In this series we will review over the coming year the various fabrics and wallpapers manufacturers that are available in Ireland.
The first one in this list is the Pierre Frey company. It is a French maison de luxe — a luxury design house — an inspirational, family-owned, business with a proud tradition which looks towards the future.
Pierre Frey, founded in 1935, designs, creates, and manufactures fabrics and wallpapers in the purest French tradition. The company’s rich collection of no fewer than 7,000 items includes not only the Pierre Frey designs, but collections from the company’s other three prestigious brands, Braquenié, Fadini Borghi, and Boussac.
Although Pierre Frey is traditionally a fabric and furnishing house, it is also attuned to the modern world, which has led to the creation of equally stunning home accessories and furniture collections. Maintaining its focus on creativity, Pierre Frey has introduced products which beautifully complement its fabrics — sofas and other upholstered furniture, carpets, and home accessories. Lamps, cushions, rugs/throws, and perfumed candles are just some of the accessories bearing the distinctive Pierre Frey design hallmark. The company is adventurous in terms of style as well as products, drawing creative inspiration from a range of sources including Imperial China, 18th-century France, and contemporary Africa.
Pierre Frey is proud of its traditional expertise, yet at the same time it is highly inventive, and profoundly eclectic — eclectic in its prints and woven fabrics, combining its trademark damasks, jacquards, and moirés with the latest contemporary fabrics; eclectic in its materials which include luxurious silk, fresh cotton, elegant linen, warm wool, and precious cashmere; eclectic in its colours, Pierre Frey’s 5,000 shades offer a palette unrivalled in its diversity and expressive richness — pomegranate, cardinal red, tisane green, absinthe, leaf, meadow, mint, and moss; eclectic in its influences: a fabric inspired by a La Fontaine fable, by a building in Paris, by mythological animals, or by a patisserie window display.
Pierre Frey represents an outstanding heritage, a remarkable collection of archives at the customer’s disposal. Since 2003 more than 30,000 documents (designs, fabrics, carpet samples ) dating from the 16th century through to the present day have been gathered together in Paris where they can be searched by period, by colour, by motif, and by technique. It is an extraordinary resource which presents designs from the company’s four brands along with a selection of rare pieces acquired at auction, from antique dealers, and from private collections. This unique heritage makes Pierre Frey a valued point of contact for leading museums across the globe.
In a word, Pierre Frey represents a subtle alliance of know-how and art, the classic and the contemporary; a unique harmony of fabric and colour that appeals to every one of our senses.
Pierre Frey fabrics are available exclusively at La Maison Chic interior design.
