Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Glamorous Life... of a Designer 

Who doesn’t love birthdays? We certainly do, especially when we’re invited to the party. Designtex celebrated its big 5-0 a few weeks ago and it was a hoot! They set up huge tapestries at The Cleaners, an event space next to the Ace Hotel in downtown Portland. showcasing their fabrics and innovations throughout the years. They also had a wonderful spread of food and drinks and an A-List of local designers. The cherry on top was the guest appearance of one of the fabulous designers at Designtex, Kimberly Frost. She flew in from New York to talk about her New Mexican-inspired collection. We loved it, but not as much as we loved her!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Designer Word of the Day
CFA: Sounds like a top secret organization, doesn’t it? Actually, a Cutting For Approval is a little term we like to throw around when we are ordering fabric.
Here’s the rundown: we find a sample (aka memo) of a fabric we like. If the client likes it, we ask the fabric company for a “cfa” which is a piece of the fabric from the actual roll they will cut the order form. Since not all rolls are exactly the same color, we want to make sure the client is getting what they asked for. If we “approve” the cutting, they go ahead with the order. If not, they will send us cuttings from as many rolls are available in the hopes of a good match. Not so top secret after all!