Parlor Textiles

(Fabric) Bordering on Obsession

Friday’s Wall Street Journal brought a wonderful article by one of my favorite bloggers, Style Court‘s Courtney Barnes on the charm of self bordered textiles. I have long been obsessed with traditional Indian fabrics which routinely use borders as integral parts of their design as well as modern renderings by many of my favorite textile designers, including those of Zak+ Fox , Peter Dunham and Parlor Textiles, whose fabrics are illustrated in the article. Using the auction of a pair of armchairs, covered by designer Michael Smith in a bordered textile reprinted from an antique one in his own collection as the starting point of her musings, she pulls us into the intimate story of her own passion for the fabrics. As luck and serendipity would have it, this was the very topic on my mind exactly as I was reading it.

My own Michael Smith bordered fabric illumination occurred years ago with this Santa Barbara guest house in which he used a myriad of inexpensive Urban Outfitters Indian bedspreads to upholster the walls, the furniture and make the draperies. His masterful manipulation of the borders really demonstrated the punctuation they can provide, in this case both as a fillet and curtain edge and trim. His use of these simple artisanal fabrics turned me on to the idea of their flexibility. You know I love good repurposing!

The serendipity part comes in because I have been working on and off all fall and in particular this past week for my most exacting client to date – my 14-year-old daughter. When moving a young teenager halfway round the world to a new school, it’s good to have a bribe, in this case a big new bedroom and entirely new decor as she had outgrown the furniture and color scheme of her old space. Add an en suite bathroom – about the size of her old Tokyo bedroom – and the potential for happiness goes way up. While her younger sister’s room is basically finished, progress on her’s had stalled. Her request for soft blues and a bit of Indian block print had resulted in this dreamy Instagram palette, but other than actually ordering the Parlor Textiles French Ikat in blue for her headboard and bedskirt, nothing had been done.

For that “bit of Indian block print” I had turned to my favorite source, Aleta Bartel-Orton (also mentioned by Courtney in the article), whose online shop sells both her’s and Brigitte Singh‘s beautiful fabrics. The bedroom plan calls for Roman shades, ideally to be made in a blue and white print, highlighted by some sort of decorative edge. In addition to yardage, Aleta has tablecloths and other finished pieces available which I thought might be perfect as they tend to have borders. But while I was scrolling around the website I realized that what I really wanted was my favorite old standby, Hibiscus Branch. Of course, the print run is finished and there is basically none left – why is it I only manage to figure out that I need a particular fabric from her only after she is out of it? Luckily Aleta was willing to search for any remaining pieces of the Hibiscus Branch (and it seems like there may be just enough)…

…and also came up with this cotton panel, mainly white and unprinted but with the loveliest borders which will be added to the Roman shades to create the effect of a single fabric. The flowered portion won’t go to waste either – I’ll use it to make throw pillows. It’s good to note here that complimentary fabrics can be combined to create the bordered look.

This brings me back to Michael Smith’s bargain trick with bedspreads that I find works even better with tablecloths. Different projects need different sizes and tablecloths are available small to large. Both can be counted on the have the quality Courtney refers to her in her article, the constrained “frames, along with symmetry, to bring order to a profusion of ornament.” So in addition to Aleta’s offerings, other resources I have been exploring include Priya Raj’s beautiful block prints at Peacocks and Paisleys. I almost grabbed this Exotic Mint Sprigs tablecloth in the sale this weekend with an eye towards using it to make a shade for the guest room.

And instead of ho-hum shower curtains, it’s not that hard to put 12 button holes in a tablecloth or bed sheet, which is exactly what I am planning on doing in my daughter’s bedroom with the block printed bed sheet I bought this summer from Jaypore. And for purpose made shower curtains in block print patterns, take a look at Saffron Marigold. I recently recommended their Wedding Day pattern for an impossibly boring yellowy-beige bathroom.

I have also given up on trying to get permission to change the ugly tiles in our kitchen here and am going for a new approach which involves distraction. In searching for fabrics for the French chairs, I had an epiphany and realized Mally Skok‘s Rohet Multi on Oyster might be just the thing to link the disparate elements in the kitchen together. More on that later in the week but be sure to notice that it too has a border.

I’ll be putting it to good use.

Image credits: First two photos Michael Smith via 1. The Wall Street Journal, 2. Cote de Texas. Other photos mine or as linked.

Jan 19, 2014 By tokyojinja in Doha Move, Interior Design, Kids, Textiles 5 Comments Tags: Aleta Online, borders, Brigitte Singh, Courtney Barnes, fabric borders, Indian block prints, Mally Skok, michael smith, Parlor Textiles, Peacocks and Paisleys, Peter Dunham, Saffron Marigold, Style Court, ZAK + FOX

Chiné à la Branche…French Floral Ikats

I’m back to writing about one of my favorite kinds of textiles – ikat. While many continue to associate the term with the very popular Central Asian style of the textile – think Madeline Weinrib pillows – this weaving technique was and is a global phenomena. Obviously I adore the Japanese version known as kasuri and you can read more about that here and here. But if you are tired or bored with ikat, I’ve got a version that I think has been underused, perhaps even unrecognized a bit. In modern parlance, I call them French floral ikats, for their soft western realistic flowers, but as I continue in the post, you’ll see there is a historical reason too. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately as I have fallen in love with Parlor Textile‘s new fabrics this season, in particular their French Ikat in Classic Blue. I think it would make a gorgeous headboard for my 14-year-old daughter’s bedroom makeover. I’m looking for something that has both a mod prettiness and timeless lasting power. Can’t you just see it?

Reproduced from an 18th century piece of fabric courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, their French Ikat also comes in a pretty salmon pink colorway.

Kathryn Ireland has long had a loose floral Ikat which comes in a number of colors including this green and pink. You’ll notice both patterns have some banding – ribbons I like to call them – giving the flowers a bit of a striped backing to rest themselves on.

So why am I referring to these as French ikats? Well, ikat fabrics are not just all-the-rage today. Cue up mid-18th century France to discover an earlier ikat craze. Inspired by silk road imports, chiné à la branche was the French answer to the technique. Manufactured mainly in Lyons, these silks were woven in just the way you might expect. Warp threads were dyed in small bunches (thus the term “branche”) before the weaving, yielding the blurred pattern. They were extremely time-consuming to make and thus expensive so no surprise that they have historically been associated with Louis XV and Louis XVI, and more notably by Marie-Antoinette for the fabrication of her court clothes and for the upholstery of luxury furniture. And why the “chiné”? Just like “blanc de Chine” it connotes the idea that the style came from the east – although not really from China in this case – just that general direction.

Like all French fashions in the 18th century, it traveled to England as well, where it was often referred to as “Pompadour silk” for obvious reasons. Even to the modern viewer, all of these dresses just scream impressive and expensive, which they were.

You can see the stripes and the blurry flowers in this detail of the dress on the right above.

Harder to find are examples of antique chiné à la branche used for upholstery as I imagine it took a much harder beating than the fancy dress. In this small worn example we see the definitive stripes and banding that give the fabric the extra visual structure that you don’t always find in traditional ikat.

After industrialisation, chiné à la branche, which was both slow and costly, finally disappeared, leaving in its wake the modern version in which the pattern is printed onto the warp in lieu of hand dying. Last year I used Lee Jofa‘s Lambelet Stripe in Rose Amethyst to upholster the cushion on my antique French caned and painted chaise at the beach house.

I searched for a long time as the piece called for a special fabric in that it needed both a nod to the past and one to the present. Again it was the combination of the stripes with the ikat flowers that made it perfect – modern and traditional at the same time. In retrospect, I think Parlor Textile’s new French Ikat in the pink would have been a lovely choice for this piece too had it been available.

Charles Faudree has a fabric line for Vervain that includes this Ruby Ikat in a few colors, including this purple and green. It’s a more casual take on a very formal style…

…although shown here in Veranda in a more typical way on a Rococo bench. But I do think these fabrics are ripe for reinvention and mixing in today’s interiors.

One final example has my eye humming – this wild watercolor floral called Malvasia from Rubelli. The pattern is taken from a vintage sketch in the Rubelli archives. Not really the same thing at all but I do think you could have a lot of fun with this. And I can imagine the 18th century ladies thinking it would make a fabulous dress!