Fabric – Page 2 – The Design Tabloid

Thursday last week saw Marica and I out and about. Our first stop was the launch of the latest range of fabrics and wallpapers from Harlequin hosted by James Russell Agencies at the Palms.

Stephen Black of Black Fabrics, the South African agent for Harlequin, presented the range called “Kallianthi“ by English designer, Clarissa Hulse. She, like Trish Guild has carved out her own style and handwriting. In fact, as such she shares a common denominator with Harlequin, in that they are not followers of another’s style, but rather forge their own path to carve out an authentic niche in the fabric markets.

The colours and the patterns are bold and extravagant in their design, perfect for complimentary accessories – a large contributing factor to the success of the range.

The inspiration was drawn from our natural environment embracing bamboo, grass, twigs, leaves etc. Clarrisa has taken these elements and translated them into beautiful surface designs, maintaining an authentic mix of harmony in colour and pattern.

The colour palette is spot on in terms of the forecasted trends for 2012 – warm honey tones, blues, and soft taupe tones, berry colours, with paprika orange and blend of pinks, choc browns, Dijon yellow, cinnamon, vermillion etc.

The bonus is the fact, that all of these fabrics are complimented by wallpapers of the same patterns. Yes – as an imported range it is in the higher price point, but these fabrics are ideal to purchase small amounts for soft furnishing accessories such as scatter cushion covers.

Stephen and James also touched on Harlequin’s previous range, Delphine, released earlier this year. This is an archival collection and has its origins in the years just coming out of the Great Depression, before WW2. (30s and very deco-esque). Pretty similar to our current economic climate, only they were moving into a more optimistic space then.

Once again nature inspired (how history repeats itself – so we are not original in looking to nature – been down in all of time in memoriam)

Pattern is bold and full of details such as embroidery and jacquard designs. Colours striking and despite the fact that this range has its roots in history, there is the element of ‘contemporary trendiness’.

Black Fabrics & James Russell Agencies have a range of local fabrics that one can use to co-ordinate with these imports. Kenamark Range of Sheers and Monet Linen (lovely heavyweight linen fabrics, with high rub count).

Check out Black Fabrics’ website: here and James Russell Agencies’: here

Images via Harlequin Fabrics