Kayla Mantell

I create textile designs that begin with hand-drawn and watercolor motifs and evolve into bold, expressive patterns for fashion and home. My process bridges fine art and product design, transforming initial illustrations into fully developed textiles meant to be worn, lived with, and experienced in everyday life.

Design Process

I begin with instinct and research. Pulling from trend, color, and culture to build a visual world through a moodboard. This stage defines the direction of each design, where ideas take shape before becoming pattern.

Metamorphosis is inspired by the anatomy of a butterfly and the quiet intelligence of nature’s design. The pattern draws from how primal, organic forms naturally resolve into striking symmetry—where structure and instinct meet to create beauty. This design explores transformation through repetition and balance, translating the butterfly’s inherent geometry into a rhythmic textile language that feels both natural and intentional.

A look into the process

This process showcases how each design develops from original hand-painted artwork into a fully realized textile pattern, and finally into a product application for fashion or home. It highlights the transformation of fine art into modern, trend-driven design made for real-world use.

Fashion Textiles

This body of work explores how pattern lives on the body. Beginning with hand-drawn and watercolor motifs, each design evolves into a textile meant for movement, expression, and everyday wear. Where art becomes part of how we present ourselves.

The Briar Rose set

Soft florals contrast with a dark, sheer ground, balancing romance with edge. The design explores femininity as both delicate and assertive, translating painterly elements into cohesive textile form.

Lily

Starting as a hand-painted watercolor, this print translates delicate florals into an elegant repeat that dances across the surface. Layered with animal print, textures and muted hues, the design draws on dreamy girlhood, nostalgia, and the quiet process of growing up.

Sage

See how these designs translate beyond garments and into accessories. Bringing pattern, color, and storytelling to life through printed headscarves.

Re-coloring Designs

Through my designs I explore colorways through digital recoloring, examining how palette influences tone, emotion, and overall composition.

See how one motif can be translated into 3 color ways

The same motif. Different designs. Different surfaces

Belle

Belle is a halfdrop textile featuring a pair of roses, rendered with a soft vintage quality. Referencing Beauty and the Beast, the design captures a quiet romance. Balancing delicacy with depth, and timeless femininity with a slightly worn, storybook feel.

Seen on a chair

Recolored for womans-wear

Jacquard Designs

Fruits of Labor

Fruits of Labor is inspired by the quiet resilience and self-reflection involved in healing one’s inner child. The design reflects both the sweetness and complexity of emotional growth. Designed for the children's wear market, the textiles serve as a gentle reminder that nurturing ourselves is an act of love that radiates outward.

A box change motion jacquard design in three color ways

Titled, Bloom, Snow Day, and Harvest, there is a colorway for each season

A Jacquard Design The Secret Garden

A botanical jacquard developed in NedGraphics, translating a hand-drawn floral into a structured woven construction. The design layers full-bloom roses, loose foliage, and trailing botanicals in olive and deep forest tones against a textured natural delicate ground, balancing organic irregularity with the precision required for production-ready jacquard repeat.

The physical woven (1 yard)

Knit Designs

A knit collection

3 knit designs, 3 different colorways

Intarsia specs: Wales- 7, courses- 10, front Jersey 5gg

Pointelle specs: Wales- 5, courses- 6, Back Jersey Front, Jersey Hole left 3gg

Fair isle specs: Wales- 15 courses- 20 Cable, 1x1 left, Cable 1x1 right, Hole left, Front jersey, Back jersey 10 gg

Kosher In Manhattan Menswear. Fall 2026 A knitwear collection for the Jewish men of New York- whether old in age or just in soul. My designs reclaims the Jewish aesthetic embracing nostalgia, neurosis, and the quiet confidence of a well-worn sweater. It's for those who carry their heritage effortlessly, and are unapolagetically themselves.

Intarsia spec: Gauges: C: 10 W: 13 7gg Front jersey Intarsia

Cable specs: Gauges: C: 6 W: 5 3gg. Fair-Isle specs: Gauges: C: 16 W: 20 10gg Front Jersey

Aran specs: Gauges: C: 16 W: 20 10gg 6x6 Cable left and right

Gauges: C: 7 W: 10 5gg

Fashion Illustrations

Made with color pencils and marker

Home Textiles

This collection of home textiles explores how pattern shapes atmosphere. Each design is developed into expressive prints intended for interior surfaces—bringing art, texture, and intention into lived spaces.

Little Town is a watercolor-based textile translated into bedding, defined by its painterly texture and serene narrative. The design inscludes delicate deer motifs, organic florals, and distant mountain architecture to create depth and movement while maintaining a tranquil, cohesive palette.

The original watercolor sketch

Designed for the home, this guache painting brings together motifs of pomegranates, evil eyes, and leaves as layered symbols of protection, growth, and abundance.

Fruitful

A study in guache

Sally's Seashells A shower curtain design

Moodboard

Rendered in cool, beachy tones of blues and greys, the design evokes a calm, coastal elegance while maintaining a light, whimsical charm. The shower curtain consists of hand-painted shells and pearls.

Love Me Not Seen in two color ways for different settings

From painting to pattern

Dreamy Color way for the bathroom

Jungle Color way for the beach

The Secret Garden a Jacquard woven design

AI depiction of the design living on a couch

Floral Fantasies Starting with a hand-painted watercolor, I translate florals into repeats that dance across the surface, creating movement, softness, and a sense comfort.

Floral Fantasies

Wovens

My weaving practice is rooted in understanding fabric at its core—how it’s built, how it behaves, and how structure informs design. I’m drawn to seeing both the detail and the bigger system at play.

These swatches explore my design process from concept to material. I use weaving as a way to test structure, color relationships, and pattern development in real time. My choices are guided by bold contrasts, unexpected combinations, and a focus on how color and yarn behavior shift the final surface.

About Me

Hi, I'm Kayla! I am a textile designer creating bold, expressive prints for fashion and home. With a background in illustration and surface textile design, I use fine art techniques to develop fresh, trend-focused textiles that translate seamlessly into finished products. My work blends art, culture, current trends, and visual storytelling to create designs that feel both modern and meaningful. I have a strong sense of integrity in my practice and lead with my Jewish identity as a core source of inspiration in my design thinking. I’m driven by the full lifecycle of design, always creating with the end product in mind and ensuring my work moves from concept into real-world application.

Gmail: Kaymantell@gmail.com Instagram: FirstDayCreations Based in New Jersey

Shop my work at: Shop.KaylaMantell.com