New French Heritage line covered by Keystone
Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, February 1, 2011
Keystone Weaving’s tribal patterned cover in a neoclassic design gives French Heritage’s Napoleon settee an updated contemporary look.
HIGH POINT — Sometimes events happen that don't seem real.
Like at the Showtime fabric show here this past June, when Henessy Wayser walked into the Keystone Weaving Mills showroom, beginning the arduous task of picking the next season's upholstery fabrics.
Wayser is executive vice president of High Pointbased manufacturer French Heritage, a case goods and upholstery company that specializes in antique reproductions and accessories. The company is showing at this week's Las Vegas Market in World Market Center C-156.
Like most manufacturers, Wayser usually takes at least two days at Showtime to select fabrics at Showtime, watching mill executives flip their latest offerings on display boards until textures, patterns and colors turn their brains into a kaleidoscope of mush.
Not so in June. As Wayser sat to watch a presentation from Keystone's Bob McKinnon, an old friend and business associate, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "When he was about a third of the way through, I said, ‘Hold it! Stop!' The line they put together was exactly French Heritage."
She wanted it all.
That's not normally how fabric selection works.
"I usually have to wrack my brain and say, ‘OK, where is that going to go?' But everything just blended together. This is a perfect marriage," said Wayser.
So for the October High Point Market, French Heritage's showroom became a style laboratory for its own furniture designs and Keystone's coverings.
Although the French Heritage/Keystone blending was more accidental than planned, such collaborations are a mini-trend in the industry as manufacturers and mills work together to narrow introductions and make operations more efficient.
In two new collections, French Heritage offers 230 Keystone fabrics in renewable organic cotton linen and wool in 53 patterns and multiple colorways.
Upholstery pieces in the Paris Loft Collection feature tribal, primitive patterns in an autumnal color palette. The Rive Gauche Collection features casual, comfortable pieces for a Bohemian feel in a neutral color palette, along with white-wrapped neutrals with detailed nail head trim and large patterned prints for casual elegance.
"We have received a very positive reception on this daring new collaboration," Wayser said.
While new in the furniture industry, Pennsylvania- based Keystone has long been a player in the fashion apparel industry, a fact not lost on Wayser, a former fashion model in Paris.
"They're very fashionable and very current," she said. "If someone can do (fabric design) very well and they can do it better than you, then why try to reinvent the wheel? That's what's important about collaborations. We can't be specialists in everything we do because we're too busy running our businesses. We don't have time to sit down and design fabrics."
In addition to French Heritage and Keystone, there is a third party in the collaboration. All the fabrics have the Eureka finish by Premiere Finishing, which provides enhanced abrasion, soil and stain repellency and antibacterial resistance.
Wayser said the discovery of so many fabrics that fit the French Heritage line was "a hugely creative experience" that only began at Showtime. The day after she had seen Keystone at the show, the mill "dumped all their samples at my showroom.... What was so wonderful was I got to marry the fabrics with the frames and they're just beautiful."
-
Miles Talbott unveils its Martha Stewart collection
Apr 23, 2012 -
Davis to direct Lacquer Craft upholstery product
Nov 24, 2010
Featured Company
-
FurnitureCore.com
FurnitureCore.com is a dynamic web application aimed at the furniture industry. Retailers and manufacturers alike will find our deep reserve of tools to be exactly what their furniture business needs.www.furniturecore.com... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
