Collectible fabrics

​I'm guilty. I collect fabrics, and so does our store. There are fabrics that are just for appreciation, just the pure joy of what is possible in textiles. My own stash is fabric meant to be sewn, except for a rare piece of Calais lace that an older friend gave to me. 

Early on, when the shop was at our first location, there was a crop of new designers. We'd see their clothes at Colette and then sometimes seek them out. Sometimes our suppliers would buy out a season's worth of their special fabrics. Other times we'd buy direct. 

It seems the first time we ever got such an exclusive shipment was from Julio, a talented New York designer. We got top quality Abraham-Switzerland printed linens and matching satin faced organza, sheer silks, hand painted taffetas. It was a rare time, and exceptionally beautiful clothes were all around. Now, I can't even find an example of his work to show you, but there were gorgeous silk chiffon tops that California girls would buy to wear with jeans on Venice beach. Society women would buy his linen sundresses for garden parties. It was before labels were of any importance. People knew quality.

I came across a great book that is like an archive of Abraham's fabric production (of course only a tiny percentage of it). It's called "Soie Pirate: The history and fabric designs of Abraham." It's a two volume set. Evidently, it's a rarity, because the price has skyrocketed to over $1200.00 for used copies. I didn't pay anywhere near that--in percentage that would be one of my best investments ever! At the time, I just thought it was interesting. Maybe Amazon will let you preview a few pages? 

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