Vescom introduces a diverse collection of curtain fabrics to the US market
In recent years, architects and designers have sought, increasingly, to specify textiles and upholstery to soften and warm interiors and to partition those once-lauded open-plan work spaces that workers keep grumbling about these days. In the meantime, to solve just such design dilemmas and more, Dutch interior fabrics brand Vescom has been broadening its reach around the globe. This month, it will introduce its wide range of curtain fabrics to the American contract market for distribution by Koroseal Interior Products.
Interiors fabrics can provide a one-stop-shop for designers trying to resolve a number of decorative and technical spatial challenges. Vescom weaving mills produce versatile, sustainable, durable fabrics that feel soft and sophisticated and work in harmony, both aesthetically and functionally, with their wallcoverings and upholstery. Their curtain fabric can multitask particularly well to connect or partition a room, block, dim or filter natural light, absorb noise pollution, and provide varying degrees of privacy, by forming wall-less rooms or reconfigurable zones within open spaces.
Vescom is introducing its curtain fabrics to the US contract market this month. The collection includes fabrics like the lightweight Formoza (top) and the light-blocking Elba (bottom).
'This curtain collection provides solutions, both technically and aesthetically,' said Vescom design director Christiane Müller. 'These are fabrics that are capable of softening architecture and softening the senses.' The connection between function and look, technical specifications and emotion, makes the collection unique.
A curtain, when closed, sends out a diplomatic Do Not Disturb message
Interior designer Rianne de Kruijf of Amsterdam-based multidisciplinary spatial and conceptual design office D/Dock used Vescom fabrics to kit out a Microsoft office at Schipol. D/Dock's 'Healing Offices' approach results in human-centered workspaces with carefully considered 'soft factors' to 'decrease absenteeism and improve cognitive capacities, performance and happiness'.
'We wanted each floor to have a different look and feel,' said de Kruijf. They chose Vescom (Nora, Delos, Syros, Mioko and Fogo) not just for its sustainable, durable, high-performance, easy-maintenance products, but for its diversity: curtains come in more than 30 technical qualities and 600 colorways. Even the acoustics-absorbing, black-out and dim-out fabrics eschew onerous blandness. Some fabrics are luxuriantly heavy while others seem barely there, diaphanous. They range from silk, tweed, linen or even simple solid looks, multi-tone grid patterns and herringbone motifs to chic neutrals, graphical structured fabrics, textured wovens, translucent variations and glamorous metallics. And that's just a partial list.
Even Vescom's black-out curtains, which can block up to one hundred percent of light, have a deeply textural appearance and drape like a well-tailored suit, including fabrics like the patterned Syros (top) and Koro.
D/Dock designers used the curtains to divide open space, support the human scale and promote intimacy and good acoustics. The Microsoft office works to boost morale and offers spaces in which workers can focus, relax and re-energize without having to leave the work environment. The curtains let daylight and views inside to varying degrees, let employees adapt the space to diverse functions, as needed, and regulate their own privacy. 'A curtain, when closed, sends out a diplomatic Do Not Disturb message,' said de Kruijf. 'It can also create a cocoon for the person inside.'