This Weekend: HBF Textiles Makes Textile Month Debut with Elodie Blanchard
“Textile Trek” and Sculptural Fabric Installation Showcase HBF Textiles
Leading fabric designer and manufacturer HBF Textiles is bringing its industry prowess to America’s design capital for New York Textile Month. HBF Textiles collaborator Elodie Blanchard will represent the brand through a special tour of her new Brooklyn studio on September 17 and 18, which will highlight her inspired collections and provide a window into her design process. HBF Textiles fabrics will also be on display at the South Street Seaport, where a unique installation by Blanchard transforms the fabrics into an eye-catching sculpture.
HBF Textiles Vice President Mary Jo Miller comments, “We’re honored to be participating in the inaugural New York Textile month. This program shows the importance of textile craft not only to the design community, but also the city at large. Elodie’s dynamic designs and unexpected installation showcase the true power of the textile art form.”
As part of the “Textile Trek” on Saturday, September 17, Blanchard will open her studio doors to the public for an inside look. Located in South Park Slope, Brooklyn, her studio serves as both design lab and art space. Blanchard’s aesthetic is modern and whimsical: each unique piece showcases her ability to take everyday objects – an heirloom quilt, a utilitarian moving blanket, a favorite pair of pants – and transform them into extraordinary textiles with diverse design applications. In her studio, she will display her recent collections with HBF Textiles, as well as other design projects such as handmade pillows and blankets.
In addition to being featured in Blanchard’s studio tour, HBF Textiles is included as part of her recycled fabric “trees” at the South Street Seaport. Originally designed for WantedDesign Brooklyn, these sculptures were created using textile scraps. The installation is designed to inspire the community to cultivate new ideas for how to reuse discarded fabric waste. The trees are on display throughout the month of September as part of WantedDesign’s South Street Seaport pop-up Design Market. The market also sells Blanchard’s “wish bands” made from HBF Textiles. These minimal bracelets tie on with a wish in mind, and when they untie and fall off, the wearer’s wish will come true.
New York Textile Month continues what has been a banner year for HBF Textiles. The brand launched two collections, the Spring 2016 Collection and the Christiane Muller Collection, the latter of which was awarded Best of NeoCon, Interior Design HiP, and Metropolis Likes awards. HBF Textiles Vice President Mary Jo Miller was also honored with an Interior Design HiP award for her industry leadership.
About HBF Textiles
HBF Textiles gives dimension to the lives and spaces of users, designers and communities through the essential qualities of fabric. Our expertise comes from understanding the inherent qualities of fabric—yarn, dyeing, spinning, structure and weave. What we produce is not just textiles, but a larger web of relationships. Weaving textiles together with manufacturing and production, we are part of a two hundredyear old legacy of textile manufacturing within North Carolina. And, with like-minded mills and collaborators––locally and globally––we explore together the myriad of possibilities of what fabric can be. Visit us at: www.hbftextiles.com.
About Elodie Blanchard
Elodie Blanchard began designing clothes and organizing fashion shows in her teens before moving to Paris to study sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts and fashion at the Duperré School of Design and Fashion. In 1999, she won the young designer prize at the International Fashion Arts Festival of Hyeres, which gave her the opportunity to sell her eponymous clothing line at the famed French La Redoute store. After studying at CalArts in Los Angeles, her interests expanded to performance projects, including collaborations with musicians and dancers. Later, Blanchard delved into a variety of endeavors including prototype product development, trend forecasting, special event design, and costume and set design. She has also taught at Parsons in NY.
She has since founded Elodie Blanchard Studio specializing in textile design and fabrication. Her aesthetic is modern and whimsical: each unique piece showcases her ability to take everyday objects – an heirloom quilt, a utilitarian moving blanket, a favorite pair of pants – and transform them into extraordinary textiles with diverse design applications.
In 2014, she collaborated with HBF Textiles, winning the gold award at Neocon. Blanchard’s work has been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Fortune, Metropolitan Home, Interior Design, DWELL, Domino and ELLE Decoration among others.
