Fabrics: A world in constant flux
Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, April 5, 2004
Already, changes are taking place in what had been considered the norm in the decorative fabric world's involvement with China, India, Pakistan and Turkey.
After talking with some mill executives after furniture premarket in High Point and during last week's home textiles market in New York, it's very clear that there is no single, uniform process. Everything is a work in progress.
And that's as true for the folks in furnitureland as it is for other cut-and-sew home furnishings products.
The newest twist appears to be fabric suppliers designing fabrics and then shipping the designs across the water to a mill for a royalty fee of some sort. The mill can be one chosen by the fabric company or the customer. The customer then has the cut-and-sew product done offshore and either fabricated there or shipped here for the fabrication.
That opens up a whole bunch of questions and challenges, including the intellectual property issue, which is tricky enough for offshore designs and products as it is.
Then there's the situation with many furniture manufacturers — even those in the mainstream — whose special-order upholstery programs are running stronger and stronger. What appears to be happening is that the core, regular segments of these lines are being sourced offshore, either through U.S.-based suppliers or directly. The fabrics in the special-order programs continue to be from domestic suppliers because of the need for quick delivery and the small quantities of a lot of this stuff.
To make things even more interesting in the world of fabrics, some major mills apparently are offering cut orders on a select group of fabrics to key upholstered furniture customers.
Stay tuned. By furniture market later this month, things are sure to change some more.
