In January, Laura Gomez — a content specialist with Ricoma Embroidery Machines — called out a few embroidery trends she saw in 2017 that she expects to last throughout this year: embroidery on denim, embroidered baseball caps and Instagram-ready embroidered sun hats for women.

She seems to be on point. Embroidery is still listed as a top popular trend for fashion around the world and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon. The intricate stitching is showing up everywhere from haute couture outfits and wedding dresses to, as Gomez said, floppy hats and fringed denim. Embroidery even made an appearance on footwear at Paris Fashion Week.

But today’s embroidery isn’t the same old, same old floral pattern it used to be. Designs are getting a bit funky this year, with these new styles highlighted by both Textile Network and embroidery consultant Reiner Knochel.

• Shapes and Structures. Embroidery doesn’t have to be flat anymore. New trends in the upcoming seasons will include thread embroidered over firm materials to create designs that pop or maintain their shape while in use or thread effects that give the illusion of 3D design.
• Imperfection. Color outside the lines. Let one unusual color meander through an embroidered design. Tear fabric apart and roughly stitch it back together. These new trends prove that what used to be called mistakes are now becoming perfectly imperfect.
• Personal Creations. Free embroidery creates an entire new design on fabrics that mixes creative stitching with contrasting colors, resulting in a riotous concoction of style and hue that exists nowhere else in the world.
• Experimental Edges. Embroidery stitching around the edges of garments, blankets or other fabric items is taking on new life this year with effect-based threads — like ones that reflect or glow in the dark.
• Unusual Combinations. No combination of fabric and thread is off-limits this year. New mixtures are popping across the design world, like puffy and thick fabric meant to look even puffier when it’s tightly embroidered on. Go crazy here: metallic thread on matte fabric, fuzzy fabric with neon thread . . . the possibilities are endless.
• Nature. Embroidery is continuing to promote a healthy Earth this year with natural fabrics like linen and hemp, embroidered with natural cotton thread. Some designs are trending back to floral as well, but modern, updated motifs with multiple dimensions.
• Tech Inspiration. Cutout fabric and embroidery thread can create all sorts of unique designs. Some of the new trends have stitching that looks like an electronic network, grid or web, all with multiple layers so eyes catch different parts of the designs with every glance.

Want to include embroidery as a feature on some of your products this year? Look past the standard hats, t-shirts and patches and put customers’ embroidered logos on products that match this year’s trends. Think ties, book covers, jewelry, headbands, even ornaments.

Offer your customers something truly special and original — and let Idea Custom Solutions help. With our embroidery digitizing services, we convert your artwork or your customers’ artwork into detailed, beautiful designs to stitch on the products they orders. That is, assuming they want to keep up with the fashion world!