Bringing the Scoop After An IFDA NY Members-Only Tour of Kravet's Studios in New York City

 Barbara Barry's Chalet new collection for Kravet Couture

New Developments for Kravet Fabrics: 

What We Gleaned from our Studio Tour

 in New York City

written by IFDA NY Chapter's Hermine Mariaux

photographs courtesy of  Kravet

Chalet collection with Barbara Barry

Last week, members of the New York Chapter took a private tour of the Kravet fabric studios here in New York City.  It was an 

exclusive event where we were able to witness textile creativity in the making at its best and most exciting. Highlights of the tour include these new developments --

 1. Big surprises at Brunschwig & Fils with a collection moving  into a more exotic new look in richly deep colors and an abundance of sumptuous beading and embroideries.

2. A revival of large scale “Indiennes” –prints first created by the French after imports from India and the Spice Route reached the West.

“Worn” velvets, yarn dyed and stried add unexpected patina.

3. Kelly Wearstler, the British designer and one of Kravet’s star licensees, preparing a 5th collection of neutral textiles, focused on textures of the natural world. Stunning new furniture finishes, among them a slate gray and a nude lacquer are stand-outs soon to be featured throughout Kravet’s showroom universe. 

4. Aerin Lauder, Lilly Pulitzer, Jan Showers and Echo are other brands in the works by a company whose creativity seems without bounds.

5. Barbara Barry, another high performing designer at this reading introduces her latest “Chalet” collection in Kravet Couture. Rendered in the soft colors of Edelweiss, alpine streams and winter grays, her subdued palette expresses the natural beauty evocative of the mountains.

Check out these images from Barbara Barry's collection 

with Kravet Couture, very beautiful indeed!

antler tiebacks

A new art exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Museum: Thom Browne Selects

A fabulous, Fashion-Inspired Museum Exhibit Opening

at the Cooper Hewitt 

from March 4 through October 2:

Thom Browne Selects 

written by IFDA board member, Hermine Mariaux

Have you ever tried to fix your hair by looking at your shoes? 

I don't know if famed fashion designer Thom Browne does, but he could.  For the Cooper Hewitt's upcoming exhibition "Thom Browne Selects", the designer contributed 56 pairs of his silver plated shoes. He also chose from 210,000 objects in the Museum's collections, some 50 historic and contemporary mirrors and frames by design luminaries such as Hector Guimard, Edgar Brandt, Jim Dine and Tommi Parzinger. 

The theme is "Reflections".  Adding to the effect, the gallery walls and floor will be covered by a laser engraved holographic reflective wallpaper by Osborne & Little recently acquired by Cooper Hewitt.  Browne, a National Design Award winner and two-time CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year will be the 13th guest curator to take part in the "Selects" series following in the footsteps of such artists, architects and designers as David Adjaye, Maira Kalman and Ted Muehhling.

"The Exhibition addresses and draws on the tensions between individuality and uniformity, which are recurrent themes in Browne's work"

-Cooper Hewitt website

A little bit about the museum:

The Cooper Hewitt was recently revamped and is located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of the Upper East Side.  The building is a national, historic landmark and was once the residence of Andrew Carnegie.  

more information about the exhibit at

Cooper Hewitt exhibits

The Cooper Hewitt

2 East 91st Street

New York, New York  10128