A survey of contemporary textiles from around the world: original, inspiring, colorful, experimental designs.

Textile design is both one of the least and one of the most localized of the arts. Textiles owe their development and evolution to religion, commerce, and travel, and their vibrant and creative preservation to tenacious regionalism. In the recent past, artists and designers from different backgrounds--India, Mali, Madagascar, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Nigeria--have reinvigorated art and fashion by using the fabrics and graphic elements they find on the streets of New York, Paris, London, and other cities to project an alternative vision of textile culture on the international stage.

Introduction:

Textiles for the 21st Century, a World Wide Survey

Aspects of Innovation

Protected Innovation

The Revival of Modernism in the 21st Century

The Industrial Context

The Cost of Materials and the Global Economy

Textiles for the Future

Materials

Nanotechnology and Surface Design

Fibres with Tactile, Aural and Optical Properties

Biomimicry

Medical Textiles

Clothing and Protection

Fabric Robots and the Fabric Computer

Ecological Fabrics

Objects

Fabric Architecture

Architecture as Clothing

New Geometries

Interactive Design

Pattern

Pattern and Place

Pattern, Perception and Form

The Edge of Chaos, Pattern Formation and Error

Pattern,Textiles and Digital Interaction

Textiles, Art and Culture

Textile Culture and the Ethnographic Museum

Conceptual Craft

Art andTextile Culture in Nigeria

Textiles and Cultural Exchange in the Pacific Diaspora

Biographies

Museums, Galleries and Design Institutes

Bibliography

Glossary

Photographic Credits

Index