Cut-out clothes and colour collecting: Ruth Kent’s multidisciplinary approach to the world of woven textiles

London-based textiles designer Ruth Kent is an avid collector when it comes to colour. “I spend a lot of time sitting amongst colours and really breaking them down,” she tells It’s Nice That. The focal point of her practice, and a day-long torment, colour is a lens through which the designer’s joyful and subversive prints and woven work come to life.

Looking at her intricate pattern making, it wouldn’t be hard to hazard a guess at Ruth’s background in weaving. The carefully constructed graphic grids that act as a backdrop to her layered design work are considered slowly, colour by colour — a passover from her time studying at Central Saint Martins where she fell in love with fabrication processes and honed some serious skills in the production of patterns and textiles. From this foundation, Ruth has been combining traditional crafts with playful design approaches and digital outputs — like her collection of silk scarves, soon to be launched this spring. “I love spending hours upon hours weaving and then being able to contrast that side of my practice with my digital printing, which for me is a much quicker approach — fusing these methods I find a balance,” she says.

Although delicate and detail-oriented, Ruth’s work doesn’t just sit inside traditional formats for textile design. “At the moment, my practice is definitely not one thing,” the designer shares, “I weave, I print, I write, I make books, I design accessories and I’m always collaborating with others.” In her project Paperplay, the designer invited us into a world of colourful cut-out clothes, tactically suspended in front of models for their wear. Her recent photobook For all the joy to come documents her works in print to tell a story. Taking such multidisciplinary approaches always allows the designer “to bridge the gap between craft and the digital,” she says. “That’s something I find really exciting.”