Yes! The Venice Fabric will be back!
Years ago, I saw some of this fabric on a buying trip. The design had a lot of interest, and the colors were so different, it grabbed one’s attention . We contacted the manufacturer, and started carrying it. People loved it. And, we carried it until it was discontinued. We tried to get the company to run it again, to no avail. What we did not know was that the manufacturer was going out of business.
The rights to the fabric were sold to another company. Though printed fabrics were not something this company did, they have only had one printed fabric ever, they thought that we could have it run.
This turned out to be problematic. The screens were in one place, the man who had done the screens set up was old, and no longer involved with the process. The new company was struggling to deal with the vast inventory that they had acquired and did not have a lot of energy to deal with this. It became this complex thing.
I felt, as they had the screens, why not just run it… but, there was no one to set up the screens properly. And, the company just did not want to get involved with the complexities of screen printing. But, they would do it digitally.
Now, digital printing is a totally different process than screen printing. And translating a screened fabric to a digitally printed fabric is difficult. The process of getting colors of a digitally printed fabric anywhere near the original colors of a screened fabric tends to be a back and forth process as one closes in on tones and saturations. It is just tough, and time consuming.
We started working with the new mill last summer, they had one master sent to us. It was awful. We critiqued it and sent it back. And waited. And waited. And then, in January of this year, I wrote the man we had been dealing with, and in two weeks we had a second master. Better, but still not great.
We told them what was wrong, sent that maser back, and just got a third one. And, it looks great! So, we are running the Venice!
For those who have never seen it, the Venice fabric is unique. The buildings of St. Mark’s Square make a background for colorful buildings and vignettes filled with details. There is laundry hanging from windows, fishing nets drying on a quay, and a restaurant being set up for lunch! All of this is surrounded by sea and sky. The effect is of a sun filled day, with the lap of water, and the smell of the sea.
If I had to say what it is about this fabric that grabs people, I would have to say it is its charm.
So, the idea that we can get this again is good news.
Now, the bad- it won’t be here for five months. As we know, these things take time. So, about a year from when this process was started, the fabric will be here. For those who have emailed and called us about this fabric… it is in the works!
We will keep you posted!
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