INSIDE: international designers go artisanal • the fashionable allure of exquisite fabrics • alchemy with antiques • two dream rooms by cecilia sagrera-hill and george brazil • leading interior designers and The Hospitality industry: a reciprocal love of fresh ideas • Designers’ favorite hotels
definitive design + decor
The San Francisco Design center Volume 3 • From the Anke Loh Spring 2011 Collection, a hand-embroided textile by the Honar Educational Training Center for Afghan refugee women, with additional textile treatment by Anke Loh. fabrics By jennifer minniti after a fashion
What do today’s leading clothing designers have in common with top interior designers? A passion for extraordinary textiles.
extiles provide fertile ground for dialogue residences. Earlier this year, Von Furstenberg Back to basics Tand collaboration between the fashion landed her first interior design assignment. Along with the rapid growth of textile digital and interior design practices. Whether it She redecorated a number of guest rooms at printing, quite a number of fashion designers is sharing the same inspiration for trends the luxurious Claridge’s Hotel in London with are returning to and revitalizing traditional or collaborating efforts between the two her signature printed fabrics. hand techniques such as ikat, shibori, block disciplines, what is most remarkable today is It has become a ubiquitous practice for printing, hand embroidery and the hand- that both professions are rediscovering and fashion designers to team up with major loom. The comeback of traditional weaving reinventing the innate beauty of textiles. retailers, allowing for increasing visibility to and printing techniques in fabric produc- It is not uncommon for large fashion the mass market for high-end designers. tion aggregates great value to the product, design houses to launch home collections; The interior textile market, perhaps learning sustains traditional heritages and creates Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, from the current fashion business model, opportunities for rural communities. When Armani and Missoni are household names. has followed suit. American fashion designer fashion designers work with tribal or indig- But when Diane Von Furstenberg, an Oscar de la Renta, who was once a designer enous cultures, they not only preserve and esteemed fashion designer, recently launched at the French couture house of Balmain, revive lost traditions and techniques but also the Diane Von Furstenberg home collection, collaborated with Lee Jofa Design Studio, promote those processes to the contempo- she became a pioneer in promoting collabora- an interior industry leader, on a collection of rary marketplace—creating cross-cultural tions between fashion and interior designers. textiles for the home. The fabrics, although networks that support handmade textiles. This past September, Von Furstenberg held not exact replicas of those used in his SUNO is a contemporary New York-based a benefit presentation of fashion-inspired garments, certainly reflect the de la Renta fashion brand that has made headlines for interiors for the Council of Fashion Designers aesthetic—one of luxury and elegance. creating collections that benefit both the of America (where she currently resides as Both houses have a history of craftsmanship, garment district in New York and textile indus- president) at the Aldyn, a luxury residential employing time-intensive embellishments tries in Kenya. The young company sources development in New York. About 20 fashion such as extravagant embroideries and clas- native textiles, while pattern making and and interior designers came together with the sic prints. These two heavy hitters seem like cutting is done in New York. SUNO promotes goal of creating a series of fashion-inspired natural collaborators. fair trade and pays its African workers a fair
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