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Go in-depth with costume historian and Madeleine Vionnet author Betty Kirke, curtain makers and publishers Merrick & Day, Penn & Fletcher founder Ernie Smith, and ribbon artist Candace Kling. Discover more: Smith & Brighty's Marion Smith writes about the art and history of passementerie, while Sherrie Horner explores the art of choosing trim and the many intersections, through time and technique, between design for costume and interiors.
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Custom work for clients is always done in collaboration with my circle of artisan partners. When imagining on site or in mind, I'm in the company of their creative intelligence and art. And the possibilities of their art.
In Hardware, Metalwork and the Artful Finish we meet two of Horner & Company's artisan partners and explore the art of hardware in the UK, the scale of metalwork in San Francisco, and the art of the finish.
—Sherrie Horner
I always try to link my designs with fabric—the idea of stitches, of patterns in fabric—so the designer can look at a piece of hardware and know it will work because it has the flow of the fabric in it, it has a kindred spirit with the fabric.
—Andrew Fuller, Fabricant
An artisan's signature is often found skimming on the surface of why. What inspires, what connects, what has and gives meaning? In other words, why do you do what you do?
We asked Reification's metal man Dave Holsonback. He answered.
the art of choosing trim
Choosing trim is the end point of an artful process that begins with a building's architecture. Architecture will determine window treatments, fabric will determine a curtain's form, and trim choices will be informed by the room's elements, color palette and play of light. Everything is contextual, everything is in relationship.
of passementerie
Trim created on a mechanized loom never looks quite the same, it doesn't have the same handle. The weaver working on an old jacquard loom has put so much thought into warping it up, having the threads in a certain way, the color flowing in patterns. There's a great deal of artistry to it.
—Marion Smith, Smith & Brighty Passementerie
Bed curtains create an intimate and personal space, a room within a room. Here, veil-like fabric gives the room translucent walls. Conceptually, a bed is a vehicle that takes one to sleep. There's a solidity to it, as with a cradle, but the veiling's effect is to add mystery, to take one into the realm of the not visible.
Designing the master bedroom and sheer light for the New American Home 2004, Las Vegas, Nevada: Sherrie Horner reports.
In modern architecture, window treatments typically invoke and narrowly rely on a quasi-industrial aesthetic. But there are innovative and satisfying alternatives: traditional concepts translated into modern forms avoid an exclusively neutral, detached sensibility, creating instead a modern expression scaled to the personal and to the intimate space. See it in the New American Home 2004, Las Vegas, Nevada: Sherrie Horner reports.
It's fascinating to trace the threads of tradition in needlework and the textile arts, to study historical practices and period styles. The pleasure of the present is in playing with myriad forms, discovering a new effect achieved with needlework, and yet another with manipulated fabric as you build layers of detail. Detail is a form of visual poetry; like wit in conversation, it provides delight, amusement, and charm.
Detail is also an expression of intensity, yet there are often practical reasons for its use. But the first question is always, 'What form, amount, and scale of detail are appropriate for the room?' Treatments and subtleties of interpretation then follow.
Historically, there has always been a relationship between design for costume and interiors. Fascinated with period costume, John Fowler, cofounder of Colefax & Fowler, studied and often drew from its rich vocabulary of detail. Flounces, ruched bands, ruffles, bows, choux, scalloped and pinked edges, rosettes and contrast edgings found their way into his designs, re-scaled for interiors.
Sharing and exploring that same vocabulary of detail is Candace Kling, author, teacher, ribbon artist and documentarian. Whether sculpting with ribbon, creating a language of ribbon widths, or photographing trim in museum collections, Candices's love of the form is obvious. We asked her to tell us more about it.
of embroidery
When working with multiple layers, embroidery and its hundreds of stitching techniques offer infinite possibilities for embellishment. Embroidery adds a layer of design to a fabric, turning it into something more profound; a quilted damask creates a 3-D form, and an altered volume in space.
Some clients need an intensity of expression in combinations of color, textures that interest, and an original mix of elements. If that isn't achieved, they don't feel satisfied; missing complexity, the design feels incomplete. Ernie Smith, founder of New York embroidery studio Penn & Fletcher, muses on why that is, and why, after fading into near obscurity, embroidery for interiors is on the rise.
In Merrick & Day's books you'll find a depth of technical, practical and historical knowledge that's as extraordinary as it is gratifying. As master curtain makers, what we do is no longer common knowledge, but in Merrick & Day's writing and teaching, a wealth of knowledge is kept a living knowledge and passed on. We spoke with Rebecca Day recently and discovered how they work, why they wrote their new book Blinds, Curtains & Cushions — and why 10th-century curtains were really modern.
—Sherrie Horner
After helping prepare costumes for the 1973 exhibition The Tens, Twenties, and Thirties—Inventive Clothes: 1909–1939 at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Betty Kirke decided she would "try to solve the mysteries found in Madeleine Vionnet's dresses." She did that. And then she wrote a book about it. We talked with her recently about her book, Vionnet, and the mysteries solved—which led to a favorite Horner & Company topic: the intersections, through history, time and technique, between design for costume and interiors.