Collection Spring-Summer 2024 - Trends in Embroidery and Textile Embellishment

Interpretation of Pantone’s colour of the year 2023 using threads from Gunold

Right on time for the start of 2023, Pantone presented their eagerly awaited colour of the year. „Viva Magenta“ is a bright reddish hue meant to express power, joy, hope and energy. Let’s take these motivating expressions with us when taking a look to the trends for the summer 2024 collection:

Flowers always work, do you agree ? We’ll see a lot of them in Summer 2024, spreading out zest for life and relaxed summer feelings. Embroidery is a wonderful tool to interpret this trend, especially if the wide range of digitizing options is used.

Flower on felted wool by www.gottstein.at , Design: Jutta Erb, Modefachschule Sigmaringen

Less is more in this stylized blossom by Caroline Jones, GS UK

Where there are flowers there are bugs and insects. Provided with positive messages, they are flying and crawling across sustainable fabrics and materials.

Pausing bee by Vivien Büttgen, Modefachschule Sigmaringen, embroidered with COTTY  (100 % CO) on felted wool by www.gottstein.at

Bug by Caroline Jones, GS UK, embroidered with Gunold’s Poly Sparkle on sustainable material by Studio Sarmite

Lets stay in nature:

White, off-white, shades of brown and all kinds of natural hues are becoming more and more important. But the fabric’s structure and surface appearance should be more raugh, wild and untamed. The naturalness and the very special hand of cotton fabrics is appreciated. If possible, real organic materials, flowers or straw, are used as well.

Left and middle: Textured embroidery using organic cotton (COTTY Bio by Gunold). Designs: Caroline Jones, GS UK

Wild look using long and loose threads. Design: Elias Kremer

Natural materials, blossoms and grass in combination with pressed plants.

Denim is always a popular summer topic. It is a wonderful material to experiment both in styling and in finishing. These might be the reasons why jeans are making a real comeback in summer 2024. Pimping denim with effect seams, embroidery, appliqué or other kinds of textile manipulation is very trendy. We see it both with the new collections of the big and famous brands as well as with the end-users, going through their wardrobe to look for garments which have never been worn in years.

Eye-catching examples of denim manipulation by Enya Reik (Modefachschule Sigmaringen)

Decorated denim by Franziska Kiermeir, Modefachschule Sigmaringen)

Decorated denim by Julia Rehm, Modefachschule Sigmaringen)

Decorated denim by Linda Fischl, Modefachschule Sigmaringen)

 Upcycling at its best ! The following pictures show a noble wool shirt. Moth holes were repaired using woolen threads and a simple heat press…  

Besides animal designs, also faces are used to decorate our garments. After all the omnipresent „One Line Art“ designs, these new faces urge for more diversity and variety.

Facial contours with embroidered effect stitches by  Katia Innerhofer

Face in layering technique by Minglu Zhang

Transparency, transparency, transparency – this trend theme is a must in summer 2024. We’ll see it in all its aspects: transluscent and transparent materials, fabrics, trims and threads, also in combination with glossy and pearlescent effects.

Geometric embroidery on milky / matt foil (Design: GS UK)

Airy knitwear, embroidered by Diana Pascual, Modefachschule Sigmaringen

Embroidery on tulle (Design: Paula Zahn)

Embroidery on transparent plastic (Design: GS UK)

Effect seams on plastic (Helene Seitz)

Cross-stitch and effect embroidery on black plastic (Ida Schröder, Modefachschule Sigmaringen)

Gold, warm spice colours and vibrant multicolour variations enrich the collections with style and diversification.

Noble, warm colours, here designed by Irene Körting, Hochschule Reutlingen

Noble, warm colours, here designed by Irene Körting, Hochschule Reutlingen

Multicolor Effect threads METY by Gunold

Multicolor Effect threads GLITTER by Gunold

Degradé / colour gradient effects – if woven, printed or (of course !) embroidered - ennoble garments and fabrics in a very sophisticated way. In embroidery, it is a perfect way to show experience and expertise…

Embroidered colour gradient (westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau)

Embroidered colour gradient (westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau)

Of course we won’t miss a breeze of „smart textile“ in summer 2024. Airy and super light embroidery, subtle and noble in daylight, surprising and eye-catching at night by using glow in the dark effect embroidery.  

Embroidery design by GS UK, using Gunold’s GLOWY thread. Photo taken in DAYLIGHT.

Embroidery design by GS UK, using Gunold’s GLOWY thread. Photo taken in DARKNESS.

Concluding this trend overview, let’s take a look to an all time favorite – the heart design. It is back but please, play with it. Use it in layers, rough, alienated, imperfect, never to sweet and smooth. The samples shown here are made using the hip hand printing technique:

Hand printed heart by Annette Hecht-Bauer, Modefachschule Sigmaringen, partly embroidered (Gunold)

Hand printed heart by Annette Hecht-Bauer, Modefachschule Sigmaringen, partly decorated with reflective transfer print (Regine IQtrim)

We wish you a colourful, surprising and succesful new collection with lots of positive spirit !

 All Photos : Reiner Knochel