Fall has arrived at Magnolia Market! We’re excited to share how this season is coming to life through our displays, products, and the stories we tell.
Inspired by the fall issue of Magnolia Journal and the theme of Forward Motion, our visual display team created stunning arrangements of dried florals and a variety of naturally dyed prints. These design elements are layered throughout the Market and make for a beautiful reminder of fall’s colors, textures, and familiar rhythms.
“Embracing the Winding Way Forward”
As a visual nod to the cover of the new issue of Magnolia Journal, the entrance to the shop features a wall of dried floral arrangements that mimic the way wildflowers grow—beautifully random and natural. Each dried floral was curated by the visual display team and hand-selected by Jo.
The wall is covered in a hand-dyed burgundy fabric that ties all of the other displays together through its unique color. That color also provides a beautiful contrast to the wood lettering that reads ‘Embracing the Winding Way Forward’. If you look closely, you’ll notice how the team bleach-printed pecan leaves on top of the burgundy fabric to add dimension behind the floral arrangements.
Eco Printing
For this season’s install, the visual display team wanted to try a new technique called eco printing. The result was beautiful, hanging fabrics marked with natural patterns like leaves and flowers.
To start the process of eco printing, fabric is scoured then mordanted. A mordant is a substance used to treat the fabric in a way that encourages the natural elements (leaves, flowers, etc.) to “bite” onto the fabric and reveal a more vibrant color.
There are several ways to mordant fabric, but these prints (pictured) were made of cotton cheesecloth mordanted in iron. After trial and error to understand which mordant worked best with each type of leaf, the team landed on eucalyptus leaves. They then soaked the leaves in water for several months. Leaving them in the water for this long allowed the leaves to mold and release tannins, resulting in a sharper and bolder print on the fabric.
Then, each leaf was intentionally placed on the fabric and rolled tightly into a wooden dowel and tied with cotton string to create a bundle. The bundles were placed into a steam bath for an hour where the tannins and mordant reacted with the wet steam and imprinted the fabric. We love how these turned out!
Cotton Voile Eco Prints
In the front window, sunlight filters through a series of eco-printed fabrics and reveals the shape of pecan leaves. These prints were hand-dyed by the team and hung at various lengths from copper pipes.
Silk Chiffon Eco Prints
For the display above the kitchen island, silk chiffon was mordanted with ferrous sulfate and eco-printed with various varieties of flower stems. The prints (48 total!) were dyed and sewn together to hang from copper pipes.
Burgundy Dried Floral Cloud
Our visual team has created many floral arrangements over the years, but this is by far one of the largest! The intention for this piece was for rich, deep colors, and textures to come together and create a resplendent, cloud-like display.
Each floral arrangement around the shop was created by a different member of the visual team so that each one felt unique on its own, yet still complemented the others.
If you’re in Waco this fall, we hope you’ll come see what’s new at Magnolia!
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