Duralee's Roberta in the wild...

New window treatment. It's definitely Duralee.

Tonight we celebrated some downtime by installing two large roman shades in the kitchen. Perhaps the best compliment you can give of a decorative fabric if you are in the industry is that you'd chose it yourself for your own home. That honor goes to Duralee's new aviary print, Roberta in the Springtime colorway.

Roberta is a classic looking bird print in a soft color scheme of neutral transitional colors. The large golden plumage plays nicely with a kitchen chandelier and the white and rich wooden windows and window frames are made even more beautiful by Roberta's complimenting coloration.

Duralee has quite a few exclusive prints that I've been placing with designers and manufacturers: Dalesford, a two tone Ikat print, Bardo, a multi-colored ethnic pattern, the bold geometric Loop de Loop, and of course quite a few selections from the Thomas Paul II Collection- which most certainly should be turned into an outdoor collection for next summer... but my favorite pattern of the moment is Roberta- a timeless classic reborn!

ITMA Showtime 2011

It's almost June which means it's almost time for ITMA Showtime. This is the second time I'll be in attendance since I left my last company, where from 2003-2008 I was an exhibitor with a large booth in the temporary spaces.

Showtime is an opportunity to look at a segment of the American textile industry, but not as large of one as I would like. On the showroom floor you will find a number of fabric companies, importers really, who bring in thousands of rolls of cookie cutter cloths with generic patterns and constructions, in all of the typical colors. I shy away from this type of fabric because it never excites me.

With my last company, I learned how to buy the very best for aggressively cheap prices and then move these prestigious high end fabrics through wholesale channels to retailers all across the country. I've always felt that fabric stores would do well by stocking the best fabrics they can afford instead of whatever it is that passes for fabric on the low end.

Showtime is also a chance for me to see my friends within the industry, an industry that is always in flux but always in some way familiar, and a time to visit my family, who also live in High Point. My grandmother is quickly approaching 80 years old. Where has the time gone?

Stout Brothers: Embroidery Expressions Book 1254

My friends at Stout Brothers just sent me three new sample books of Spring 2011 collections. I wanted to take a moment to say how much I like some of the embroideries in their Embroidery Expressions Book.

Simple and to the point, but it feels great...

Embroideries are a dime a dozen these days, typically you find them in silks or polyesters. I really couldn't care about polyester taffetas embroidered or not because they look and feel cheap. Stout's collection features light weight cotton, linen, and viscose cloth with rayon embroidery. The result is a much more sophisticated textile that strikes the correct balance between weight and drape. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the color range is right on key with what's going on in upscale interior design these days- and that is cool neutrals and earthy elemental tones- almost biomorphic textile hues.

There are many stand-out patterns in this collection, which is over 50 pieces deep, and I suspect this will be a good collection for Stout. I'll spend the rest of the weekend looking these pieces over and making them available for purchase at www.draperyrow.com

Overall Grade: A-

More Trade Secrets Soon!

Drapery Row's Trade Secrets is a hand selected collection of high end designer fabrics made available for a limited time at well below wholesale (and sometimes below the original cost to manufacture). I litterally spend several hours every week coming high end fabric house collections to pluck these beauties out of their respective bins. Today, I've made a deal with an ultra-high end Virginia fabric boutique to offer even more selection of ultra-high end exclusive designs. Thanks to our partnership, Drapery Row will offer the internet's best kept secrets, one-of-a-kind high end designer fabrics at prices you've come to expect.

I'm excited to enter this, the next chapter of our fabric story.

Coming In: Dalesford by Duralee

Duralee really seems to like going big lately in their prints. I'm bringing in a trie of Ikat/ Kilim type prints called Dalesford. Dalesford features a 13.5" x 13.5" size abstract design that seems to be paying a little bit of a tribute to the classic arabesques of old but retaining a mid-century modern feel to it. These prints are printed on a linen/ cotton cloth that is 55% linen and 45% cotton. You get a slight linen texture from the blend, but the overall effect is lightweight and breathable.

As for the pattern, Duralee seems to be going for maximum impact. Whether you choose to use Dalesford for draperies, upholstery, or pillows, there is nothing understated about the scale and the stark contrasts, which play with light and draw the eye into the grainy print texture. From a distance the pattern almost looks woven into the cloth.

It's easy to see why this and Loop de Loop were the cornerstones of the Walton Exclusive Prints Collection, they continue Duralee's run of trend forward designs at reachable prices.


Patterns from the Walton Collection can be purchased at www.draperyrow.com  keyword: "walton"

Thinking about Modernism: Louis Kahn

I've been working on a magazine article about the modernist architect Louis Kahn. Louis was one of the foremost monolithic modernist architects of the twentieth century. His timeless Salk Institute campus is featured in the current Lincoln MKX television spot and is the backdrop for this screen capture of the Lincoln website:

No offense to the good folks at Lincoln, but I hope their current crop of luxury automobiles are more reliable than the 2005 Lincoln Navigator I used to drive.

It's a beautiful pitch, luxury in the midst of brutalist architecture. I can imagine the iconic Kahn, straight laced, wearing his suit and iconic glasses looking at the sculpture of these vehicles and I wonder what he'd think of this built work being used as the backdrop of a salespitch. I like the ad because of its tone and imagery- but maybe that's the Pavlovian impulse in me to praise works that I recognize.

Kahn was also featured in a brilliant documentary called My Architect: A Son's Journey. This 2003 film follows Kahn's son Nathaniel as he retraces the trajectory of his father's career to find what, if anything, is left of his father in the world. It's a journey that touches me because I will never know who my father is. Following Nathaniel's journey allowed me some measure of satisfaction of seeing someone in a similar situation as myself discover where they came from.

But more than these two instances, I've been thinking about Kahn because the big questions about modernism. Are these great monolithic buildings real? I imagine when they were built they were unlike anything ever conceived. I'm sure that they were shocking to some. Kahn was asked by my alma mater, the University of Virginia to design a modern chemistry building- but those plans were rejected.

We are now fifty, sixty years out and Kahn's designs have become iconic. We've somehow bridged that distance in time where the revolutionary became historic. Now Kahn's masterpieces are the anonymous backdrop of a Detroit sales pitch.

I'll keep working on this magazine article as I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. Some days the mind is aswirl with ideas and nothing is clear or straightforward.

Another new wallpaper and it's magnificent

Sometimes samples just don't reveal the true beauty of a pattern. I've known this my entire career, but it's worth stating. I remember going to trade shows with my last company taking with me boxes of 6" x 6" squares on rings trying to convince savvy buyers that they were looking at fantastic designs that would fly off of their shelves. It takes a great deal of imagination and some serious trust in the salesperson to take that leap of faith. Being on the other end of that equation, I can't tell you how many patterns I've been told are the best selling patterns in this or that collection. Unsavory salespeople and antiquated anecdotes aside, I have to you about a pattern that I bought, practically sight unseen.

As you know by now, Schumacher is done with its Williamsburg Collection, which it produced for nearly 70 years in partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. I was sent several samples as they were clearing out obsolete designs, one of which was called Jones Toile. The sample I was sent was of typical size and revealed a hint of neoclassical decay which is quite common for these 18th century historicist patterns. I was unsure about it, however, the printing, while good seemed overly dark. It overwhelmed the sample and I was afraid that it would be a tough sell, even at a discount.

I took a flier on it anyway, feeling that if I was going to be wrong at least I wouldn't have all that much of it- there were only sixteen rolls left anyway. Well, it came in yesterday and BOY.WAS.I.WRONG.

Jones Toile turns out to be the most amazing toile wallpaper I have ever seen. The repeat is nearly two yards long and the larger than life scale revealed quite a few "secrets" that the sample didn't allude to. For starters, there is a gorgeous peacock with long flowing tail feathers. The trees and columns thrust vertically in the air with confidence and assuredness. This really is quite a fantastic design. Tonight I'll work on the imaging and post the pattern for sale... that is unless I decide to keep it for myself. It's that good.