In an amazing stroke of luck and knowing the right people in the right places, I lucked out and got an invitation to a tour of Kravet’s Design Studio in New York City!  My friend Marie and I arrived around 10:30 on the Friday morning after stopping in at the Union Square market for a coffee and a baked good or two.  Jennifer Powell, the social media coordinator for Kravet, greeted us in the lobby and our tour began.  To be quite honest I had no idea to expect.  I think I was unprepared for what I was about to be privy to.  Jennifer gave us a short run through of they do in the studio.  In short, they do all of the research and development for all of the Kravet lines of fabric, trims and hardware from the very spark of the idea through to market.  It is an all encompassing process that even after 2 hours I didn’t quite grasp.  From what I gather they take ideas from all over:  art, snippets of things drawn on napkins, graffiti, ANYTHING and turn it into designer fabrics.

They took us through the design areas where all of the Kravet showrooms are designed and then refreshed on a yearly basis.  There were little piles of matching and coordinating fabrics, furniture sketches and accessory photos on every surface and pinned to walls.  There were vignettes in every phase of completion and heaps and heaps of lush samples to touch and eyeball.

I was fortunate enough to meet the person in charge of each area: Brunschwig & Fils and Lee Jofa were amazing and it was fascinating to view the process in action of how fabrics end up in our showroom!  A lot of what we saw was top secret so I can’t share what we’ll be seeing in the next year or two but it’s gorgeous!  Thanks to Jennifer Powell and the team at Kravet’s Design Studio for spending so much time to wow us!