Heather Ross

While I don’t have nor ever used any fabrics by Heather Ross, I’m a fan. That’s why I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear her speak.

Last night friends and I went to the Pacific Northwest College of Art for a lecture by Heather Ross, most famous for her whimsical fabric designs. It was refreshing to see a speaker actually giving an honest opinion about her experiences in the textile industry. It was also quite eye-opening to find out just how little the designers who create the fabrics we, The Material Obsessed, love so much.

During the lecture, Heather Ross talked about her experiences with licensing (not so great) and print on demand with Spoonflower (great) and how she’s a little bitter about manufacturers of her work still making money off of her designs while she, the designer, is not receiving anything from those sales. While she pointed out that there are a few success stories, she said it really isn’t worth the effort just for name recognition for all the hard work that has to be put into it, namely the 80 hour work weeks for 3½ percent profit from each yard of fabric sold at wholesale, which if you have an agent gets split in half. The focus of the lecture seemed to be finding what makes your style unique and going with it.

While she seemed to be slightly disgruntled at the lack of control she had over her designs through her work with major fabric producers, with the exception of her current line with Kokka, a Japanese textile company that prides itself on original and unique offerings, she was quite upbeat about her new projects. One of those is a book focused on uses for her various designs that can be printed by the consumer utilizing the enclosed CD. She was really excited about the idea of people being able to do stuff creatively and was optimistic that this Do-It-Yourself movement isn’t just a fad, but a growing awareness that we as a society have forgotten how to make stuff ourselves. Working with a children’s book editor, she is also creating the illustrations for two children’s books, and even asked my second cousin who joined us for the lecture for her address to send her a proof of the book for her opinion. How awesome is that?

Going to the lecture, I was expecting to hear about how great it is to design stuff for the big boys of the fabric industry, and instead what I got was lesson on staying true to yourself. Sometimes unexpected pessimism can turn into optimistic hope.


To find out more about Heather Ross, please visit her website:
http://heatherross.squarespace.com/