Golden days of Hollywood come alive
By Susan M. Andrews, Fabric Editor -- Furniture Today, April 18, 2005
These days, we are just as likely to see a movie star's latest police mug shot as a glamorous publicity photograph. But in the heyday of Hollywood, movie stars were the whole world's royalty — think Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Their fashions and interiors were the benchmarks of good taste — nothing snooty or stuffy — just an appreciation of luxury and sophisticated design.
Those golden days — especially in the 1930s and '40s — were about living well. This market, upholstery manufacturers have translated that milieu into home furnishings with the help of fabrics that complement the current contemporized favorites — Art Deco and mid-century modern.
These Hollywood Regency looks feature sheen and other reflective elements, simplified geometrics, abstract and distorted patterns, and overlapping and repeating motifs to help tell the Art Deco story; and mohair looks, velvets and nubby, chunky Coco Chanel-worthy textures to showcase the lines of mid-century modern styling.
Several upholstery manufacturers submitted some of the highlights of their cover choices, which we've presented on the following pages as a preview of the many upholstery introductions coming to market in High Point next week.
Also in this issue of Global Textiles Today is a story about Richloom Fabrics' decision to leverage its own years of experience in China with decorative fabrics to enhance its value to the furniture industry. As part of this effort, it's putting an experienced young sales executive, Jay Carlson, on the ground in Shanghai.
Finally, there is an installment of Five Questions, in which two industry veterans — Jack Cobb and Roger Berkley — weigh in on some contentious issues that have arisen relating to the evolution of the semiannual Showtime fabric fairs presented by the International Textile Market Assn.
The next issue of Global Textiles Today will be in the May 2 issue of Furniture/Today. It will focus on news and product introductions from exhibitors at the Proposte and Scoperta fabric fairs in Italy and Switzerland, which run concurrently the second week of May.
