I knew our trip started off on the right foot when our rental car was a lime green Kia Soul (the hamster car – the tv commercial that I just love).
Twice a year furniture manufacturers (us), designers (us) and retail fabric stores (us) gather in Highpoint, North Carolina to see the new fabric introductions in the industry.
“Showtime” as it is called, is truly that. It is the total “candy store” experience for anyone who loves textiles. For the past years (recession) it was a sad, somber experience of an important industry of our country being completely decimated by aging technology, economic downturn and most of all imports – but I’ll save that dialogue for a future platform.
This Showtime was upbeat, inspiring and most of all colorful! After years of domination by the conventional neutrals – color is back. Students from High Point University prepare vignettes of color throughout the exhibition hall.
- Spice island
- Royal Blue
- Poppy
Golding Fabrics was one of the first companies to display their new fabrics on a wall that you could touch and feel each texture – other companies have now adopted the same format.
Win loved all the medley of blue fabrics. Roth-Tompkins is a long established company now owned and operated by daughter Lori. Roth can be counted on for wonderful wovens of 100% cotton. She has a fabulous display of what I consider the perfect shades of blue – not too dull, not too bright – nice medium blue that is fresh and lively but classic enough to blend with almost any shade to teal or navy too. I can’t wait for the samples to arrive and then of course we will share with you through facebook.
And what would be a High Point trip without a visit to the PK Lifestyles showroom? This season our Chameleon Fine Furniture wears beautiful fabrics from the Iman Home Collection. Our Jessica Sofa is dressed in a stunning and bold velvet chenille fabric accompanied by our Mackenzie and Raymond Club Chairs in a companion print velvet (the Global Ethnic details Iman is famous for).
The button-tufted round ottoman is stunning in the lime Sultana Velvet. No other fabric showroom compares with the vibrant colors of PK Lifestyles and Iman! We are honored to have Chameleon Fine Furniture there.
So to summarize – we saw:
- Tons of Color – my favorites – pinks, corals, fuchsias
- Blue is back and we did order some beauties
- Aqua still in – lime too is still strong.
My favorite though is from Lacefield Designs – we ordered two half pieces from their coral and brown line (goes with poppy) and I envision doing a more sophisticated collage on the Lielle or even the Kendall. I can’t wait to share the new fabrics once we start receiving our samples.
