Really Clever: Color your own clothing

Originally posted on Dornob.com

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Remember those fun color-it-yourself books from your childhood? Sometimes they were color-by-number and other times, well, they invited you to simply pick your own color scheme (which some of us did with color-by-number books regardless). Taking this simple idea to a new level, one designer has come up with an idea to let people color their own dresses and other apparel.

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Her dress design ideas, however, do not end with just color – Berber Soepboer has also created a series of dresses that are designed to change color and pattern by snapping and unsnapping selective buttons and recombining layers in various ways.

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More than merely these (albeit creative and appealing) designs themselves, this design approach signals new ways of thinking about what we wear – they provide a new perspective on the possibilities of transforming, multipurpose and create-your-own textiles.

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Permalink Reply by SaFire on August 21, 2011 at 11:12pm

The cool thing about this idea if you could find many black and white patterns and colour them. Just looked up some sites:

FABRIC MARKERS:

http://www.dharmatrading.com/fm.html

http://www.simplicity.com/p-4402-set-of-6-permanent-fabric-markers....

http://www.colortime.com/Fabric-Markers-c7.html

http://www.michaels.com/Scribbles®-Permanent-Fabric-Markers™/gc1498...

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Permalink Reply by Kandice on October 10, 2011 at 11:48pm

Where did you find this? Does it matter what kind of fabric it is? Have you tried those markers before?

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Permalink Reply by CircularPraise on March 18, 2012 at 6:25am

Cool idea!

I'm not sure where to get the fabric if you're going to DIY it, but probably any fabric store that carries fabrics with bold graphic prints like those in the photos. I clicked on the Michael's link in SaFire's reply and the Scribbles markers label claims it works on most fabrics. I suspect natural fibers would work better than synthetic, but I don't know for sure.

If you want to simply buy the dress and fill in with your own colors, the designer's website offers it for sale (markers included). The designer is in Europe and the price is in Euros; according to a calculator I just checked, the dress would be about $396 in USD at the current exchange rate.

Here's the link to the designer's page, if you're interested (you'll need to scroll to the bottom of the page when it comes up): http://berbersoepboer.nl/news

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Permalink Reply by Drake Bishop on March 17, 2012 at 8:32pm

This is a really great idea! haven't tried coloring my own clothing, now this is something that i would really like to try for myself! very brilliant! I could give my old outfits a new look! Plus it also gives a personal touch to the outfits since you will be able to choose your preferred colors and mix and match them according to your preference. Patterns can also be taken advantage of with the help of the colors can make a really unique outfit!