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Performance fabrics evolve with new styling, features

By Susan M. Andrews -- Furniture Today, July 2, 2006

'Green' power
Offshore partnerships

High Point — Although indoor residential upholstery fabric is the star at the semiannual Showtime fabric fairs here, performance fabrics aimed at every market from residential and outdoor to contract and hospitality get more attention with every passing season.

Delicate cut thread jac-quards and embroidered silks are beautiful, but a lot of consumers these days say they want something beautiful that will withstand children and pets. They also want to extend their comfortable living space, which includes deep-seat upholstery, out to their sunrooms, porches and patios — without having to worry about fabrics fading in the sun.

In other words, they want the same softness and style outdoors as indoors — i.e., performance fabrics — and manufacturers had abundant choices at Summer Showtime to fulfill these consumer wishes.

A notable trend this season was faux leather, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to the "vinyl" upholstery covers of the past, and which is finding a comfortable niche at upholstery manufacturers like Century Furniture Inds., an "early adopter" of this technology. In fact, Ed Tashjian, vice president of marketing for Century, said faux leather was the top trend he noticed at the Maison & Objet show earlier this year in Paris.

Faux leather brings to market a bundle of high-tech, high-performance features that include extreme durability and UV-resistance even beyond residential outdoor standards, not to mention the high yield and efficiency of 54-inch rolls of material that move just like fabric through an upholstery manufacturing plant.

'Green' power

Designers and manufacturers are making the most of those efficiencies, as well as the fashionable looks available in the new faux leathers. In many cases, the products also boast an environmental advantage, offering "green" manufacturing processes, another issue currently resonating with consumers.

Designer Celerie Kemble, who designs a faux leather line for Valtekz and a furniture line for Laneventure, was on hand with her latest looks at Showtime, where Valtekz also debuted additions to its outdoor-worthy Luxo-LW line, which features a nanoparticle varnish that gives it UV resistance in addition to its high durability, resistance to oil and dirt and easy cleanability.

Ultrafabrics, represented to the furniture industry by HomCraft, launched new colors —blue, white, red and yellow — of its supersoft Brisa Soleil, which is a breathable water-, animal- and sunshine-friendly faux leather that upholsters just like fabric, and requires no venting.

In addition to the faux leather, constant improvement in textile technology has created engineered yarns of polyester, acrylic and olefin that feel as soft as cotton and take color beautifully. Upholstery fabric producers and buyers as well are discovering that their long-held notions about fibers like nylon, polyester and olefin must also be turned loose in the face of today's performance fabrics.

Other performance fabric launches at Showtime included Crypton Super Fabrics' In & Out, an outdoor version of its highly engineered performance fabric that is resistant to soil, stains and microbes. In addition, it offers a moisture barrier characteristic.

Also new in the outdoor category was Quaker Fabric, which debuted several hundred SKUs of its new Terrazzo outdoor fabric line with a three-year limited warranty. The company has invested in positioning and marketing the outdoor line, which it hopes will help it overcome the challenges the industry is facing from imported goods.

Offshore partnerships

Some producers, on the other hand, have developed offshore partnerships and arrangements designed to provide greater service to the growing number of outdoor furniture manufacturers producing in China. They include Wear-best Sil-Tex, which will offer its Bella-Dura indoor-outdoor performance fabric line done in China for its customers manufacturing there.

Big Kahuna also targeted the outdoor segment at Showtime with a new line of acrylic and polyester prints for outdoor applications in its specialty, tropical prints. As President Bill Fisch noted, "Tropicals have become a design category, which manufacturers and consumers have embraced."

Trim supplier Phoenix, which has produced unbranded outdoor trim for years, recently established a licensing agreement with Sunbrella that will allow its customers to use the brand name and logo, as well as a licensing agreement with designer Joe Ruggiero to design trim for both indoor and outdoor applications. The company introduced new product from both collections at Showtime.

And Waverly launched a new, softer finish on its Sun N Shade outdoor collection of breathable, spun-polyester fabrics that are designed to stand up to the sun and wear, resist mildew and mold and clean up with soap and water.

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