Inspired.talk

First Lady's Luncheon

 
After a feature appeared in the current September issue of House Beautiful, we’ve had tons of inquiries into the very special fabric we created for the First Lady’s Luncheon, so we wanted to provide more details about Kravet’s history with the event.

Every year since 1912, The Congressional Club has hosted a luncheon for the First Lady. Since 2001, Kravet has created and donated tablecloth fabric for the event’s 200 tables.

 
For this year’s event, held in April, Kravet created a custom design for the tablecloth fabric. The theme for the event honoring Mrs. Obama was Illumination Celebration, which led to inspiration from the amazing chandeliers in the White House.

The Kravet design team worked with Luncheon Event Chairperson Betty Ann Tanner, who has a true talent and eye for design. They consulted the White House Historical Association, which provided historical context for the White House’s many iconic chandeliers. Ultimately, four images were chosen to reproduce on fabric.

 
After an incredibly exciting and inspiring year-long design process, the result is an exclusive cornflower blue fabric featuring the chandelier patterns in white, Michelle-5. The fabric perfectly illustrated the theme of Illumination Celebration as Mrs. Obama "lights the way to volunteerism."

Through the fall, visitors can stop by the Kravet showroom at the Washington Design Center in D.C. (pictured above) to see a recreation of the table setting featuring the tablecloth fabric and a very special guest.

The pattern was also scaled down, Michelle-515, to create tote bags that were distributed as thank you gifts to the attendees of the luncheon.

 

The limited edition bags are available for sale for $40 plus $10 shipping, while supplies last, through The Congressional Club website or by calling or 202-332-1155.

The fabric is available for sale to the trade through Kravet in both the large and small-scale designs.

Kravet is proud to be a part of this special event year after year, which honors our nation’s First Lady.

Oscar de la Renta Luxury at the D&D

 
Every season to celebrate the launch of a new collection, the Decorator’s Room at the Lee Jofa showroom at the D&D Building in NYC gets a new look. You may remember the last room, which was designed by Eric Cohler to launch his Lodge collection.

This week Lee Jofa launched Oscar de la Renta Home for Lee Jofa, a spectacular collection of silks, embroideries, velvets and linens in rich colors and patterns. The designer room was styled by Oscar Home creative director and famed interior designer Miles Redd.

In the photos below you’ll see emerald green silk upholstered walls, curtains trimmed in silk velvet, a sofa in a floral print, hand-knotted embroidery on linen, and so much more.

Oscar is a name that is synonymous with timeless luxury. We hope you’ll stop by your local Lee Jofa showroom to see the collection for yourself.

 

  
   

 
 
  
 
 

Guest Blog Post: Fabric Durability

Pictured: A selection of weaves from Kravet Smart

Kravet was recently asked to write a guest blog post for our friends at IBB Design Group in Dallas. The subject is fabric durability, an important topic when making an investment in a piece of upholstered furniture. In the article, we discuss different methods of abrasion testing, how to reinforce fabrics for added durability and deciding which types of fabrics to use in different areas of your home. Choosing a beautiful fabric for your home is an exciting process that will hopefully bring joy to you and your family for years to come. Click the link below for the full article.

Fabric 101 - A Lesson in Durability

INSPIRED.Town Hall Meetings

Communication, communication, communication. We are reminded everyday how crucial communication is for any movement to succeed. All of us in the design ecosystem (design community; the decorative furnishings distributors who serve them; manufacturers who supply them; the design centers who aggregate them; and the publications who depend on advertising dollars to tell the story about design) depend on each other: the health of one part is vital to the health of all of the others.

Our best prescription for success is probably the simple, yet artful act of communicating. So now is the time to do more. These blog posts serve that purpose for the design community (and we are grateful to so many of you who read them); The Decorative Furnishings Association (led by Cary Kravet) serves as a forum for industry to communicate a vision and plan for revitalizing the market; plenty of meetings within showrooms, studios and design centers throughout the country are happening, but we need a more cohesive forum for creating more consumers of design and a wider channel of distribution ‘to the trade.’ We must sharpen our message about why working with a designer has so many benefits, and how designers can market their businesses accordingly. It all depends on communication.

DFA, major media outlets, ASID and design centers have together made considerable progress toward this goal by collaborating on a seven-step strategic plan. Now is the time to share the progress with showrooms and the design community throughout the country and urge ourselves to do more, sooner rather than later.

Town Hall Meetings sponsored by local design centers and DFA are being scheduled in markets throughout the country. They are intended to significantly expand awareness of, support for and participation in addressing the very real challenges facing the design ecosystem throughout the country. These meetings are designed to create even wider awareness of the design centers’ plans, attract more support for those plans from the design community and showrooms, and to find ways to harmonize those local plans with the national agenda that must be continuously improving in a very challenging market.

The organized and open discussion also provides for ALL voices representing all segments of the community to be heard. Indeed, the inclusiveness of the process contributes significantly to the legitimacy of the local plans and much wider support for their implementation.

In most markets like yours, it will take the cooperation and good will of many in the design ecosystem to co-create the kind of change that will be necessary for the system to prosper. By communicating among the communities (Showrooms, Design Center and Designers) we can begin to revitalize the market for interior design and create more clients for designers. Success means more value and much more volume: more clients, more traffic and more sales; if we do that for our mutual benefit, we all win. Inspired? Communicate.

Steve Nobel

Founder and principal of NOBELINKS, a consulting practice specializing in the luxury markets for home furnishings and interior design, worldwide.

American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City just closed a major exhibition this weekend called American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity. Together with the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, the Met displayed female archetypes through history and told the story exclusively through fashion and clothing.

The exhibition explores perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how those perceptions affected the way American women are seen today. As with movements of art and politics, it is amazing to see how each decade heralded a new archetype that often developed as a reaction to the one that preceded it.

The Heiress

Beginning in 1890 with the Heiress, costumes reflect a formal, elegant woman wearing full skirts and gowns with lavish embroidery and beadwork.

The Heiress

Meanwhile, a new archetype was forming in the same decade called the Gibson Girl. Clothing more suited to the outdoors reflected a sporty lifestyle, though today it’s difficult to imagine playing tennis in a full skirt and jacket.

The Gibson Girl

The Gibson Girl

The Bohemian woman in the 1900s devoted herself to the arts. While the gowns still reflected beautiful lace and beadwork, the structure and layers of lining in decades past gave way to a more flowing, less structured fit.

The Bohemian

The Bohemian

The Bohemian

The Patriot and the Suffragist in the 1910s wore simple, serious suits with military-inspired details and took on the cause of the woman’s right to vote. (Images not available)

The Flapper in the 1920s reflected a carefree attitude and a sexual freedom, personified by shorter hemlines and sleeveless, drop waist dresses with intricate beading.

The Flapper

The Flapper

The Screen Siren in the 1930s wore long, elegant gowns made from luxurious silks and embroideries in neutrals and metallics. The first era of celebrity and of the “movie star” pervades to this day.

The Screen Siren

The Screen Siren

The exhibition revealed how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sexual emancipation and helped lay the foundation for today's American woman. Groundbreaking new silhouettes in those decades continue to shape fashion through to modern day, and many of the styles remain relevant to what we see on the runways and red carpets. American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity was empowering and enriching.

*All images via the Metropolitan Museum of Art