I went to a "thing" last night

11 years ago

Architect sent me his invite to a "thing" last night at Calico Corners which was put on with CT Cottages and Gardens. I've not been to one of their "things" before so it was an experience. It ran from 5:30 - 7:30 and it was supposed to be "sharing design tips and tricks for starting with fabric for home projects in any space".

It was not what I expected. Most of it was a cocktail party...wine, seltzer and ladies delivering hors d'oeuvres. Then came the presentation by a woman who was Creative Director at Richloom Fabrics. Her talk was somewhat interesting, about how she got involved with textiles at an early age, etc. Then she showed some archival pieces of fabric and how they translate them into current fabrics and then create other fabrics to coordinate with them. Then she showed her design board for the latest color trends and their interpretation of those themes. Then she started pulling out fabric squares...squares after squares of various fabrics and coordinating fabrics which was meant to "inspire" us to design rooms around their fabrics. It was all well and good, but a disappointment to me.

What I expected was more "class" time and less chat time. What I expected was more on how to use fabrics...window treatments, furnishings, art, etc. (When someone asked her how to use a particular fabric, she said, "I don't know...maybe a pillow.) What I hoped for was Q&A with the audience where we could all learn from each other's questions and answers. I was stunned that this senior person at a fabric company could not answer a question about copying designs and copyright issues like it never even occurred to her. I also expected to find interior designers or other professionals in the audience. Instead what I found was groups of women who came together to support one or another of the people putting on the show. About half of the audience was people who were involved in sales and marketing of fabrics.

For those interested, these are the notes I took.

The color schemes were named as follows:

Whole Grain (natural colors with lots of texture)

Touch of Grey (all shades of gray put together)

Mellow Yellow (from pale to pops of canary)

Garden Greens (lots of spring green to citrine)

Tangled up in Blue (Cobalts mixed with soft blue)

Grapevine (Amethyst colors)

Casbah (Global fabrics such as Ikat and Suzani)

Dynamic Duo (black and white with a pop of something)

All that Shimmers (metallic colors with a kiss of shimmer, even leather)

Trends:

Botanicals that are large in scale

Water color type prints

50s color palettes

Lots of orange and mixed with brights such as fuscia

Teal is emerging

Color blocking

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Comments (8)

caminnc
11 years ago
Annie, thanks for sharing. I have found that most people that are really into textiles are more into the engineered or making part of the textiles rather than the final decorative uses of them. You would think them equal but that is usually not always the way.
dakota01
11 years ago
I was glad to hear that teal is emerging!
I just used teal in my DR by way of wallpaper and alittle in the drapes. I also have some shades of teal in my FR. Glad to know that I'm still or going to be "in style" for awhile. LOL
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suzanne_sl
11 years ago
Hm. Maybe watching Sarah Richardson is more educational. She really has a thing about fabrics and their use. Even if you don't care for the fabric(s) she chooses in a particular episode, there is still a lot to learn from her about what to do with them and how to make disparate fabrics work in a room. Case in point: several times she's put one fabric on the seat and front of a dining chair and something different on the back. Mostly I don't care for that, but I'm glad to have seen it done a number of times - an interesting idea even if not one I'd carry out.
Oakley
11 years ago
Sounds like a let down, but also an interesting time. lol.

Too bad they didn't tell you all how to use fabrics in a room.

Nice to know that I'm "trendy" again since most of my pictures, other than what's on my gallery wall, are water color prints!

Did anyone tell them that teal has been trendy for several years now? I also have teal in my persian, so I guess I'm a trendy gal!
work_in_progress_08
11 years ago
Never learned to sew anything other than the required "home ec" school projects, lol. What I really don't understand is "this senior person at a fabric company could not answer a question about copying designs and copyright."

Whether you're a professional or a "lay" guest with the sewing skills of an accomplished home seamstress, isn't the point learning about fabrics in order to buy same to replicate a design idea into something that would work in your own/client's home? Was this a "thing" directed at professional decorators, or just the average home seamstress interested in making their own home decor items?

Obviously, I'm missing something regarding copyright being be an issue?
ratherbesewing
11 years ago
It seems to me that Calico Corners would have taken this opportunity to SELL, SELL, SELL.
patty_cakes
11 years ago
I'm sooooo not 'in trend'. ;o)
Annie Deighnaugh
Original Author
11 years ago
work in progress, the copyright issue was related to designing fabrics. They were using antique patterns to make new fabrics and the question arose about how different the design had to be in order to not violate copyright. The answer from a sales guy was that the historic patterns are old enough to no longer be covered by copyright so copying them is not an issue. But it troubled me that she didn't even seem to be aware of the issue....which is stunning to me as design and the intellectual property around that design is their stock in trade.

I went to a "thing" last night

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caminnc

dakota01

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I went to a "thing" last night

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caminnc

dakota01

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