Kangan Arora x Floor_Story

There is a striking, instantly appealing quality to London based designer Kangan Arora’s hand-printed textiles, which explore the eye-popping attraction of electrifyingly vivid colours. Her joyful and exuberant pattern designs blend the many cultural influences that have shaped her life, from her childhood in India to her life as a city dweller in London today, as she explains, “My work centres around geometry, abstraction, pattern application and exploring the Indian visual vernacular.”

Arora was born in the Northern Indian city of Ludhiana, which is well-known for its busy textile and hosiery mills. Her great-grandfather established a textile business here which is still being run by the family, and it undoubtedly shaped her desire to follow a similar path. She says, “From a really young age I was surrounded by beautiful fabrics, embroideries, and prints. I remember going on buying trips with my dad and helping him choose stock for the showroom and feeling quite pleased that I had made a small contribution and my opinion had counted.”

A polychromatic patchwork feature curtain for touring performance venue, The Beacon

Arora went on to study Fashion Design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, a location with strong roots in the production of craft and textiles. While still a student Arora found herself being drawn towards the rich possibilities of patterned textiles rather than the cut and finish of the final product. Looking back, she remembers, “I realized that all my work was focused on the fabric and the surface ornamentation, rather than the shape or silhouette of the garment.” From here, Arora went on to train in textile design at Central Saint Martins in London, and the experience cemented her desire to pursue a path in pattern design. She remains in London today, where she runs a busy workshop space, hosts an online shop, and, more recently, manages a collaborative design studio.

Process

Through her work in patterned textiles, Arora found herself naturally gravitating towards the tactile process of screen-printing, both as a means of working out ideas, and for producing the final products. She explains, “[Screen-printing] generates ideas and happy accidents that I couldn’t plan beforehand. When you print one colour over another, a kind of magic happens and moreover, there’s a certain ceremony and chemistry to it that I enjoy – mixing the inks, exposing the designs onto the screen, pinning the fabric to the table, selecting the perfect squeegee to print with.”

Kangan Arora x Floor_Story

The patterns she produces are unashamedly bold, and explore a wide variety of patterns with a structural, geometric quality. The inspiration for these patterns comes from all aspects of her life, as she recalls, “Trips home to India, visits to exhibitions or sometimes just a mundane walk to the corner shop are all inspiring – as a designer, you have to always keep your eyes open and your phone on hand to snap it – 19,690 photos and counting…”. Integrating these ideas into final products is an ongoing process of experimentation, play, and improvisation until she arrives on a final design.

A collection of kitchen-related textiles created in collaboration with London-based design studio Tiipoi.

More recently, Arora has taken her handprinted pattern designs into commercial industry, and her pattern designs still retain the same hand-made freshness as her screen-printed work, whether applied to soft furnishings, rugs, tapestries, packaging, stationery, and more. “I’ve been lucky to have worked on some really diverse and exciting projects,” she says. These include, “Print design for IKEA and the Tate, packaging design for REN Skincare, large scale site-specific tapestries for Piercy & Co. As well as an ongoing rug partnership with Floor Story. Every project is different and keeps me on my toes.”