Foil, Discharge and Procion: A Plain Guide to Our Finishes

Most of the character in our range comes from three finishes, and a buyer who understands the difference between them stocks better and sells with more confidence. None of this is technical for its own sake; it is simply what is happening on the cloth in your hand.

A Procion print is the everyday backbone of the range. The colour is laid into the cotton and, done properly, it stays bright through a wash and sits true on the body. It is the finish that lets a floral look like a floral after a season of wear rather than a faded memory of one. The whole quality of a Procion print rests on two unglamorous things: a base cloth that takes the dye cleanly, and not rushing the print. We hold to both.

Discharge work goes at it from the other direction. Instead of adding colour onto a pale ground, the design is brought out of an already-dyed cloth, which gives those deep, settled tones you see across SOULITAIRE. It is a finish that rewards patience and punishes haste, and it is where a fabric earns the word premium honestly rather than on a label.

Foil is the one that catches the eye first. It is the shine, the jewel-like lift on a co-ord that makes a customer stop at the shelf. Foil also asks for a little respect in return: a cooler iron, a cloth laid over it, a gentler wash, and we say so plainly rather than letting a buyer find out the hard way. Looked after, it holds its shine on the shelf and on the body for a long time.

In practice you rarely choose one finish in isolation. A SUNSHINE co-ord might carry a Procion heavy print on the bottom and a foil top above it; a SOULITAIRE piece leans on discharge for its depth. Knowing which finish is doing what is simply knowing what you are selling, and that is usually the difference between a buyer who reorders and one who guesses.