Drapes should reflect contemporary life-style

Press, 27 November 1980, Page 12

Drapes should reflect contemporary life-style

Habitat

In our last few columns we dealt with windows. Before concluding this subject I have been asked by readers. to make comment on the use of heavy fabrics as drapes.

Fabrics in tills category are usually of cotton construction.

Heavy weave Indian cottons ave been used for drapes for some time now. Because of the loose weave they have an inherent problem./ , The workmanship of these Third World countries is very good, but because the fabrics are hand-loomed the weaving 1 is not as tight as their commercial counterparts, : Therefore, in some cases, they have a tendency .to drop, which distorts the pattern, arid creates prob- . lems in maintenance. It is all very well to go for the ethnic look, but these cheaper fabrics have their limitations and one must" accept this when making a choice. 'On the other hand, you have velvets. Velvet, ; which has been used since time immemorial for . drapery, has been believed to be the epitomy of luxury and elegance around the world. Too many of us still behove this. myth and on visiting very affluent, stylish homes here in' New Zealand I still find the owner clinging to this old tradition. _ .

I like velvet very much, - but I am not a fan of it for drapery. This high maintenance fabric drapes particularly well, is available in - a . rainbow of colours, and also 1 in 100 per cent cotton.

. However, -it ■ has immense,problems.- Some of them begin .;; from the •making stage,. In making velvet drapes, all headings and hems heed to be ■ hand -sewn. . 1 , -

: Velvet' crushes badly, l Pressing can he a-night-mare unless, you have' a velvet pressing pad: i.e. a pad with a rubber base with fine steel needles embedded In it (I don’t know if they are available here in New Zealand.) Armed ■with a steam iron and a pressing pad one

can press velvet successfully. But I believe too many of uS here in New Zealand cling to . this last bastion of “style and elegance." So many . other fabrics today, in this mainte-nance-conscious world, do just as good a job. I refer, as in my earlier column to silk. Very i reasonably priced silk is emerging from China now. It is available in superb colours, or one can use natural silk which can be dyed. To me this supercedes the “stuffy” velvet of the Victorian era where heavy drapes were pulled across huge windows to the click and clack of heavy rods and rings.- “Velvet, the great dust collector.*’. /Ui gur harsh New Zealand sunlight it fades all too quickly, and like most fabrics it can deteriorate bothin quality and permanence in bright sunlight.

Therefore, T maintain, as throughout these columns, that' a cheaper fabric, well-lined, in some cases, interlined, used in not excessive volume but enough, will produce the desired effect We live in a cost conscious world and the velvets of yesterday cost quite considerably more today. There of course is a mentality believe J

that anything expensive is good. Well, let them go on thinking that, but I personally disagree. I find more and more that people are turning to less expensive and much more maintenance-free fabrics of equal colour, strength, imagination and design, or just a plainness of quality and are achieving stupendous 1 effects throughout their interiors, I am one of those believers. 7 . , The highest quality in fabric today is perhaps silk, or pure cotton chintzes. Personally, I shun the heavy velvets, of yesteryear as obsolete and unnecessary in today’s world; Velvet belongs today in a museum or at the windows of a restored grand old mansion of yesteryear. A guest column in this year’s May “Architectural Digest,” by the photographer Horst, summs up my feeling about oppressive velvet drapes. “I have always reacted as strongly against rules as against fads,” he says, .“particularly since interiors are .to be lived in, they ought to be both comfortable and easy to maintain. •• •; ■ ; ' “It may be tempting to recreate the past, and to surround oneself with tassels and fringes and all the rest, but ..most of us don’t have the. house maids of the past to clean them.” .