As one of the leading international manufacturers and distributors of the finest furnishing fabrics, the Paris-based company, LELIEVRE, is well placed to embrace with confidence the opportunities and challenges of the new millenium, based on the proven excellence of its products and outstanding client service.
Founded by Henri Lelievre in 1914, the grandfather of today’s President, the company has grown both organically and by acquiring several businesses, including Tassinari & Chatel in 1997 which is internationally respected for its savoir-faire and its prestige as manufacturer of the famous silk of Lyon (‘soierie lyonnaise’.)
In addition, in 1996, LELIEVRE secured an exclusive world-wide licence with KENZO, adding not only their contemporary fabrics to the company’s portfolio, but also interior accessories complementing LELIEVRE’s own collection of finished products. South Pacific Fabrics is pleased to now be the distributors of these three ranges.
The 6000 items in the LELIEVRE collections offer professional Interior Designers and Architects a vast array of superb quality fabrics suitable for all types of interiors, whether residential or contract.
LELIEVRE’s reputation has been built on the following specialised groups:
• Velvets, plain, striped and patterned
• Comprehensive collections of plain fabrics in many colourways
• The Silks with designs either inherited from French history or with a contemporary inspiration
• A complete range of flame-retardant fabrics, many in Trevira CS, ideal for hotel and other contract applications
• Sheers in many colourways, designs and compositions
• Contemporary collections of textured fabrics created using modern weaving techniques
Combining the different silk weaving techniques, their factories use both traditional hand looms and computer-controlled mechanical looms, enabling the company to create contemporary designs on demand as well as replicating designs from third-party documents or from the company’s own vast collection of historical archives.
Kenzo
The latest collections from Kenzo are made up of a surprising mix
of the floral profusion of the 20’s and 30’s, touched with a note of
Hippy chic of the 70’s and the elegance of the French Riviera marine
style illustrated by the photographer Jacque Henri Lartigue.
Highly stylised flowers, garden flowers in a naïve sketchy style,
bouquets of flowers of Japanese inspiration mixed with more psychedelic
floral designs in flowing designs with swirls and arabesques .
The 2007 collection highlights the pictorial and strong colour
elements of the world of Matisse and Delacroix. A homage to their
common works.
Their travels are illustrated in notebooks as
watercolour sketches. The play of light on a palette of warm, rich
tones; red, pomegranate and coral are accentuated by acid greens and
touches of turquoise. Intimate glimpses into the souks and citadelle
courtyards. Gardens full of flowers blending with the stripes of tents
ornamented by oriental embroidery.
Consistent with previous collections, there is an abundance of
embroidered and knitted effects, as well as fantasy buttons in the
spirit of the KENZO fashion look.
Tassinari & Chatel
The House of TASSINARI & CHATEL is the fruit
of a long lineage, almost a dynasty: four generations of PERNON from
1680 to 1807, two generations of the GRAND family from 1808 to 1870,
four generations of the TASSINARI & CHATEL families from 1870 to
1987. The House, with no family successor, was taken over by Philippe
DECROIX, a renowned fabric producer, who transferred it in January 1998
to the family group LELIEVRE, a specialist in up-market furnishing
fabric and owners of a major silk mill producing furnishing fabrics in
the Lyon region.
By conserving the savoir-faire of the past and
embracing the technologies of the future, the success of the famous
Lyon weaving mill has never been in doubt. The traditional wooden hand
looms are still used for special orders from museums, chateaux and
wealthy homes in France, Europe and throughout the rest of the world.
At the rate of only a few centimeters per day, a team of artisans have
become masters of their art, weaving textiles using designs and skills
which even the most up-to-date mechanised looms cannot emulate, for
example brocades lampas, sheered velvets and brocades with threads of
gold or of silver.
Today, however, Tassinari and Chatel’s modern
mechanised looms can reproduce the majority of ancient fabric designs
with incomparable accuracy and quality at prices much more affordable
by the public at large.
Lovers of elegant fabrics and beauty can,
nowadays, benefit from our know-how through "SPECIAL ORDERS". They can
reproduce antique designs for you from among the 100 000 designs in our
archives. More easily accessible, the 150 designs in the "PATRIMOINE
COLLECTION" are available for decorators, antique dealers and others
seeking embellishment and a prestigious signature for their beautiful
furniture and quality residences.
