Redefining Textures in Streetwear Fashion With Heat Transfers

When you think of the word "texture", it's common to think of the way that something feels between your fingers or underneath your feet. But the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the noun "texture" as "the visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something". This definition explains that texture is not just about the way something feels but also about the way looks. And it's that visual appearance that we're going to touch on today.

There are many methods of printing garments that will give you an interesting physical feeling. Stahls' 3D High Build HTV is 1000 microns thick and gives a raised chunky premium feel. Silicone 100 HTV is luxuriously matte to the touch. Flock HTV offers a furry velvet finish. But all of these materials require time spent cutting and weeding heat transfers vinyl. If you have only just found our blogs for the first time today, you may not know that this method of printing is extremely time-consuming, is not very profitable and really should only be used for simple designs or small runs.

So what do you use when you want to create a texture and print garments in bulk? You turn to photo-realistic heat transfers like UltraColour and UltraColour Max. A heat transfer is a flat and smooth print that once adhered, becomes part of the garment moving fluidly with the natural movement of the fabric. But as we just discovered above, textures in print don't have to be tactile, they can be visual too. 

Achieving a visual texture with a photo-realistic heat transfer is not only simple but it's extremely effective. It creates an illusion-like finish that leaves the viewer questioning if what they're seeing is real or false, 2D or 4D and lifelike.

Textures are one of the biggest trends not only in streetwear but in fashion in general right now.

Time To Get Inspired

Below we've listed lots of textures that you can start thinking about trying to emulate within your designs.

Check out some of the realistic texture's we've mimicked using UltraColour Heat Transfers below:

1. Liquid Metal

This design offers a realistic reflective and metallic finish. The shadows within the design hold a blue hue to them so we have complimented this by displaying the garments nearby a blue light / blue background helping the designs appear even more lifelike.

2. Water

Again we have followed the liquid theme here. The shadows and highlights within this graphic offer a metallic liquid look where the graphic appears to sit atop the garment like water.

3. Embroidery

We have used two different designs that mimic an embroidered texture, both of which were extremely convincing. A single 10cm embroidered logo could take a machine up to 20 minutes to complete. Think how much time you could save by using a heat transfer that takes 12 seconds to apply.