Fashion royalty interviewed on Epson-decorated festival stage

Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes (right) was interviewed on the colourful Wardrobe Department stage at Port Eliot festival 

The Wardrobe Department stage used to host fashion interviews during Port Eliot Festival featured furniture, wall coverings and flooring covered in floral designs printed using Epson SureColor wide-format printers.

The Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall (27-30 July) saw new young creative talent and design legends interviewed on a “Wardrobe Department” set designed, and much of it personally produced, by fashion designer Richard Quinn using Epson digital print technology. Interviewees included Dame Zandra Rhodes, milliner Stephen Jones and Mr Quinn himself.

Mr Quinn printed the Mylar metallic wall coverings and Premier Textiles furniture fabric on his dye-sublimation Epson SureColor SC-F9200 in his new Richard Quinn Studio. Forming the stage centrepiece, the floral sofa and armchair were upholstered by department store John Lewis in association with furniture manufacturer Parker Knoll. The matching stage floor tiles were printed by Slam Signs on Spandex non-slip vinyl on a SureColor SC-SC80600 printer.

‘Being invited to create a unique, one off set for the festival was such an exciting prospect,’ said Mr Quinn. ‘My design and print is all about the colour vibrancy and the Epson technology allowed me to get the desired Pantones with ease across all the substrates. The SureColor SC-F9200 has been so efficient for our fashion line and this was the first time exploring upholstery fabrics – a great success! The Epson option for a 4 pass plus 30 ensured the thicker pile fabrics are as vibrant as others, making the Parker Knoll furniture really pop!’

‘It’s very exciting how Richard is exploring the considerable flexibility of digital print to take his designs onto a wide variety of substrates,” commented Richard Barrow, senior product manager, Epson Europe. ‘He is leading the vanguard of new young designers who are taking advantage of the considerable power of digital to create new opportunities and businesses.’