers. Brands that choose these prints do not traditionally follow mainstream trends, yet can instead have their own signature print style or look and feel. These brands want to stand out and be different, though they take a risk by doing so! 
6. So is one better than the other?  I would say a safe bet is to have a mix of both trending and unique prints! Prints you know will be best sellers but also prints that offer something different for the customer who is willing to stand out, and that sets your brand apart.

What do you think about when choosing prints for your fashion business?

To me, there is no one size fits all, or no "right' way to make a decision when purchasing a print - though I hope after reading this you have a better understanding of how the market operates. 

If you would like to view my exclusive print library, with both trend forecasted and unique artwork designs, please request access today. If you would like to learn more about print design, please fill your information in the online resource form. 

​Britt 

Tam and Ivy from Beginning Boutique flew to Fiji to photograph the print as a part of their new summer collection. The pictures are so amazing and make me feel proud to have been involved in this project. If you are interested in chatting about a custom print, please enquire today. 

Over the last 10 years, social media has changed, and those of us who grew up online, are changing the way we use it too. In my early twenties, I was one of the first adopters to the platform, while growing up from a teenager to a young adult - I slowly worked away on building my account to have over 10,000 followers. I would share my print designs and a lot of my personal life: trips, meals, outfits, major life updates, all of the things most users are doing today.

Overall, I would post a mix of personal and business content, people got to see the best of both worlds, and as much as I loved the attention the design content was getting - the design business was suffering, and in a sense, so was my privacy. 

Before expecting my first child, I knew what I had to do. My values had changed, I no longer wanted to use social media this way. I knew it was time to do a data cleanse, a follower 'clean up'. Over the course of the next few months, I removed thousands of followers on the personal account, switched it to private, and made a fresh page for my design business, titled @bybrittlaspina. 

I knew in order to go 'all in' for my business, I had to create a new public account, exclusively dedicated to design. I am pleased to report that just in these two short years, it has grown to nearly 3,000 followers, all of whom are industry and niche specific. I've reached over 100k accounts and amassed thousands of likes and saves. It is growing fast for the amount I post, my business has never been busier, and I've never been happier.
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Below, I'll share 5 key benefits I've experienced from starting a new page from scratch, focusing on delivering consistent, relevant value to my audience.

1. Maintaining Professionalism: A dedicated business account to my textile print designs has allowed me to present my brand in a more polished and cohesive manner, plus talk to my peers and clients the way I would in a work setting.
2. Focused Content Strategy: I have been able to develop a more focused content strategy. This has enabled me to connect with my audience more effectively by sharing content that aligns with print & textile design. It's also so much easier to curate content, use a consistent brand voice, and showcase services through stories, carousel posts, reels, client case studies and more.
3. Increased Engagement: By keeping things business related, I have been more likely to engage with followers in my niche - plus followers are more likely to engage with me! This has lead to overall higher engagement rates.
4. Targeted Marketing: A niche specific account allows you to run targeted advertising campaigns. Instagram's advertising features enable you to reach specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring that your content reaches the right people. My popular page, algorithm, following and followers are all industry specific. I am able to run ads to "accounts like my followers", as all of my followers are either designers or brands, which I was unable to do before.
5. Privacy and Boundaries: As a parent, this has been one of the greatest advantages. Maintaining a separate account ensures my personal life remains private, although I can't say I post much of that anymore anyway.

In conclusion, while it was daunting to start from scratch and create a separate account for my business, it was a strategic move that has benefited me in many ways. I have never been busier, and while I have less followers or "vanity metrics" at the moment, the followers I do have are the right ones!

The decision has allowed me to maintain professionalism, focus on a relevant content strategy, build credibility, and engage with my audience effectively. By focusing on my new business page @brittlaspinadesign, I can also aim to set clear boundaries, protect my daughter while still growing online, and maintain professionalism.

Ultimately, a dedicated business account has provided the ideal platform for delivering consistent, relevant value to my audience. So, if you're wanting to enhance your personal brand or business's online presence, consider making the move to a dedicated account for your professional endeavors.

It brings me joy to see designs I have created, that come so naturally to me, light up the lives of so many.

So when The Fabric Broker (TFB), a business selling fabric by the metre to the public, contacted me to see if I would design prints for their new range, I was delighted to accept. 

Their vision for the prints commissioned are mostly bold, bright and daring. That is one of the many reasons why I was so excited to accept this project. So many brands won't invest money in crazy patterns, because the more out there they are, the more risk there is. Each print designed for TFB is FUN for both the customer who decides to purchase fabric to create their next piece and also for me to create!

It is safe to say that working on this project has kept me busy, the fact TFB kept coming back for prints is a testament to their happiness and positive experience working with me. Which is the best feeling of all. Below I will step you through each print and explain the process behind them! 

Unlike other designs sold by the brand, every print I designed for TFB Sold Out. 

This print was created entirely digitally, on adobe illustrator. I hand drew each motifs, ensuring there would be enough depth to add a few tonal shades. The vision of the print was to create a hand blocked look, not knowing where the design started and ended. This is the beauty of a seamless repeat! I chose a medium shade of oatmeal for the background colour after looking through my Pantone books.  The people LOVED this print.. You can see some of the comments here, alongside nearly 4k organic reach likes.

As you might be able to tell, this print was hand painted with watercolours. I assembled the motifs in Adobe Photoshop, filling in each paisley cluster with little motifs to embrace the negative space. TFB sent me plain navy paisley inspiration, though I wanted to give this print a real watercolour feature, so I mixed in some bright greens to really make it pop! You can watch the process reel here!

This is such a classic and soft print and was a joy to create. I hand painted each floral motif with watercolours and assembled in Adobe Photoshop, ensuring the scale of each motif was evenly distributed. To finish, I selected the perfect soft pink from my Pantone books!

This print is unlike anything I have ever designed before... from the colours to the concept. It is really unusual and I just love it. I designed this single, highly detailed motif on Adobe Illustrator. What makes it so great and life like is the way I have shaded the petals, ensuring they deliver that dimensional appeal while still being able to be screen printed if needed. You can view the process reel here.

​There is no denying that my time at MONA (Museum of Old & New Art) elected an untouched state of mind deep within me. The music and lighting all contributed to what was and certainly felt like an intense moody environment. At times a little creepy, although for the most part, the perfect setting for reflection and deep thought. The art was of course subjective, evoked emotion and reaction, arguably the very thing that art is meant to do. 

My day at MONA made me appreciate the vast amount of differences that lie between Artists, the little details, the colour palettes, the minimalism. 

​Have you been to MONA? What did you think?

Britt xx

Britt 

If you have a business where you use fabric, the sooner you know the many advantages of Custom Designed Fabric, the better.
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Here are a few:

1. Stay ahead of the game 

As a business owner or designer, surely you have drive to be different. If your fabric hasn’t been custom designed for you, and you are buying it off the roll or from offshore manufacturers, there is a huge chance another business (just like you) will be using it too. Of course there is a chance it wont be in the same industry and that some of your customers wont notice, however,­ how long can you keep chancing it?

2. Tweak the trends

The great thing about working with a Textile Artist is that you can act on current trends and inspirations instantly. Our new fast fashion driven market place is changing rapidly, so acting fast is imperative. As soon as you s­ee something you love, or see something that is successful online, you are able to jump on the trend. Being apart of something that consumers find interesting gains status within the market and enables you to capitalize on sales. Most Textile Artists will be able to take a popular concept and tweak it, catching your customer’s eye while still ensuring your product remains unique.

3. Set the trends 

When you have your own design, you have a product that is different. While many trends build on current styles and ideas, respectable trends represent something unique. In order to set a trend that has its own place in the market, you’ll need to come up with an idea that is not only unusual, but makes people wish they had thought about it already. The trend also needs to be something that interests you too.
 
4. Marketing Advantage 
 
Ever notice when fashion labels say “ Our Exclusive Print” or “Our Exclusive New Design”? If you follow fast fashion brands like Sabo Skirt or Miss Holly on Instagram, you probably see it all of the time. Why? It is a great way of showing your customer that your product is special and worth purchasing. People love exclusivity. Many large scale brands like to capitalize on phrases that imply exclusivity, as it adds value to what you’re selling and drives up demand. Consumers are more likely to make decisions based on instinct than on logic.

5. Showcase your style
 
Unique prints enable you to really showcase what is special about your brand. Instead of wasting time searching for something that already exists or using something generic, this is your chance to shoot a quick email to a Textile Designer and explain to them what you are envisioning. This way, you can nail  your favourite colours and potentially save on printing costs down the line.

We were in New York during the peak of Storm Jonas. One of the largest Snow Storms to hit New York City in 60 years and the largest Blizzard in 100 years, according to snow fall rates. They had declared a state emergency, with more than 13,000 flights cancelled in relation to the storm, including our flight out of there to Hawaii. 

The day before the storm hit, I was lucky enough to fit in a quick shoot with Alexandra Wolf, an extremely talented fashion photographer from Europe, now living in New York. Alexandra is a fashion and lifestyle photographer, who is the lady behind Arielle Charnas, known as Something Navy's incredible Outfit and Street Style pictures around NYC.

It is not easy to find words to explain the feeling from my hands after my gloves came off for that brief moment. Locals I was with laughed at my reaction to the sharp pain of that blizzard frost, yet how could I, a proud local from the Sunshine State really pretend like nothing was happening. 

It probably didn't help my feet were not covered either. There was no way I wasn't wearing my new Gucci shoes, aka my treasured Gold Foil Marmont Pumps. Unbeknown to me, these shoes were just about to make it big throughout Fashion Week and I am so pleased I wore them when I did, It felt great to be ahead of the trend that is Alessandro Michele, Gucci's Creative Director.

This time while in New York we stayed Downtown at The Ludlow Hotel, sister hotel to The Bowery. It was perfect for what we needed and a short taxi ride to all our favourite eats. Thankfully we didn't mind being snowed in as there was an amazing Italian restaurant across the road which we happily slipped down to, and I mean literally slipped through the slushy snow. Yes, to answer your first question, there was Dirty French downstairs too, (a popular restaurant that was at the bottom of our hotel) however, after eating breakfast there every morning it was only natural to want something new. On that note, let me know if you would like my top 10 restaurant recommendations in NYC, potential blog post to come.

Bye for now.

​Love Britt xx

I was so thrilled to have exhibited in New York City at the leading Trend Forecasting Event in the world, Premiere Vision. To have my studio be a part of such a large industry event was a huge goal of mine and it feels so amazing to have been a part of the Spring Summer Trends in Fashion for 2017. 

The Britt Laspina Studio exhibited a number of prints that fell under different collections, including a Floral, Tribal, Oriental, Monochrome and Watercolour Blues Collection. This collection is still open for preview under the Print Design section on the website, login details can be granted upon request. 

Safe to say the show was a success and I'm so excited to have some amazing new clients based in New York, Boston, Cape Cod and The Hamptons.

I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by New York writer, Natalie Zfat for Apparel News, California. 

It would be poor taste to list all of the incredible people that I met, but something that will make my local Australian readers laugh is Peter Alexander decided to approach and introduce himself to me. After hearing my accent he immediately asked if I was from Sydney or Melbourne, much to his shock I answered " Ahh.. Brisbane actually!" Yes Peter, you heard me! The look on his face still makes me laugh, if Miranda Kerr and the G20 can't put Brisbane on the map than maybe I might have to keep trying.. 


Thanks for reading. Love Britt xx

I recently collaborated with Australian Label Morrisday to design a custom Marble print for them. As many of you may know or even assume, this print isn't something I would traditionally design.

With that being said, I love this collaboration for so many reasons. Along with it being a nice change, I really do enjoy designing simple monochrome prints.

I feel this collaboration also represents my diversity and willingness to deliver my full potential to a client and their personal brief. While most times I will not design something if it is not true to myself, I do pride myself on always trying to ensure I deliver content that is as close to my clients vision as possible.

This Marble print can now be purchased from Morrisday via their online store, or locally via one of their Stockists such as Princess Polly, Verge Girl, Mishkah, Coco Bella or Hazel Mai Boutique.

Britt xx

I always love my print collaborations with Ruby Yaya Fashion. If I do say so myself, I think they captivate the eyes of many. Owner Melissa, has such a creative eye and knows just what to do with my colourful prints when they come her way. This particular print, is a unique Mandala with a spotty modern twist.

Aussie model Madi Edwards rocks this print that comes in two colour ways and is featured on three different styles of frocks. Keep your eyes peeled for this fun loving print in a fab boutique near you, Ruby Yaya is popping up everywhere!

Love Britt xx

Thanks to Flight Centre, Tatjana Catic and I were able to visit Castaway Island, Fiji. We were absolutely blown away by the amazing culture, value and authenticity of the island. A magical place it was, where staff act like family and the waves really are the busiest thing in sight. 

Castaway Island is managed by Hawaii-based Outrigger Group, one of the fastest-growing, privately-held hospitality companies in the Asia Pacific, Oceania and Indian Ocean regions. Having had visited the Canoe Club property in Honolulu, I could instantly notice the similarities. We were lucky enough to be staying there at the same time as staff from head office in Hawaii, which was great as we were able to participate in some of the island highlights with them. Tribal dances, an island hike, a sunset cruise, a day trip to Cloud 9 and snorkelling around surrounding private islands were all amongst some of the activities in which we were able to experience.

Tatjana and I were so thrilled to be taken to Cloud 9 by a short boat trip for an amazing Day Trip. It was such a great experience. Cocktails on arrival, wood fried pizzas and endless spaces to relax, we knew we had found heaven on earth. 

After a few hours on the floating platform, more boats started to arrive and we decided it was time to head back to what felt like our very own private island. We were pleased to find out that around the other side of the island there were local goats living peacefully! We only saw a brief glimpse of them however loved the idea of it, how tropical and untouched it seemed.

Above: Wearing Camilla With Love Pants and Plumeria Swimwear Top

We were very sad to leave such an amazing place, the island sang us our very own farewell song which made us shed a tear. Out of all the places I have been in my life, this is one of my favourites. I will definitely be back to visit.. 

Much Love, Britt xx