Liberty fabrics more popular in N.Z.

Press, 16 September 1987, Page 44

Liberty fabrics more popular in N.Z.

Liberty Furnishing Fabrics, with their distinctive Oriental patterns, paisleys and cottage flowers are more popular in New Zealand than any other country they are exported to. Mr James Marks, managing director of Wardlaw, the Australian and New Zealand distributor of Liberty Furnishing Fabrics, said New Zealand had the highest per head consumption of the fabric outside England, where it is made.

Mr Marks, who is based

in Melbourne, is in Christchurch this week for the Ballantyne’s Liberty promotion. He said he thought the fabric’s popularity here lay in its suitability to our landscape and lifestyle, its economy, being relatively cheap for its quality and our traditional links with Britain. Mr Marks said Australia and New Zealand was the largest export market for Liberty Furnishing Fabrics and as such those representatives had a say

in the designs used in each year’s range. Six new furnishing fabric designs in a selection of colours are released in cotton and sometimes linen. Mr Marks said in the last few years some of the fabric designs were available with a plastic coating, which is added in Australia. He hopes that a range of household items incorporating furnishing fabbric designs, and available in England, will

eventually be sold here. While in Christchurch, Mr Marks will speak to Ballantyne’s staff and members of the public about the history of Liberty’s of London.

Mr Arthur Liberty, a draper’s son, founded the famous Regent Street shop in the 1870 s, and was heavily influenced by the philosophy of William Morris, the Arts and Crafts movement and the Aesthetic Movement.