Printmaking is often associated with paper, glass, or framed works on a wall. Shani McLane’s collaboration with NEKI shifts that expectation. In Prints to NEKI, traditional print processes are translated into contemporary function-wear, positioning print not as decoration, but as a core design language embedded into how garments look, feel, and move.
The project explores how surface, repetition, and placement can be adapted to meet the technical demands of performance clothing. Rather than applying pattern as an afterthought, McLane treats print as structure. Each mark responds to the fabric, the body, and the climate it is designed for.
Inspired by the preserved seeds housed in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the prints reference protection, resilience, and future growth. Seed forms are abstracted through printmaking techniques and layered into rhythmic compositions that speak to survival and continuity in a changing climate. Organic shapes repeat and overlap, creating patterns that feel alive and quietly powerful.
The collaboration grew out of lived experience. Long, dark winters in New Hampshire and the visual monotony of an all-black wardrobe prompted a desire for colour and movement in winter wear. The prints introduce brightness and warmth without sacrificing performance. Modern jersey fabrics designed for winter and all-season use balance insulation, breathability, and ease of movement, allowing the artwork to exist within garments made for real life.
“Printmaking has always been about more than surface for me,” says McLane. “It is a way of translating systems, patterns, and resilience into something tactile. With NEKI, the challenge was asking how that language could live on the body and move through the world.”
Each print begins by hand, rooted in silk-screening processes and experimentation with ink. The limited-edition nature of the garments reinforces mindful production and resists overconsumption, aligning with McLane’s climate-conscious values. The result is functionwear that carries narrative and intention.
“I was thinking about seeds as quiet promises,” she reflects. “They hold potential, protection, and continuity. Translating that into clothing felt natural. What we wear can carry meaning as well as warmth.”
Through this collaboration, clothing becomes a site where sustainability, print culture, and everyday resilience intersect. The garments do not simply perform. They communicate. They hold rhythm, colour, and a sense of place within their fibres.
Shani McLane is a printmaker and educator whose practice bridges art, science, and environmental awareness. Working primarily with silk-screening inks and enamels on paper and glass, she investigates natural systems, climate change, and the beauty of overlooked forms. With NEKI, that inquiry steps into movement and lived experience.
This project reminds us that printmaking does not need to stay on the wall. It can exist in motion, in climate, and in the daily rituals of getting dressed.
Website:
https://www.shanimclane.com
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/neki_by_shani
More information:
https://www.shanimclane.com
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- Bear with Me: Giving Print a Second Life — Yuliya Ratnikova - February 27, 2026
- Prints to NEKI: Printmaking in Functionwear — Shani McLane - February 27, 2026
- Archive of Rot: Time and Memory Through a Neurodivergent Lens — Paige Lee Miller - February 26, 2026
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