Woven - Textile Experts Q&A

Fabrics Trends 2024 | Fabrics Trends 2023

Regenia Payne - Hancock & Moore Furniture

Regenia Payne is a textile expert with Hancock & Moore

With a B.S. in Interior Design and a minor in Marketing from Appalachian State University, Regenia began her career with Alderman Studios as a set designer. This led to her start in the furniture industry with Henredon Furniture as the Director of Upholstery Merchandising. Regenia has held upholstery and Creative Director roles with venerable high-end brands Vanguard, Taylor King and Bernhardt Furniture. She presently is the Creative Director for high-end manufacturers Hancock & Moore and Jessica Charles. Regenia Payne, Hancock & Moore

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Regenia, our focus with this feature has typically been on the fabric side of the textile industry, with insight into textures, colors and trends to look for in the coming seasons. This is our first focus on leather. Can you tell our readers what is the most misunderstood thing about the use of leather in upholstered goods? The most misunderstood thing about leather is that “all leather is created equally.” You have differences among leathers in that some are protected and some are anilines/natural leathers. Protected leathers and aniline plus leathers are more pigmented and offer more protection and service/cleanability. Aniline Leathers are more natural and a have more supple hand. The aniline leathers will showcase the hallmarks of nature which means they will mar easily and develop a rich patina over time.

Regenia, you have vast experience across a number of industry-leading product lines in your career. What is it that drew you to Hancock and Moore? Having been a consultant/Creative Director for Taylor King, who at the time were owned by the owners of Hancock & Moore, I knew that Hancock & Moore was a great company that shared the same principles of going the extra mile to make amazing high-end furniture that has exceptional quality. The added bonus to this equation was the fact that Hancock & Moore had been purchased in 2015 by the Rock House Farm Family of Brands. I knew that it would be great to be a part of a company committed to excellence in design and who truly care for the artisans who produce their furniture.

What are some of your favorite creative ways to incorporate leather products into a room design? My favorite ways to incorporate leather into a room design is the use of embossed and decorative leathers. I love to shop and using these types of decorative leathers on accent chairs, ottomans and the arm panels of sofas, is like completing the outfit with a great handbag or pair of shoes. This layering of texture and pattern is what helps to create a fashionable home

In fabrics, we are certainly seeing a trend away from the muted grays and beiges and back into color and pattern, certainly in chairs and pillows and even body cloths. What are you seeing in trends in the leather color palette? Leather colors have evolved from the basic brown and finally away from gray! We are seeing all shades of green, from moss, olive, and celadon trending in this past Interwoven fabric show. Shades of white continue to be introduced in the protected leather category. My favorite trending shades are all of the new hues of blue that have progressed from the basic indigos, to fresher and cleaner shades of sky and icy blues in the aniline category. Two other key colors on the rise continue to be teal and mulberry, a brighter merlot hue.

Talk to us about how leather is protected as it goes through the production process, and is it suitable for everyday use? Our leathers are stored on wooden horses to keep them from getting wrinkled or creased before they go into production. Leather is definitely suitable for everyday use if you determine what the customer expectations are for the type of leather upholstery being used. Will this piece of leather furniture be used in direct sunlight, or in a family room, or an area of the home that will rarely be used, a more decorative space? Does the end-consumer need to have a cleanable surface for kids and pets? Answers to these questions will determine if you need a protected leather that is more forgiving to scratches/everyday wear and tear, and is able to be cleaned, or if you will be able to use an Aniline leather. Aniline leathers are more delicate like silk, they will scratch, but show the beauty of the natural state of the hide and will develop a patina over time where they come into contact with natural oils in the skin.

What are some of the exciting techniques and treatments that Hancock and Moore uses to distinguish its leather products? Here at Hancock & Moore we have a vast tool box of exciting techniques and treatments. If you can dream it, nine times out of ten, we can create it. Being able to do just about anything to a piece of furniture definitely makes my job fun and spurs my creativity.

Some of the treatments include:

Burnishing: we take the leather hide and add to the base coat a hand-antiquing process with a series of stains.

Embossed Leather patterns add a design that has been stamped in to the leather with metal plates to give the leather a distinctive design like crocodile skins, western boot patterns, faux bois, etc.

Shearling and Hair-On-Hide skins are very popular accents that add another textural layer.

Decorative Stitching: We have sewing machines that can be programmed to do innumerable types of stitching like you would see on handbags and shoes.

Hand Lacing: Our artisans actually take thin strips of shoe-lace sized leather and lace it through leather pieces to join them in a decorative design.

Can you give our readers some insight into the various grades of leather for upholstery? What makes certain leathers more expensive than others? There are several variables that go into determining the grades of leather which make some more expensive than others

Country of Origin: European hides are generally larger and are cleaner hides. They usually have a more premium price verses hides that are from South America, which are a little smaller and have more hallmarks of nature/ blemishes on them that require more work to achieve an acceptable finish for the end use.

Finish: The type of finish that is applied, along with how many steps are required to perfect the hide in its natural state to achieve an Analine, Aniline +, or pigmented leather, which also contributes to the pricing and ultimately the grading of the hide.

Tara Rogers - Taylor King Furniture

Tara Rogers is a textile expert with Taylor King

With a B.S. in Interior Design from Western MI, Tara began her career as an interior designer with Welling, Ripley and Labs in MI, and later with Klingman’s Furniture as an upholstery buyer. As a sales representative, she represented venerable high-end lines such as Taylor King, Councill, and Hancock and Moore, and has been serving as VP of Merchandising for Taylor King since 2014. Tara Rogers, Taylor King Furniture

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Tara, you have such an interesting background with a perspective as an interior designer, former retail sales person, retail upholstery buyer, high-end upholstery manufacturer sales representative and now a merchandising executive for the venerable luxury upholstery manufacturer Taylor King. How has this multi-faceted background prepared you for your current role? We’re not a big company, and our management team is involved in all aspects of our business together. My previous roles have been invaluable to my participation in problem solving and business growth. Having a first-hand experience creates a dialog that I otherwise could only conjecture.

Taylor King is an industry leader in luxury upholstery manufacturing, and your fabric-to-frame selections always keep your showroom spot-on with color and textile trends. What process do you use to keep your fabric selections so current and on trend? It isn’t as much as a process as it is just the way my brain is wired. EVERY waking moment is filled with opportunity to mentally absorb and analyze colors, shapes, moods, textures and their relationship with one another. I’m an Instagram junkie primarily following nature, fashion, art and interior design (and cute animal stories too). I’m constantly observing, voting and cataloging everything that I see. When we’re selecting the new fabric introductions, we always start with the feature fabrics that we LOVE, and everything builds from there! We’re a fashion business, and our customers want to be inspired and wowed! The key is to support those “jewelry” fabrics with beautiful “plains” and correlates all the while paying attention to costs and saleability.

You recently attended the November 2023 Interwoven show (formerly Showtime) put on by the International Textile Alliance in High Point, NC, which is where many of the textile selections are made for the upcoming High Point Furniture Market in April 2024. Can you give our readers some insight on what you saw at the show and what we can expect to see at Market in the spring and on showroom floors in late 2024? Color continues!! Warm and rich shades of turmeric, boysenberry, ginger, baked clay, and Aegean blue were very prevalent. These colors were primarily mixed with warm neutrals that are acting as a bridge from the world of neutral we’ve been living in for so long.

What is your favorite part of the textile industry? The endless possibilities that you can create with colors, patterns, yarns and fabric constructions.

We have seen a resurgence in bold color and prints on body cloths for sofas and chairs in recent Markets. Is this a trend or a true shift away from the neutral body cloths we have seen for well over a decade? A true shift is definitely happening! Of course, the traditional aesthetics were the first to jump on board. I don’t think the transitional/modern aesthetics will ever fully leave neutral body cloths. That being said, we did show a transitional metal-leg sofa in a landscape printed mohair this past market that was stunning!

Any new technologies in textiles that we should look forward to? The contract world has been focused on eco-friendly textiles for a long time. We’re now seeing that more and more in the residential world. Last year we added 33 fabrics from a collaboration of InsideOut Performance Fabrics® and the SEAQUAL INITIATIVE. These fabrics are woven with yarns created with plastics recovered from the ocean. They have a great hand, great color range, clean easily, are affordable, woven in Valdese, North Carolina and making a difference too!

What are your personal favorites in colors, patterns, or textures? Ooh…I’m a preppy at heart! I always gravitate toward bold florals mixed with plaids & stripes in pinks, greens & navy!

Laura Levenson - Valdese Weavers

Laura Levenson is a textile expert with Valdese Weavers

"I fell in love with Textiles after traveling to Guatemala in college. Every village or town had its own vibrant natural dyed color. Observing firsthand cultural ties to woven cloth resonated with my love of people. Learning to weave with a back strap loom on a local person’s back porch gave me a new appreciation for the craft. I knew that I wanted to work in the industry and Home Furnishings was a natural fit. I love the manufacturing processes and the craftspeople who create the product. As a designer I enjoy problem solving and making fabric that can be mass produced in our small western North Carolina community." Laura Levenson - Valdese Weavers

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You are a textile expert and you serve as a Lead Council Member at NC State’s College of Design, where you earned your undergraduate degree prior to your Master of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. What do you enjoy most about giving back to the design community in helping to educate students in the textile industry? I feel a personal responsibility to inspire the next generation. I love the challenge of finding someone’s talent and passion, then helping them to discover a meaningful career path. Nothing brings me greater joy in my work than watching a designer grow in their knowledge and job focus. My college Board work provides insight into new technologies and allows me to interact with the newest designers. It also allows me an avenue to contribute to curriculums in academia. We need colleges to produce students who have advanced technical skills plus a sense of style that pushes what we know. We in turn have a responsibility to stay connected and to provide constant feedback. It is a circular process that rewards us all.

Please tell us about the exciting new colors and furniture fabric trends to expect to see in the furniture marketplace over the next 12 months. We follow multiple trend-forecasting services and travel around the globe to confirm our direction. This past January, the Paris shows highlighted natural dyed color paired with soft curved furniture frames. The low saturated shades serve as a neutral background for interiors, especially with the heavy influence of abstract rug motifs. With traditional interiors reemerging, colors are trending in the same direction. Deep clay reds, soft cypress greens, and goldenrod to camel shades are evolving as our future palette. The anchor color of cool gray is declining with burnt sienna and toffee browns gaining in popularity. The most popular trend by far is the use of performance fabric in every area of the home. Consumers seek solutions to durability in their homes opting for stain resistant, cleanable fabrics that feel good and have a decorative look. In today’s market you don’t need to sacrifice style for optimum performance.

What is the most mis-understood thing about fabrics? A common misconception in the fabric world is that natural fibers are more durable than synthetics. While natural fabrics such as cotton, silk, and linen are often prized for their softness, drapability, and aesthetic qualities, synthetic fibers have come along way over the years and been re-imagined or engineered to mimic natural fiber attributes. The ability to deluster synthetic yarns allows them to have the look and feel of cotton, but with superior performance qualities.

Give our readers some insight into textile manufacturing that they probably would not know. We manufacture woven Jacquard fabrics in a vertically integrated operation spread over four facilities. We make our own yarn, dye the yarn, weave, and finish fabrics that surpass industry standards. Our yarn dying operation is like dying a tee shirt at home. We have a lab where we can match any color including UV resistant shades. Our outdoor colors take up to three months to test. A fun fact about our yarn toolbox is that we have a recycled tee shirt yarn and a Seaqual™ yarn, which is made from plastic bottle ocean waste.
Many of our looms use air to move the yarn across the loom at lightning speed. State of the art looms can throw a piece of yarn back and forth 800 times per minute. It’s fascinating to watch the Jacquard designs roll off the loom in our production environment. Our finishing operation uses several machines from Italy that soften fabric without losing its performance attributes. All sorts of techniques are used to change the hand of a fabric. Yarns can be twisted, fabrics can be punched with needles, or treated with a fabric softener not unlike the laundry in your home. We test every fabric to before offering it for sale to ensure light-fastness and durability. One of our testing methods simulates sitting on a fabric then standing back up 50,000 times. Durability such as this is a requirement in high use areas of your home.

Are all fabrics designed to be used on furniture? If not, what can be done to make them acceptable? The repeat of a fabric is the most critical decision in selecting a fabric to frame combination. Every fabric has an underlying geometric grid that is hidden to most consumers. Certain repeats are more suitable for pillows and cushions than others. Any fabric layout can be applied to any furniture frame, but the harder it is to match the repeat, the more expensive it is to upholster, because it requires more fabric and more skill.

What are your personal favorite fabric patterns and colors? I live in a neutral world at home. I work with color all day long in my job, so I need a sea of plains and neutrals to decompress. My eye is always drawn to patterns that reference a cultural textile but don’t copy the motifs. It’s a delicate balance but an intriguing design challenge. I have a hard time selecting one specific pattern, as our designers create my new favorite every season. For practical reasons, I like performance fabrics. But if you ask me what my favorite pattern and color is today, I will tell you it’s the ones we are working on right now.

Grace Cobb, Fashion Director - Hickory Chair

What is your favorite part of being in the home furnishings textile business?
"My favorite part of being in the textile business is being able to look at new fabrics every 6 months. There are so many mills out there from all over the world and it is very interesting to see what is popular in other markets that are vastly different from what we do in the US. While the majority of the fabrics I see are plains or body cloths, there are some truly beautiful and unique fabrics out there. These are the show-stopper fabrics that draw your attention and are often exquisite. It is amazing what these mills can create with unusual yarns and weave techniques – such imagination." Grace Cobb - Hickory Chair

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What are the most exciting trends that you have seen in the past several years?At Hickory Chair, we do not follow trends – you can’t afford to. We introduce fabrics we hope will be in the line for years as it is very expensive to add a new fabric. Most of our business is to the trade or designer driven – they need work horse fabrics that will stay current for their clients. Most people do not re-upholster their furniture every 6 months so the fabrics they chose should be timeless. One trend that I think is going to last for a while is that fabrics are leaning more toward Traditional. The younger generation has inherited furniture from their parents or grandparents so they want a more traditional but updated vibe that will make their old furniture more modern – Grand Millennial! Also, the textile mills are trying to introduce more vibrant colors and patterns which is more interesting, but we will see if the homeowner agrees!

Tell us more about the term, “Performance fabrics”. Performance Fabrics can mean so many things. People need to know what is more important to themwearability, cleanability, light fastness, construction, etc. Most all textile vendors offer a “Performance” story, but each one varies to some degree. Homeowners need to realize that Performance does not mean bulletproof and that they still need to clean their furniture - dust especially. Most upholstery body fabrics are pretty durable and all are tested – we refer to this as the Wyzenbeek test where they literally take a wire & rub across one spot on the fabric until it wears through. Most high-wearability Performance fabrics will be between 50,000 to 100,000 double rubs. This is more than enough for the average homeowner. Most Performance fabrics are cleanable with soap & water. Since the industry has come out with new standards for environmentally friendly Performance solutions, oils will be more difficult to clean, but most other stains are easily cleaned. Fabrics that are high ultraviolet will be either UV Polyester or Solution Dyed Acrylic or Olefin. These are also often bleach cleanable. These generally do not have as soft a hand due to the nature of the yarn fibers. There should be specific vendor information that lists all the qualities of each Performance story.

Do you have a favorite pattern type or color palette? If so, why? My taste has evolved over the years & it changes with every new fabric story we tell each market – we try to select fabrics that we really do believe in and enjoy working with. I do love Blue & White – it is a classic and always in style.

What advice would you give our readers about correlating fabrics (pillows with sofas, accent chairs, etc…) You need to be able to live with your choices – will you be happy with that emerald green flowered sofa in 5 years? You need to start with a color story and stick with that theme. For a showroom at the High Point Furniture Market, we generally select a plain fabric for the sofa in a neutral color or texture and add interest and color in the throw pillows – we like a lot of pillows on sofas! Sometimes we will add a large, more dramatic pattern on the chairs – especially a wing or club chair. And a smaller pattern or texture on the accent chairs. We will often use small ottomans or stools as a way to introduce leathers or textures. We don’t like everything to match or go together – it is fun to add in the unexpected. We often will repeat a fabric on several different pieces in the room. Understated is best and you need to know how to edit!

What can we expect to see in textiles in the way of color, texture and patterns in 2023? As body cloths are the bread & butter of the textile industry (that is where they make their money!) we will continue to see more plains with special weave effects & specialty yarns- they will continue to try to differentiate themselves from the competition. The price points on these fabrics will continue to be highly competitive – there will be a lot of quality fabrics with great price points. The market for fabrics is huge and there is a lot of crossover – fashion will work its way into the upholstery world so the colors that dominate fashion will show up here. Also, large scale patterns will continue and will have a modern traditional feel – Modern is definitely the direction most vendors are taking. Performance fabrics will continue to be an important category.