The Fantastical Wall Hangings of Simone Post

Simone Post (Utrecht, the Netherlands) is a textile and product designer based in Rotterdam. She graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven with honors in 2015 and has won several international awards. Post’s work delves deep into color, surface, and print, and she has collaborated with companies such as Adidas, Kvadrat, and Vlisco. For Simone, the finished product is not necessarily the most interesting aspect of the design process; she has a penchant for the process itself, experimenting to discover the hidden potential of materials and techniques. This always results in surprising outcomes exceeding the boundaries of materials, craftsmen and manufactures. Her focus is on bold and unexpected usages of materials, striving to preserve crafts and promoting sustainability.

Her most known works are experimental textile carpets and wall hangings made out of misprinted wax-printed fabrics from Vlisco, a Dutch-based textile manufacturer of wax print mainly exported to Africa. The process of designing and producing these fabrics is complicated; in each of the 27 treatments the wax print goes through, there is a high likelihood that things will go wrong. In order to safeguard their quality, only the best textiles go on to be exported to Africa, leaving high quantities of ‘unsellable’ fabrics.

Using leftovers as well as rejected textiles, Simone Post has developed a line of high-quality carpets. Whereas destruction of the leftover and rejected textiles is time consuming and costly, recycling is environmentally sustainable and also offers a challenging platform for innovation. An obvious restriction for new products made from the waste materials, was not to interfere with any existing Vlisco products and not display any of the manufacturing defects of the original prints.

Inspired by the side view of the large rolls used to store and transport the textiles, the misprinted fabrics are cut into thin strips and then folded and coiled into sturdy carpets. With endless possible colour combinations, a unique product is created each and every time. Simone’s designs shield the original printed surfaces and potential flaws, while the resulting carpets still show off Vlisco’s stunning colours with new and unexpected patterns.

Simone’s recent wall hangings investigate whimsical color combinations and create fantastical gardens and organisms that appear to ‘grow’ out of the leftover materials. The first pieces were displayed at Rademakers Gallery in April 2021. In September 2021 many of the works will shown together in a new exhibition.

Find out more about Simone Post on her website and follow along with her Instagram Takeover on the Selvedge Instagram account all day on Tuesday 20 July.