Special fabrics from fall market

Specialty fabrics often add the flair or punch to a fabulous room design.  At the recent fall High Point market those specialty fabrics frequently came from ikats and susanis.  There are furniture grade designs in these fabrics available.  Most often, fabrics with designs and colors this strong will be used as one of the accent fabrics in a room.  Perhaps on a chair or on some of the accent pillows.

Ikat Designs

The word “ikat” means “to bind.”  It is a very ancient way of creating designs in fabric by resist-dyeing (a bit like tie-dying) the threads before the fabric is woven.  In Thailand, villagers take the weft (crosswise filling threads) and tie tiny bits of plastic onto the threads.

The tightly tied areas of thread, when put into the dye pot, resist the color and create a pattern, once the plastic ties are removed.  Traditional Thai ikat cottons are often indigo-dyed in lively and engaging motifs representing the village life and beliefs of the people.  Modern Thai ikats in cotton and silk are brightly colored with good imported chemical or natural dyes.

This time-honored process creates a fabric that appears highly detailed, complexly woven and hand-crafted.  Ikats often have an ethnic look or feel to them.

In fact, Carole Sloan writing in Furniture Today said that many of the new ikats “in their latest interpretations evoke almost a Native American feel”.  Using this process with newer fabric design and fresh colors can provide a wonderful mix of traditional feel and contemporary fashion.  Take a look at the incredible black lacquered chairs shown here with a vibrant ikat fabric.  Wow.

Susani Textiles

Susani (sometimes spelled “suzani”) is the word for “needle” in Farsi, and the large embroidered dowry textiles of Turkic groups are so named because of the many hundreds of hours of needlework required to produce them.  Susani textiles originate in Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and other countries where Uzbeks and Tadzhiks share similar textile traditions with the Turkmen and other neighboring peoples in Central Asia .

Susani from the Uzbekistan cities of Samarkand and Tashkent have larger, bolder patterns than susani from their sister city of Bukhara, known for susani with smaller, very intricate flowers and tendrils reminiscent of certain Indian textiles.

Used in Central Asia primarily as bed covers, susani in the hands of Western collectors often are framed and hung as wall art.  Modern fabric designers are bringing this wonderful textile into our homes as accents and even core fabrics.  But… take a look at susani used in an upholstery application.

You can see why designers love to use this vibrant design and color to add excitement and personality to a room.

Tagged as: Design and Color Trends, Great fabrics, Style