Fabric companies make fashion-forward introductions

Courtney M. Paschal -- Casual Living, 7/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Following the Showtime fabric event, held in High Point, N.C., June 3–6, several fabric companies announced new performance fabric collections.

New introductions include, top to bottom, South Beach from Perennials Outdoor Fabrics' Galbraith & Paul Collection; Crypton's Lush Life Collection for Silver State which includes Casanova and Esquire, both in Trans Atlantic; Tres Joe for Silver State and La Primavera by Chella.

Perennials Outdoor Fabrics has launched its Performance and Beauty Campaign to bring awareness to its investment in advanced technological textile manufacturing processes. The campaign includes a series of ads and a Web-based feature, From Fiber to Finish, which chronicles how Perennials fabrics are made.

Perennials also recently launched a series of outdoor fabrics from the Galbraith & Paul Collection, including Key West, South Beach and Fire Island. The collection features bold, nature-themed graphics interpreted with a painterly style, designed to mix with traditional and contemporary styles.

Silver State debuted Tres Joe, the latest collection from designer Joe Ruggiero exclusively for the company.

Inspired by five design trends stemming from New England traditional, 1930s Hollywood menswear, the English countryside, Asian, to whimsical cottage brights, the Sunbrella line is all-inclusive.

The collection has an updated color palette with 23 new patterns and 75 SKUs.

Also introduced from Silver State is Lush Life, the latest Crypton collection designed by Kate Korten. The line incorporates oversized graphic motifs, textured boucles and opulent patterns with yarn-dyed stripes.

Chella has taken its cue from interior design with the debut of a woven stripe collection of performance fabrics.

"Stripes are classic, but they can still surprise and delight," said Scott Bodenner, designer for Chella Textiles. "And we delight in imbuing every one of our stripes with charm and personality."

The line includes Click Track, a chenille woven with canvas duck cloth, and Satin Ribbon Stripe, a two-tone 3.5-inch wide stunner with rich, saturated color. Finishing the collection is Bermuda Stripe, Jamaican Stripe, Montecatini Stripe and Tahitian Stripe.

Three additional collections debuted this spring, designed to coordinate with existing solids in Chella's line. The first, Scroll Moderne, is a graceful jacquard scroll on canvas sateen, accented with chenille and woven in a tonal stripe. Coco Tweed combines chenille and boucle and is offered in a palette of lively brights, rich, dark tones and raffia, a creamy neutral. Distinctive overlapping rings found in malachite inspired the third collection, Spiral Matelasse, made in the centuries-old tradition of stuffed-work quilting. The construction results in a cushiony fabric perfect for the outdoors. The line is available in 14 colors.

DuraCord Textiles introduced four collections, including Journey, featuring soft colors with exotic patterns, along with Wind and Sail, featuring coastal colors.

Within Journey, Gypsy is a sequence of thick, antique brown stripes accented with grasshopper green, autumn pumpkin and coastal blue. In a bold, wavy plaid design, Zen is a combination of grasshopper green, brown and blue. Revival is a flowing squiggle jacquard of grasshopper green against a brown background. A combination of oatmeal and antique brown in simple geometric and floral patterns, creates Chateau and Sakura. A trend of multi-length and broken stripes is featured in Rhapsody. Maritime and Woodlands round out the collection with horizontal stripes and a textured weave.

Wind and Sail begins with Reef, a vertical stripe containing blues, greens and yellows. Nautilus is motivated by a shell pattern with jacquard design elements in citron on a blue backdrop. The fun pattern, Breeze, combines rich blues, greens and canary. Armada is a sailboat scatter pattern in a field of citron. Like the Journey Collection, Sakura, Chateau, Maritime and Woodlands finish the line.

The new collections can be seen on DuraCord's newly designed Web site, www.duracord.com.

Duracord Textiles new collections include, from left to right, Nautilus, Woodlands, Sakura and Armada.

Fabric supplier Valley Forge Fabrics has developed a comprehensive program called FRESH — Fabrics Redefining Environmental Standards for Hospitality — designed to create a benchmark for upscale design in environmentally friendly fabrics.

In addition to being made with synthetic yarns derived from post-industrial and post-consumer recycled products, FRESH fabrics are recyclable. Valley Forge also offers its customers a pick-up and delivery service that will take the fabrics to a recycling facility at the end of their lifecycle.

Diana Dobin, vice president of design and sales, said the fabrics "are all high-end designs in colors that make it easy ... to incorporate a green alternative. Users can have a positive impact on our quality of life without any adverse impact to their bottom line."

The FRESH collection debuted at the Hospitality Design Expo in Las Vegas in May and a second launch is currently being created by such designers as Celerie Kemble.