Why Bouclé fabric is back and everlasting?
Carded and combed, with long fibers, wool offers comfortable prestige. Curled or brushed, it naturally has surprising volume and softness while it envelops with a pleasant warmth. It blends subtly with cotton or linen to undoubtedly make the most of a falsely primal look.
Beautiful as it is soft.
Bouclé is timeless.
"Derived from the French word meaning “curled” or “ringed,” bouclé can refer to a yarn, made from a series of looped threads."
When, in the late 1940s, Florence Knoll requested to Eero Saarinen design a chair that she could “really curl up in,” she likely didn’t realize the industrial designer would interpret her description down to the upholstery thread. The excellent result of her request, Saarinen’s Womb Chair, debuted in 1948 in Knoll’s Classic Bouclé, a nubby textile made from yarn of fittingly, curled fibers.
Derived from the French word meaning “curled” or “ringed,” bouclé can refer to a yarn, made from a series of looped thread, or the fabric made from it. Wool is the most typical fiber to undergo the technique, though cotton, linen, and silk have equally been used for achieving the fabric’s textured hand. In the decade following Saarinen’s curled-up release, bouclé fabrics spread cross-category, becoming a longtime staple of fashion couture houses (Chanel among the most notable) and midcentury furniture designers.
Womb Chair
"..a chair that was like a basket full of pillows,
something I could really curl up in."
- Florence Knoll
Bouclé fabric generously provides a unique range of benefits: heavy enough to offer some acoustic absorption when used for say, window treatments, but soft enough to cover a pillow. Yet it’s the rugged-textured fabric’s intrinsic properties that make this material rise in popularity. We are living in a time when comfort and safety are of the utmost importance. Therefore designing a safe and cozy space at home that encourages well-being is essential.
DESIGNERS HAVE BEEN UPHOLSTERING TEXTURAL BOUCLÉS ON MODERN ORGANIC FORMS.
The material pairs incredibly with curvilinear shapes, as demonstrated with the midcentury designs of Saarinen and Vladimir Kagan and more recently, Pierre Yovanovitch’s MAD armchair.
MAD Chair
Designed by Pierre Yovanovitch
As demand shifts toward fabric, which is abundant in texture yet breathable in weight, textile houses are rounding out their bouclé offerings.
Here are three of our new pieces with some of the best Bouclés.
