Structurally-colored articles and methods for making and using structurally-colored articles

A method of making a textile comprising:

• providing a textile having a first surface, the first surface comprising a first thermoplastic material;
• softening or melting the first thermoplastic material by increasing a temperature of at least a portion of the first surface of the textile to a first temperature at or above one of a creep relaxation temperature, a heat deflection temperature, a Vicat softening temperature, or a melting temperature of the first thermoplastic material;
• altering a texture of the at least a portion of the first surface while the temperature of the first surface is at or above the first temperature by contacting a textured molding surface of a release paper transfer medium with the first surface of the textile and using the textured molding surface to alter the texture of the first surface;
• and
• disposing an optical element onto the first thermoplastic material of the at least a portion of the first surface having the altered texture, wherein the optical element, as disposed on the first surface, imparts a visible structural color and a hue in the visible spectrum to the textile, wherein the structural color is an angle-independent structural color in that the hue, the hue and value, or the hue, value and chroma observed is independent of the angle of observation, wherein the optical element includes a plurality of layers, wherein adjacent layers have different indices of refraction, wherein at least one of the layers has a thickness that is about one-fourth of the wavelength of visible light to be reflected by the optical element to produce the visible structural color.