Provenance: Flame Stitch

Flame stitch - that bold, often colorful, zig zag pattern - is hot.  Think of flame stitch as a design rather than needlework, especially when considering how it is used today.  While flame stitch is trendy now, it has been around forever, probably since the 13th century.  Let’s take a quick look at flame stitch’s history.

The origin of flame stitch is murky and romantic.  Most scholars agree that it is primarily Italian, with either a dash of Hungarian or Middle Eastern roots thrown in.  Flame stitch could be a hybrid of two stitches, the brick stitch and the Hungarian stitch (seen in the 13th century German altar curtain below) brought to Italy by a beloved Bohemian princess on her many trips there.  Alternatively, flame stitch may have a Middle Eastern relative, given its resemblance to ikat, that traveled to Italy via the Silk Road.

While we can’t DNA flame stitch, one of the earliest surviving examples is found in England.  There, in the Elizabethan manor, Parham House, an entire room is still upholstered in Italian wool from the 16th century bearing a flame stitch pattern. The principal bed at Parham House also is adorned with flame stitch.  Surely it is not coincidental that Mary, Queen of Scots (who ruled Scotland then) was Marie de Medici’s sister-in-law.

Italy has few extant early examples of flame stitch.  Some 17th century chairs wearing the pattern reside in the Bargello Museum in Florence, explaining why flame stitch is sometimes called “Bargello” or “Florentine” stitch.   The French call the pattern “Bergamo”.

Flame stitch remained popular in the 18th century spreading throughout Europe and to the colonies.  It often decorated clothing then, as these British shoes and American pocketbook from that time period show.  It truly must have been all the rage, as the ladies of the Greenwood-Lee family thought it chic enough to include in their c. 1747 family portrait.

Flame stitch never really went out of style.  The Scalamandre flame stitch velvet covering these 19th century settees is period perfect.

New fabrics are still being created today.  Have a look at these textiles from Schumacher and Zimmer + Rhode, and how designer Nina Farmer upholstered a chaise in flame stitch for her Boston townhouse.

In the 1970s, flame stitch wallpaper was all sorts of groovy.  Meg Braff recently updated that old seventies look with a new wallpaper dubbed appropriately, “Flambe.”

The flame stitch pattern (and its appeal) hasn’t changed much over the years.    With maximalism now in vogue, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a fully upholstered flame stitch room someday soon.

Flame stitch.  Still on fire.

This post was guest edited for CLOTH & KIND by Lynn Byrne. lynn is an expert in decorative arts and design history, who also has written extensively about art, travel, and interior design. She studied decorative arts at Parsons and is well-known for explaining design terms and themes found throughout history.  

PHOTO CREDITS // German altar curtain from Bayrose, ikat example from Hand Eye magazine. Parham House photos by Andreas von Einsiedel for Homes & Antiques magazine. British shoes from Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Pocketbook from Museum of Fine Arts.  Family portrait from the Museum of Fine Arts.  Nina Farmer’s home, by Paul Raeside.  

---

Provenance: Nottingham Lace and Madras

Who hasn't been seduced by the image of lace, moving softly in the breeze, with the sun streaming through leaving an intriguing pattern on the floor.  Or perhaps a tuft of lace at the neckline of a beautiful woman.  So romantic.  Kind of feels a bit like Downton Abbey or a Ralph Lauren ad, don't you think?

Well, as it turns out, there is only one remaining mill in the world that continues to make true Nottingham lace (and its cousin, madras) - and it is, natch, the lace that you see on Downton Abbey and couture fashion from brands like Ralph Lauren, and Scottish designer Elizabeth Martin whose designs are shown above.  

Who is keeping this legacy alive? The firm Morton, Young and Borland Textiles, based in Ayrshire, Scotland about 25 miles from Glasgow. 

And what's so unique about MYB Textiles' lace? Two things, and both are irreplaceable.  First it is the looms that their product is woven on.  Nottingham refers to the place where the  machine and technology for making the lace first developed, not the lace itself, and MYB Textiles' looms are over 100 years old.  No other firm has them. 

MYB has carefully maintained their original looms from the company's inception in the early 1900s and acquired additional ones as other companies have gone out of business.  These special looms allow MYB Textiles to create wide width fabrics, with highly ornate patterns or, if need be, simple gauze-like textiles. 

But don't assume that MYB Textiles is lodged firmly in the past.  Rather it is the firm's unique ability to adopt modern technology while respecting it's heritage that has allowed the company to survive and thrive.  

And that brings us to MYB Textiles' second unique feature.  Unlike other companies that produced these textiles,  MYB has installed a carefully orchestrated apprenticeship program to allow skills to be passed down from generation to generation.  Plus, a look at the company's Tumblr account also reveals that they regularly take interns from Britain's designs schools, opening themselves up to fresh new ideas from young designers. 

An example of  MYB Textiles' ability to marry old and new goes to the heart of their business.  They have a vast archive of historic designs that they often draw upon for inspiration.  Yet, those designs are now developed with computer assistance.  The company has found a way to harness it's 100 year old looms with electronic jacquards allowing the use of CAD.  

 Margo Graham, one of just two Nottingham lace designers still in existence (her one-time apprentice, Kashka Lennon is the other) explains, "Designing used to be watercolors on draft paper (seen below, left)  but now it's computer-aided. The techniques are still the same but all the skills have been transferred. All the cutting and pasting had to be done by hand in the past, now it's a lot easier."

Even with the advent of modern technology, however, there is still much done by hand. Those 100 year old looms are quirky.  They run slowly and require careful monitoring.  

Once the fabric is loomed, it is taken straight to the darning room to be checked for imperfections.  A hand darner will "invisibly" correct any error, be it by adding missed stitches to the pattern or by removing an extra stitch, known as seeding. Not surprisingly,  it takes many years to become a good hand darner.

So what's the difference between madras and lace?  With madras, below left, the pattern is woven onto a gauze background, so that only the pattern, not the ground, needs to be designed.  Lace (below right), on the other hand, requires that both the background and the pattern be designed. 

Modern technology or not, its obvious that the lace and madras produced MYB Textiles are imbued with romance from the outset. 

EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Lynn Byrne.

IMAGE CREDITS // All lace shown is produced by Morton, Young and Borland Textiles. Quote from Margo Graham taken from an article published in Homes and Antiques magazine in November 2014. Fashion designed by Elizabeth Martin and fashion photos came from Textiles Scotland. All other images from the MYB Textiles website.

Brit Kleinman of AVO

My name is... Brit Kleinman.

My company is... AVO.

I am the... Founder and Creative Director.

I make/design/create... Handpainted leather goods.  My flagship product is the full hide painted rug but I also make pillows and clutches. I like to fully explore one material and see what I can create with it,  and right now that material is handprinted leather.  I was first inspired by a trip to New Mexico where I experienced the hide painting by Native Plains Indians and their handprinted bags known as parfleche.  I then looked at a lot of different cultures that had this technique and I decided to modernize it.

Something you need to know about me is... I like to get my hands dirty.   Although I previously worked in the design field in different capacities, I wanted to work with my hands again.  I wanted to make things.  I think I function best as a designer when I actually touch the materials.

You first knew you were a creative type when... It seems like I always knew it. Certainly, from a very young age.  I come from a creative family and as a child I spent endless amounts of time in art classes and doing crafts.  Creativity is in my blood.

Here is how the company came to be... It all started with a college trip to Gautemala in 2006. While visiting and working with the textile artists in the Chichicastenango market, I was struck by the fact that design and culture were one and the same.  The name "AVO" comes from a vivid memory I have of a man carrying a huge sack of avocados in a string bag in that market. While that might seem mundane, it made me realize that different cultures used products and materials in their own unique way and fostered my anthropological way of thinking about design. I want to know what the back story behind all of my designs even if it isn't apparent to others.

My absolute favorite thing I sell right now is... My full hide rugs and I love the rugs and pillows I am doing in indigo resist patterns.

Here is a sneak peek of something I am working on right now... I am playing with leather tiles for interior spaces.  I see them as wall tiles, perhaps as a wainscot.

I am most proud of... Finally taking that first leap to start my own business, after years of thinking about it.

I really detest... Bookkeeping!

I could never have done it without this person... Definitely my Mom, Sherry Kleinman, who herself is a textile artist. She first showed me that a creative passion could have a large role in your life.  Also my husband because he is so supportive of my passions and taking the risk to start my own business."

I constantly read these for inspiration... I don't read! I just look at the pictures.

That said, I do like to leaf through Damn Design Magazine and Surface Magazine, and I sometimes go down the rabbit hole of the interwebs.  I have two books, Patricia Rieff Anawalt's The Worldwide History of Dress, and Jean-Philippe and Dominque Lenclos' Colors of the World that are staples in my library, but I am a visual person. In fact I don't measure when I create my product, I just eyeball it.  

I would like to share the limelight with... My longtime art mentor David Limrite, who is a fabulous artist in his own right and always pushes his students to enjoy the process of creating. 

IMAGE CREDITS // PIctures of Brit's mom and her art from Brit.  Pictures of David Limrite and his art from Outside the Lines blog. All other images by Lynn Byrne, all rights retained.

EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Lynn Byrne.

LuRu Home

Hi. Our names are... Claire Russo & Liza Serratore

Our company is... LuRu Home

We're the... Claire: I’m the New York half; Liza: I’m the Shanghai half

We make/design/create... LuRu Home crafts traditionally-dyed textiles that are relevant to a contemporary way of living. For the past three years, we’ve worked with indigo hand-dyed cottons printed outside of Shanghai, China. Nankeen soy-paste resist dyeing is a 3,000 year-old technique which remains, today, sustainably produced by hand. It’s our mission to support the artisans who print our fabrics by bringing patronage back to their craft through our line of textiles and accessories for the home. A fondness for Chinese motifs underpins our work as our collection evolves.

Copyright 2014 | Talent - Chad Ingraham | Music - Onra

Something you need to know about us is... Claire: I collect miniature things (tiny lucky-cricket cages, petite cooking utensils, baby porcelain bowls....); Liza: I love insects and oriental carpets 

Here’s how this company came to be... Old friends who ended up in Asia, we convened in Shanghai in the fall of 2010. Shanghai truly is the Paris of the East, a city of 22 million where traditional culture, art-deco internationalism and modern commerce collide. Nankeen indigo fabric was a diamond in that rough, and we found our niche updating traditional Chinese design.

Our absolute favorite thing we sell right now is... Claire: Our Dot Dot Dot yardage, where East really meets West. The dots were extracted from a more elaborate, traditional Chinese pattern, and reconfigured in the most playful of all Western motifs; Liza: Flower dinner napkins; growing up with a chef-dad, this is where my worlds collide. The juxtaposition between our graphic, bohemian Flower print and the formality of a cloth napkin is a bold treat. 

Here’s a sneak peek of something we’re working on now... And that is launching TODAY! Several years, and many cups of green tea later, we’re launching a color yardage line to bring our Nankeen fabric and Chinese design aesthetic to a wider audience. We’ll be screen-printing our yardage by hand using water-based dyes here in the US. 

We’re most proud of... Learning first-hand how East meets West. Whether speaking (choppy) Mandarin with our artisans, or presenting our products to interior designers in New York City, we’ve created cross-cultural links for LuRu Home’s friends the globe over. 

“Who says you can’t have your mooncake and eat it too?”

— Claire + Liza, LuRu Home

We really detest... The the assumption that Made in China is bad. Our authentic Nankeen textiles are Proudly Made in China by hands which have printed it for generations. Our new yardage line will be Proudly Made in America. Who said you can’t have your mooncake and eat it too?

We could never have done it without this person... Liza: Our team on the ground in China. They’re my family here, picking me up at the airport when I arrive, inviting me to their own family celebrations, and cooking Dragon Boat Festival treats for me.

We consistently read these for inspiration... Claire: House Beautiful, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, Architectural Digest, Tokyo Jinja; Liza: Here in Wild Wild East, most of my reading is digital due to distance; snail mail takes six weeks and hard copy subscriptions cost a fortune. I can't get enough of Of a Kind's 10 Things weekly email, which is full of quirky and helpful links that remind me of home. I really enjoy Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast. There's no end to inspiration in Shanghai itself. Between its Art Deco abundance, markets galore, and street food on most corners, I'm a happy camper. Sometimes it is good to be a bit isolated from design trends, as you have space to let your own ideas brew. 

We would like to share the limelight with... Amanda Pickens. She was our first pal in Shanghai, a creative force who supported LuRu's dreams, and an incredible graphic designer and photographer in her own right.

---

Blanco

The tiniest of nuances are what truly make any given product great. It's always the exceptional care and attention to detail that set one brand apart from the next, and this notion was especially evident to us as we toured EuroCucina at Salone del Mobile with BlogTour Milan. Notably, in a category where it can be challenging to differentiate and create new and exciting changes, Blanco - a luxury European kitchen sink manufacturer since 1925 - is clearly leading the pack from an innovation standpoint. It was quite remarkable, their sinks were in what seemed to be virtually every high end showroom as we walked the vast EuroCucina floor. Just take a close look and you'll see why.

For three generations, Blanco has quietly and passionately elevated the standards for luxury sinks, faucets and decorative accessories. Proud of its European heritage and award-winning German engineering, this company is steadfastly committed to their tradition of high quality and innovative design.

Blanco is the brand of choice in the luxury sink and faucet category for its unparalleled quality and an inspirational breadth of design possibilities and has proven that the sink is far more than a mere functional element in the kitchen. To them, it's all about the details, and we couldn't agree more.

BlogTour Milan Sponsors | Modenus, BLANCO America, Gessi, Clever Storage by Kesseboehmer, Dekton by Cosentino, National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA).

Image Credits | Blanco, Krista Nye Schwartz & Tami Ramsay of CLOTH & KIND, Holly Phillips of The English Room

Steve McKenzie

Hi. My name is… Steve McKenzie

My company is... steve mckenzie’s

I’m the… Principal Designer

I make/design/create… First and foremost, I am an artist. Before I start on large paintings, I do studies in walnut ink to help me zero in on what it is I’m trying to achieve. The brushstrokes of these walnut ink studies are also the basis of my fabric collection. My textiles have also given me an opportunity to design an upholstery collection and a bag collection. In addition to these collections, steve mckenzie’s is also a full service interior design firm operating out of our Atlanta showroom.

Something you need to know about me is… I love to cook especially for a large group. I will attempt about any dish. One of my specialties is homemade wings. When our son was playing high school lacrosse, he would regularly show up late night with about a dozen friends looking for their fourth meal. I was happy to jump into action and make a batch of spicy wings.

Here’s how this company came to be… In January 2012, after working corporate jobs for 30 years, my wife, Jill, and I made the leap to exit that arena and begin making plans for steve mckenzie’s. I always wanted to design a fabric collection and it was time. First came the fabric, which naturally became ingrained with our love of interiors and entertaining, and next thing you know, there we are with a showroom! Everything that’s followed has been born from the creative freedom you enjoy (most of the time!) when running your own business.

My absolute favorite thing we sell right now is… My Walnut Loop on Flax Linen Fabric is a current favorite. As I shared earlier, I paint using walnut ink, and this particular pattern/colorway comes closest to the original brush strokes of those studies. I’ve been painting for years and could always picture what this fabric would look like - this pattern is just like realizing a dream. I smile every time I see it used.

Here’s a sneak peek of something we’re working on now… We are in the midst of finalizing patterns and colors for an outdoor fabric collection, which we’re very excited about. It should be available mid-summer this year. Pictured is one of the patterns based on the stripes of French linens but in my own, unique brushstrokes.

I’m most proud of… We relish in the priceless reactions people have when stepping into our showroom for the first time - they usually get a big smile on their face and say “I love it.” Typically, a conversation ensues about how much they appreciate our use of color and how refreshing it is to see so much of it in one place. As an artist, designer, and retailer, this is when I know we’re doing something right; when someone responds and reacts to the work put out there.

I really detest… The accounting and paperwork can be a real grind for me. I understand how imperative it is, but for me, all I can think about is how I’m not creating something at that time, which is what I love to do most!

I could never have done it without this person… I couldn’t have made this professional – and often times, personal - leap without Jill, my wife of 30 years. She is not only my partner for life she is also my partner in business. Every product I design, every painting I create, she is there to give critical input. I know she always has our best interests at heart and will be honest, even if it can be painful at times. Plus, I would not have time to create if she were not helping run the business and sell our products; she’s amazing!

I consistently read these for inspiration… I get inspiration from so many sources.  I am a visual learner, so any great photography inspires me. My favorite Magazines for inspiration are: Côté Sud, Vogue Living Australia & Wallpaper. I also need my monthly fix of Garden & Gun - I love the way they celebrate the new, modern, southern lifestyle from all dimensions. A favorite blog is Freund von Freunden out of Berlin, their interviews and interiors of creatives from all over the world are fantastic! And, I so appreciate the hour-long mixtapes they have guest DJ’s do - they are always inspiring, especially in the studio. Pinterest and Instagram can also act as fuel for my creative side.

I would like to share the limelight with… I would take great pleasure in sharing the limelight with Verde Home by Laura Walker. Laura is an amazingly talented designer; the custom rugs they offer through their showroom, Verde Home, are truly incredible. They can help you realize your own designs, or you can even customize some of the patterns Laura has designed and end up with your very own beautiful, high quality, unique rug.

IMAGE CREDITS | All images provided by Steve McKenzie except showroom image via Lonny.