Natural Fabrics for Draperies and Window Coverings
A 100% natural and organic hemp drapery with custom handmade French return iron hardware in a beautifully renovated Spanish revival home in Long Beach
Our client desire for natural materials in the window coverings industry is very real, and while some larger brands are offering some truly natural materials, often times they are still blended with synthetics all the while 100%natural and organic textiles exist, and in many ways are superior to the human made stuff. But setting expectations is important.
It was probably around 2007 or so that I first read the founder of the clothing and equipment brand Patagonia Yvonne Chouinard’s book Let my People Go Surfing. I was nearing the end of my time at UCLA, about to enter the workforce, and as a lifelong surfer, the idea of a company prioritizing surf (ie culture, wellbeing etc) was intriguing to me - was this really a thing!? (a decade or so later…it’s hard to come by). I’ve always had interests in things like up-cycling, restoration of just about anything (usually old classic cars), and organic gardening and agriculture, but the one segment of the book that really resonated with me was the case he made for using “more sustainable” (my words, not his) materials in his products, and how this was not a compromise, but actually a business advantage in many ways. I won’t go into that, but if you are at all interested, read the book. It is more relevant today than ever.
Through my time with big companies and small, this philosophy always rattled around in my head - though was rarely truly adopted by marketers or execs to any meaningful degree.
In an industry that often times lags behind in many progressive initiatives, I can attest that a) there is a real place for natural materials in the products we build at Field Work, and b) the consumer desire is real - so long as they understand what they are getting, why, and what the alternatives might be. Although we are small (but mighty!), our unique access to fabric here in Los Angeles has allowed me to create some interesting relationships with suppliers offering natural fabrics you won’t find many, if any other places.
Natural and Organic Hemp
While linen is the standard bearer for natural materials used for draperies and roman shades, I started experimenting with 100% hemp a few years ago after coming across a supplier at textile show that was actually geared towards the fashion industry. They had a small, understated booth, but knowing what I did about hemp, they really caught my attention. Hemp has a long history of industrial use globally due to how fast it grows, the versatility of the fiber, and its strength - all things that seemed good for use in window coverings. It was historically used for rigging rope on sailboats for these reasons. Crazy enough (or par for the course?), industrial hemp production was completely banned in the US in 1937 and still has not made it back, despite the fact that it does not, and never did, have anything to do with drug production. Bonkers. It is also 100% organic, grown without the use of pesticides, and soil regenerative. The perfect crop doesn’t exi….
As is often the case, when I experiment with new materials and products, I’ll put them in my own home first (above). We built some ribbed roman shades in an unlined mid-weight hemp fabric that for the untrained eye (or hand) is indistinguishable from linen. But in my opinion, hangs nicer, and despite going HARD at it with the steamer, has never stretched the least little bit the way linen can (something I’ll get to later). The draperies are made from a fairly heavy weight 100% natural canvas weave hemp.
Since then, we have done quite a few draperies and roman shades in various hemp fabrics all with stunning result and complete client satisfaction.
Personally quality checking a hemp fabric for any imperfections at our supplier. In this case, there was a very minor blemish they wanted to point out, which we were able to work around without issue. Transparency is key...no pun intended.
Natural Linen
While linen is not unique to Field Work, our access to affordably priced pure linens is a big win for clients. Even though it is not quite the sustainability superstar that hemp is, it is still a very good choice for a natural-fiber drapery or roman shade. Of course it is timeless in design, and depending on the weight and weave, can create quite a few different visual effects. The in house linens we sournce as part of our Artfully Crafted drapery and roman shade program come primarily from Belgium, though recently we have gotten our hands on some incredibly nice mid and heavy weight Irish linen that we have some fun personal plans for…stay tuned.
Absolutely stunning heirloom quality Irish linen.
The Potential Drawbacks of Linen Draperies
Wrinkling is nearly synonymous with linen, we all know that. Depending on the look you are trying to achieve, this can be okay, or even desirable. If not, know that steaming and ironing are both fine to remove wrinkles.
The stretch. Linen drapes in coastal California (or any humid place) will be all but guaranteed to stretch. It is important to know this going in, and for some clients, this is completely fine, for example the client that requested the below 100% Belgian linen ripple fold drapes in Laguna. One picture is immediately post-install, and the next only a few days later, after the passing of a massive winter atomospheric river. You can see the effect all this ambient moisture had on the drapery. If necessary, this can be addressed through hemming (which the client declined), but do not be shocked if your linen drapes are considerably different lengths some time after install. For this reason, many fabric houses offer linen-blend fabrics, which helps mitigate stretch, with the downside being your beautiful, natural linen is woven with what is essentially some form of plastic.
Lightweight, sheer, pure linen roman shades
An in-house Work Horse and Fan Favorite: Ramie
One fabric that we tend to use A LOT is ramie, another natural plant based textile fiber. It has a very similar visual and textural quality to linen, though generally not offered in quite as many weights, and tends to fall somewhere between linen and hemp in terms of performance (but still an entirely suitable, reliable fabric). We create ramie draperies and roman shades all the time for clients, with glowing results. It also tends to be more cost effective than linen, while giving up hardly anything from a visual perspective.
Two ramie draperies: one ripple fold and one pleated
A shift in perspective
I recently had an exchange with an interior designer celebrating the beauty found in old, rustic tile finishes she photographed on a summer trip to Europe, the type you are now picturing in your mind’s eye in places like Greece, Italy, or perhaps Spain. There is beauty in the imperfection, the time-won patinas and the wear of the natural materials used in construction. Though I’ll be honest, in my experience, selling the imperfections that often come with natural materials to modern consumers in the US is not always an easy win. In our modern minds, we tend to equate inconsistency with a lapse in quality, not something that is inherent to natural materials, giving them beauty and character. I suspect (but was not there!), this is part of the impetus for introducing synthetics into textiles in the first place - control, ease of reproduction, and of course, cost. Synthetics fabrics tend to lay how you want them to, are consistent and usually very repeatable. Predictable. Safe. We (Americans) like our control.
When we discuss the use of certain natural materials with clients, the inherent characteristics of that WILL NOT feel like something stamped out of a production line . That is what makes them unique, and also what compliments the handmade nature of what we do. It’s not that we do not use synthetics, we do all the time as required on certain project, not to mention things like roller shades etc, but we remain open-minded to creating more natural spaces with clean, natural products. Some of the designer relationships we have fostered tend to do the same, creating incredibly elegant spaces that lean into the beauty of natural materials.
If you are looking for inspo, check out one of my favorite instagram accounts that I think absolutely nails this.
Thanks for reading