With all the drama surrounding the British phone hacking scandal and the demise of the disgraced News of the World, one message seems to be clear: some things should not appear in print.
The descent of the tabloid press has illustrated what constitutes "wrong" material, generated by journalists using a combination of low cunning and high technology.
But play slightly with this concept -- while still focusing on hypermodern technology -- and you have a fashion story of the season.
For the myriad patterns that have made their mark on summer clothes indicate that, for designers at least, everything can appear in print. From high design to main street, there is an explosion of surface decoration, whether it is led by riotous color, classic flowers or geometric shapes.
Nothing in this artistic wonderland is really classic. Even old friends like polka dots or hearts have been digitally reworked.
The result can be polite and familiar, as in the embrace of print by Kate Middleton in the run-up to the royal wedding. Or on her "howdy" North American tour when, as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, she wore a frill-collared shirt with graphic motifs under her cowboy hat at a rodeo demonstration in Calgary, Alberta.
The "Catherine factor" gave basic summer dresses, always focused on that narrow waist, a fresh feeling. What might once have been dismissed as a take on mom's household apron was literally elevated with a pair of wedges to achieve new fashion status.
Digital scanning is the great transformer in modernizing prints, meaning that a tiny fraction of a flower can be enlarged to cover half of the body. These blow-up patterns give a Georgia O'Keeffe-style sensuality to full blooms but also make them less about specific floral species and more about cloth drenched in color. The print idea is to create an effect, not necessarily a straightforward pattern.
What blows up can also shrink down. A section of a painting can be enlarged or miniaturized so that its origin is deliberately unclear. Since many vacation outfits are also small and cute - from camisoles to rompers - this can seem like design in miniature.
Geometric patterns have produced an interface of lines and squares. And there is always an opportunity to digitally transform the obvious. That is especially true of classics such as check patterns, which can be given the 3-D treatment or enlarged so that straight brush strokes bleed off a hemline or slice across pants.
Another way that old becomes new again is clear to anyone who has played with color choices in design software. There is a wealth of possibilities: seemingly unlimited shades of gray and variations on green almost as impressive as nature's color trail of leaf to moss or asparagus to cucumber. With such a palette to work with at the click of a mouse, there are color options that could barely have been imagined a decade ago.
The difference is rammed home by comparing vintage patterns, however complex and beautiful they might be, to the variety of modern design, in color, shape and scale.
Yet the present often grows from the past. The scarf print - a historic hallmark of Hermès and for Gianni Versace in his heyday in the 1980s - has become the base for many of the new digitally engineered design effects. The scarf contains and frames a pattern, and that control becomes more effective the wilder the print.
Baroque curlicues and flourishes were reinterpreted with sizzling effect in the summer collection by Miuccia Prada, whose meld of jungle patterns, monkeys included, have set off a fresh vogue for Hawaiian prints.
But how to wear wondrous artistic creations without looking like a poster for contemporary art? As in newsprint, so in fashion, the effect is best when short, sharp and succinct. The more graphic - yet simple - the designs, the easier a print is to wear.
The ultimate in stylishness is not a cover-all dress exploding with pattern. But rather a fresh white shirt with patterned skirt - or those playful shorts dresses, as tiny and powerful as their prints.
The descent of the tabloid press has illustrated what constitutes "wrong" material, generated by journalists using a combination of low cunning and high technology.
But play slightly with this concept -- while still focusing on hypermodern technology -- and you have a fashion story of the season.
For the myriad patterns that have made their mark on summer clothes indicate that, for designers at least, everything can appear in print. From high design to main street, there is an explosion of surface decoration, whether it is led by riotous color, classic flowers or geometric shapes.
Nothing in this artistic wonderland is really classic. Even old friends like polka dots or hearts have been digitally reworked.
The result can be polite and familiar, as in the embrace of print by Kate Middleton in the run-up to the royal wedding. Or on her "howdy" North American tour when, as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, she wore a frill-collared shirt with graphic motifs under her cowboy hat at a rodeo demonstration in Calgary, Alberta.
The "Catherine factor" gave basic summer dresses, always focused on that narrow waist, a fresh feeling. What might once have been dismissed as a take on mom's household apron was literally elevated with a pair of wedges to achieve new fashion status.
Digital scanning is the great transformer in modernizing prints, meaning that a tiny fraction of a flower can be enlarged to cover half of the body. These blow-up patterns give a Georgia O'Keeffe-style sensuality to full blooms but also make them less about specific floral species and more about cloth drenched in color. The print idea is to create an effect, not necessarily a straightforward pattern.
What blows up can also shrink down. A section of a painting can be enlarged or miniaturized so that its origin is deliberately unclear. Since many vacation outfits are also small and cute - from camisoles to rompers - this can seem like design in miniature.
Geometric patterns have produced an interface of lines and squares. And there is always an opportunity to digitally transform the obvious. That is especially true of classics such as check patterns, which can be given the 3-D treatment or enlarged so that straight brush strokes bleed off a hemline or slice across pants.
Another way that old becomes new again is clear to anyone who has played with color choices in design software. There is a wealth of possibilities: seemingly unlimited shades of gray and variations on green almost as impressive as nature's color trail of leaf to moss or asparagus to cucumber. With such a palette to work with at the click of a mouse, there are color options that could barely have been imagined a decade ago.
The difference is rammed home by comparing vintage patterns, however complex and beautiful they might be, to the variety of modern design, in color, shape and scale.
Yet the present often grows from the past. The scarf print - a historic hallmark of Hermès and for Gianni Versace in his heyday in the 1980s - has become the base for many of the new digitally engineered design effects. The scarf contains and frames a pattern, and that control becomes more effective the wilder the print.
Baroque curlicues and flourishes were reinterpreted with sizzling effect in the summer collection by Miuccia Prada, whose meld of jungle patterns, monkeys included, have set off a fresh vogue for Hawaiian prints.
But how to wear wondrous artistic creations without looking like a poster for contemporary art? As in newsprint, so in fashion, the effect is best when short, sharp and succinct. The more graphic - yet simple - the designs, the easier a print is to wear.
The ultimate in stylishness is not a cover-all dress exploding with pattern. But rather a fresh white shirt with patterned skirt - or those playful shorts dresses, as tiny and powerful as their prints.
