Fabric

Brunschwig & Fils Files Chapter 11, May Be Sold To Competitor

Filed under: Decor

Luxury wallcovering brand Brunschwig & Fils recently announced that the family-owned company has filed for Chapter 11 restructuring and that Kravet, a fabrics and home furnishings company and former competitor has agreed to buy the company. Brunschwig & Fils is an 111-year-old distributor of wall coverings and upholstery fabrics. It listed assets of $10.9 million and debt totaling $18.4 million. The recession led to a 35% decline in sales in 2009 and a 30% decrease in 2010 as less people poured money into their homes.

Home Textiles Today reports that Kravet , a 93-year-old-brand, has offered $6.5 million in cash plus other considerations. Brunschwig & Fils wants other offers by March 3, with an auction not more than two days later to see if anyone will top Kravet's offer. There are no plans to close the 17 Brunschwig & Fils showrooms in the U.S. and three abroad. Brunschwig CEO Olivier Pearson called the restructuring a business decision and said that "our relationships with the lines we represent remain intact and the Brunschwig & Fils Design Studio is creating new patterns for future release."

Tags: brunschwig fils, chapter 11, fabric, kravet, wallcoverings

The Story of the World's Most Luxurious Fabric from Loro Piana

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Books, Men's Style

Baby Cashmere may well be the world's most luxurious fabric. As The Classicist noted when it debuted in 2008 courtesy of Italian luxury label Loro Piana, to make it the company first had to spend several years convincing Mongolian tribesmen to comb the fine underfleece of the Hyrcus goat kid when it is 3-12 months old. Each combing yields no more than 30 grams of the rare, precious and incredibly soft fiber and is only done once in the well-cared for animal's life. It takes the fleece of nineteen kids to make just one Baby Cashmere sweater. Now Loro Piana has documented the painstaking process in a lavish new volume from Skira called Baby Cashmere: The Long Journey of Excellence. Traveling through the remote and unspoiled lands where the goats are raised, the epic journey is revealed in over a hundred vibrant full-color photographs, presented in large-scale format.

Tags: animals, baby cashmere, books, cashmere, coffee table books, fabric, Italian fashion, Italy, Loro Piana, Mongolia, Skira

Fabric Frontline, Buy Next Year's Fabrics by the Meter in Switzerland

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Luxury Travel & Hotels

Sometimes, a fabric can sell a whole outfit. Whether it's a simple dress in an enchanting blue-green or a necktie with a labyrinthine print, designers know that the right fabric makes all the difference. They scour the globe for the perfect shades and patterns and weights, and we found one of their secret weapons: Fabric Frontline, a small, family-owned business in Zürich which curates and designs some of the best -- and most expensive -- luxury fabrics in the universe, specializing in silk and cashmere.

You have to be in-the-know to find it. The little shop's window, near the culturally diverse (and sex shop ridden) Langstrasse, seemingly leads nowhere; you have to go through a small courtyard to get to the showroom. Inside, you'll find a dazzling assortment of colors and prints which will take your breath away -- and which you'll see the following season from designers like Vivienne Westwood (who I'm told is a particular friend of the shop), Nina Ricci and Helmut Lang, just to name a few. In fact, according to our hostess, the fabric Isabel Toledo used to make Michelle Obama's inauguration ensemble came from here. Naturally, the fabrics travel to the most exclusive trade shows around the world, which is where the elite designers tend to shop. The public aren't typically allowed into such events, but they are allowed to shop at Fabric Frontline.

Gallery: Fabric Frontline - Zurich, Switzerland

Fabric Frontline gets their silk yarn from China and has it woven in northern Italy with all-natural dyes. A clerk was kind enough to show us how printed silks are screened, involving layers of stencils and meticulous craftsmanship -- and a lot of patience. Sometimes designers buy the fabrics right off the roll, while others will approach them with drawings like these:

Tags: cashmere, fabric, Fabric Frontline, silk, Switzerland, Zurich

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The Classicist: Dunhill Custom Tailoring for Spring & Summer

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Men's Style, The Classicist

Back in March we reported that London luxury goods firm Dunhill was opening a new custom tailoring floor of its Madison Avenue flagship store in New York, the first of its kind in the U.S. Now we have more details of their custom tailoring program, featuring a selection of over 250 of the finest British and Italian cloths. Clients can create suits, jackets, trousers and shirts solely designed for their individual lifestyle or demands. Overseen by Bruno Cosentino, Dunhill's resident master tailor who personally hand makes every bespoke item, the space is entirely dedicated to the brand's exceptional tailoring service. A Dunhill custom suit undergoes 165 separate, meticulous operations performed by skilled artisans, with some 200 individual pieces going into making a jacket alone. Each jacket is expertly constructed using a floating canvas front allowing it to mold to the body over time. The Custom program offers a choice of two cuts – the House's signature St James' block, inspired by the archetypal Savile Row suit with several distinctive Dunhill touches, or the slimmer Belgravia fit defined by a suppressed waist, built up chest and sharper shoulders.

A suit can further be personalized by straight or slanted pockets, center or side vents and notch or peak lapels. Distinctive Dunhill silhouettes are enhanced by the introduction of a lightly 'roped' shoulder providing a typically English outline. This additional mark of luxury raises the crown of the sleeve slightly, ensuring the purest of lines from shoulder to sleeve. High performance fabrics are available including a 3-ply high twist super 130's wool and silk fabric in a range of blues and greys. The classic Dunhill custom blazer can be created in the finest of Camdeboo mohair (above) which is lightweight, boasts great performance properties and travels beautifully, keeping the wearer warm in the cold but cool in the heat. Each Dunhill custom item will be completed and presented within two months. Once the design of the pattern is complete, it then becomes part of the Alfred Dunhill archives, kept in reserve for returning clients seeking additional bespoke services. Dunhill's custom tailoring tradition includes a tuxedo made for Truman Capote to wear at his infamous Black & White Ball in the 1960s as well as bespoke suits made for Frank Sinatra.

Gallery: Dunhill Custom Tailoring in NYC

Tags: bespoke, Dunhill, English, fabric, jacket, linen, London, mens style, Savile Row, suits, tailoring

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Persephone Books in London

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

Photo of London's Persephone Book Store on Lamb's Conduit

In the age of digital books, the Kindle, and, ahem, blogs, one unassailable argument for the survival of paper are beautiful, lavishly designed books. Books that are actually pleasing design objects, if not works of art.

Persephone Books is a small London book publisher on a wonderful shopping street called Lamb's Conduit, which I discovered on a retail tour led by Clare Dowdy, author of One Off, about unique retailers worldwide. (Arrange Dowdy's tour through the InterContinental Park Lane London.)

Persephone, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, publishes just 83 books, and ones you won't easily find elsewhere -- neglected classics by 20th century writers who are mostly women. Their books are bound in an elegant dove gray, and the endpapers are unique to each book, and are prints of antique fabric designs. (You can get a matching bookmark.) It's fun to visit the store and hard to buy just one -- I walked away with An Interrupted Life: The Diary of Etty Hillesum, and The Journal of Katherine Mansfield -- although you can also order online.

Tags: books, bookstore, bookstores, fabric, london, tours

$50,000 Suits Cut From World's Most Expensive Cloth

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Men's Style

Holland & Sherry, the world famous fabric weaver and cloth merchant founded in Scotland in 1836, is offering an extremely limited edition range of bespoke suits cut from the world's most luxurious and expensive cloth. The firm, which has premises on Savile Row, has woven the world's first 100 per cent worsted spun Vicuna fabric, the most expensive in the world at over $4,000 per yard. The material (above) comes from the wool of the elusive wild Vicuna, a relative of the llama that lives high in the Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia.

The Vicuna can only be shorn every three years and yields an extremely small amount of fine wool. It took Holland & Sherry five years to gather enough of the exclusive yarn, and another year and a half to develop the unique cloth, which is much finer than cashmere. There is only enough of the precious fabric to make 18 suits, each of which will cost about $50,000. Customers will have only three colors to choose from – black, midnight and natural. The King of Morocco is among the first to place an order for one of the gorgeous garments.

Tags: Bespoke, Cashmere, Fabric, Holland Sherry, HollandSherry, Peru, Savile Row, SavileRow, Scotland, Suit, Vicuna

Karen Wilson Sphere Pomegranate, Handbag of the Day

by Sandy Maple (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Handbags

I have a weakness for beautiful fabric. I am drawn to gorgeous prints, patterns and colors and as a result, I have a closet full of textiles that I have no real use for. I could justify buying this, however, because it is beautiful and useful. In addition to the great print, I love the barely-there strap and the way the clasp peeks out above the delicately gathered fabric. $249.

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Tags: designer handbag, DesignerHandbag, fabric, frame bag, FrameBag, Karen Wilson, KarenWilson, luxe handbag, LuxeHandbag, luxury handbag, LuxuryHandbag, print handbag, PrintHandbag, purse, shoulder bag, ShoulderBag, silk handbag, SilkHandbag, sphere Pomegranate, SpherePomegranate, textile

Glenda Geis Aqua Bella, Handbag of the Day

by Sandy Maple (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Handbags

I discovered Glenda Geis while browsing at Alison Nelson's Chocolate Bar, where they offer two of her limited edition bags filled with gourmet chocolates and teas. They are both lovely, as are all the other designs at Layla Grace, but it is this one that I love and must have. Typical of her bags, the Aqua Bella features a beautiful vintage fabric donning a simply styled frame bag. With a removable blue leather flower, very little hardware and a plain strap, the bag is spare and clean, yet still stunning. Even the interior of this bag is gorgeous, with a contrasting fabric in blue and brown and a single zip pocket. Because these bags are made from vintage fabrics, each one is a limited edition. $270.

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Tags: alison nelson, AlisonNelson, chocolate bar, ChocolateBar, clutch, designer handbag, DesignerHandbag, fabric, fabric bag, fabric handbg, FabricBag, FabricHandbg, frame bag, FrameBag, glenda geis, GlendaGeis, layla grace, LaylaGrace, luxe, luxe purse, LuxePurse, luxury, vintage, vintage handbag, VintageHandbag

Africa Gets Luxury Label

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

It seems that the fabric company Vlisco is planning to launch the first luxury label based in Africa. The traditional fabrics and designs that the company specializes in are facing competition from inexpensive, imported fabrics and they want to do something to set themselves apart. Creative director Dion Chang said, "The world is ready for a luxury African brand -- an Afro-Gucci." The label has been named Aziza, which means "gorgeous" in Swahili, and will launch in during fashion week in Johannesburg. It will first be sold in South Africa, where the demand for luxury goods is perceived to be the highest. Patterns and styles will be African inspired, but not over-the-top or clichéd.

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Tags: africa, afro-gucci, aziza, fabric, fasion, south africa

Human Nest Chair

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

The Human Nest Chair is a creation of designer Emily Pilloton. It is a compilation of thousands of scraps of fabric and textiles, woven and tied together onto a bamboo frame. The idea came about after the designer observed the way that birds build and maintain their nests and, like those natural nests, this chair can be replenished with new fabrics of your own to keep if fluffy and soft over time. The designer says that this makes it into a modern heirloom.

Since it was featured in the New York Times this past Sunday, the fact that only one chair has currently been sold is bound to change, despite the fact that the chair is a startling $1,800. Perhaps it would be best for someone who likes the shabby chic look. Or the ultra shabby chic look.

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Tags: chair, chic, decor, emily pilloton, EmilyPilloton, fabric, frame, furniture, human nest chair, nest, new york times, scraps, shabby chic

White House Fabrics For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Auctions

Interior design junkies will be interested in this auction from Scalamandre, the famous textile company. The manufacturer is opening up the archives and offering historical fabrics, art work and other items. There will be three online auctions this year, the first of which started on April 19. The current auction includes several White House fabric lots that were designed by Mrs. Scalamandre for Jackie Kennedy's restoration. The auction also includes furniture from the Scalamandre Museum of Textiles including a European side chair given to Franco Scalamandre by William Randolph Hearst. The piece shown here is silk which was designed for chair seats in the Blue Room of the White House. It has a starting bid of $4500.

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Tags: auction, decor, design, fabric, scalamandre, white house fabric

Spring Bedding from John Robshaw

by Dakota Smith (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

The spring collection from John Robshaw, one of my favorite fabric designers is out, and if you're looking for lightweight pillows and bedding, you can't do better than his stuff. With an Indian-Asia-boho feel, his designs are simply lovely. His web site is pretty sparse, but does list retailers. Online sites like Nochalant Mom and ShopatGood also carry his line.

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Tags: Bedding, decor, fabric, home, home decor, John Robshaw, Linens, sheets, shopping

JKLM Ellen Bags

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Handbags

I nearly snapped up one of these at CA Boom. The Ellen bag from JKLM Studio is a well-crafted creative bag. The body of the bag is made of water-resistant and durable fabric and the contrasting top is done in a stylish silk or cotton textile. The bags are lined with silk and have one ribbon-trimmed pocket. And of course, there are those lovely metal handles which clink delicately like bangles on your wrist. The bags sell for $129-$149.

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Tags: fabric, handbag, jklm studio, JklmStudio, purse