ImagesMagUK_February_2022

IS www.images-magazine.com 24 images FEBRUARY 2022 30 TH ANNIVERSARY 1 992 . The year in which the Premier League launched and the Olympics visited Barcelona. Ford unveiled the Mondeo and engineer Neil Papworth sent the first-ever SMS text message (“Merry Christmas”). In politics, Bill Clinton won the US Presidential Election while George W H Bush, the incumbent president, together with Russian Premier Boris Yeltsin, declared an end to the Cold War. The Church of England voted to allow women to become priests, and singer Miley Cyrus was born. Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced they were separating (as did the Duke and Duchess of York), contributing to what the Queen described as her “annus horribilis”. ‘Silence of the Lambs’ scooped the five major Academy Awards, and TV show ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ aired for the first time. Whitney Houston dominated the UK singles chart with ‘I will always love you’, Simply Red’s ‘Stars’ was album of the year and Damien Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde was shown for the first time. The real news story in 1992, however, was the launch of Images – the first specialist trade publication for the UK textile and garment decoration industry! The magazine was the brainchild of publishing sales executive Cathy Hobson who spotted an opening for a publication We take a trip down memory lane with a read through the first- ever issue of Images magazine, published in February 1992 Back to the beginning covering the fast emerging and multi- faceted branded clothing sector. At the time, multi-brand distributors were a relatively new concept, screen printing presses were slow and automated screen-making was still a pipe dream. The original Mosaic (Netscape) web browser was a year away from development, there was no Wi-Fi and embroidery designs were transferred on floppy disks. One-off colour transfers for textiles printed on hugely expensive colour laser printers remained a source of wonder. Over the 32 pages plus covers of the February 1992 issue we shared news of: new hot split puff transfer inks from Wilflex; HG Kippax’s new Cap Printer; the launch of Newman Roller Mesh at the SPAI show in Cleveland; the new catalogue from Target International; the upcoming Fespa 92 exhibition in Amsterdam; BTC’s new depot in Walthamstow, London; and Precision Screen Machines’ new Premiere 18 oval press (capable of printing “150 dozen shirts per hour”). We published special reports on Sericol’s recently introduced TexCharge TC discharge ink system and ‘the hottest fashion sensation’ of the year – Hypercolor from Global Inc, a new textile dye system that changed fabric colour through body temperature. Bryan Stringer of B&P Graphics delved into ‘Apple Macintosh for the textile screenprinter’; we shared advice on book- keeping for new start-ups in the industry; and we paid a visit to Nigel and Debbie Webb in Newhaven to talk about their print shop, ‘American Graffitti’. Cover star Graham Ridley of Things pitched in with some expert advice on ‘Organising your print shop’, while we also assessed the threat posed by DIY garment decoration kits to commercial printers. Oh, and we had a bloke called Eric Clapton on the cover! Many of the suppliers featured in the first issue will be unfamiliar to today’s printers and embroiderers and many are no longer in existence – Geoffrey E Macpherson, Morestyle, Tradewinds, Mr President… However, there are also some that have supported Images from 1992 and who we are both proud and grateful to still be featuring today, including Wilflex, Jerzees (Russell), BTC Activewear, Sharon Lee, Peter A Wright (Amaya Sales UK), Screen Stars (Fruit of the Loom), TheMagicTouch, M&R, Adelco, Xpres and Ralawise. A trip down memory lane through our first-ever issue illustrates just how far the industry (and Images ) has come. However, some things never change. When Cathy launched her new magazine 30 years ago she did so with the intention of providing a publication that was in tune with and dedicated to the needs of its readers – informing, educating and entertaining professionals who earn their livelihood through branded apparel. It’s what Images has been doing for three decades now and it’s something we continue to take enormous pleasure in doing in every issue we publish. ■ Fancy taking a trip back in time to 1992 and reading our first issue for yourself? Follow this link to view a digitised copy: imagesmag.uk/issue-number-1 [Above] The first-ever Images cover, starring [l-r]: Graham Ridley, production director at Things, Colin Thomas, art director at Things… and Eric Clapton [Left] Our report on ‘the hottest fashion sensation’ of 1992