For more than a century, Be Inthavong’s family has preserved the Lao tradition of silk weaving, a heritage the Vientiane-born designer now reinterprets through his own textile company. After apprenticing on his family’s looms in Laos, Inthavong developed a rare process that handlooms micro-strips of leather into silk, creating fabrics for fashion and interior applications. The company received the 2013 International Product Design Awards’ best textile honor in London.
International Product Design Awards — Best Textile, 2013
Prelle et Cie S.A.SSince 1752, Lyon-based Manufacture Prelle has woven furnishing fabrics, carrying the city’s silk tradition through nine generations of family ownership. The company preserves rare hand-loom techniques alongside newer looms, enabling it to recreate historic textiles and develop bespoke fabrics for distinctive interiors. Prelle continues to create and produce exclusively in France, with work ranging from private residences to heritage institutions such as New York’s Frick Collection.NEW YORK, NY
Chapas Textiles, IncFrom its Brooklyn studio, Chapas Textiles creates bespoke hand-woven fabrics for the interiors trade, tailoring each pattern, color and yardage to a specific project. Founded by hand weaver Tara Chapas in 2008, the studio draws on a family weaving tradition from Evoia, Greece, while its fabrics are made in the United States by trained American artisans. Its project-by-project collaboration connects interior designers directly with textile artisans, and a portion of profits supports small-business loans for artisans around the world.BROOKLYN, NY
FortunyFortuny has been hand-printing luminous luxury textiles in its Giudecca factory since 1921, using original machinery and closely guarded methods developed by artist and inventor Mariano Fortuny. The independent, family-owned house remains the last operating factory in Venice, where generations of artisans carry the work forward for interiors and bespoke design. Its fabrics also appear in handmade accessories and home pieces, each bearing the irregular signature of its maker.New York, NY
MétaphoresMétaphores creates and edits distinctive woven fabrics for interior design, pairing contemporary textile creativity with the centenarian silk-weaving heritage of Verel de Belval and the hand-woven horsehair craft of Le Crin. Belonging to Hermès’ textile division, the French house develops its collections through a careful interplay of material, history and gesture, with Le Crin preserving a technique descended from a patent filed in 1787. Its Bussières workshop operates 35 modular Dornier looms, while the Challes atelier remains the world’s only workshop weaving horsehair by hand.NEW YORK, NY