Life of a Fabric- An American Story

Our quest for beautiful fabrics feels like an endless scavenger hunt, leaving no stone unturned. The great "finds" are even greater though when we run across the provenance of these special pieces. One of these finds is this floral cotton circa 1960s by Concord Fabrics.  The company, founded in 1958, was based in NYC but created their products in multiple factories on the East Coast. These textile mills, printing factories, associated garment factories were large employers of people in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina and many other Southern states are all but gone now. Concord Fabrics was shuttered in 2005 but we are still finding their beautiful fabrics that they created so long ago.

One of the many booming mills (this one in North Carolina) during the 1960s.

Garment factory workers sharing their political views.

In small towns where these mills and factories existed they were generally the chief employer for the town's population.

My, how times have changed!  This is how quality control was done back in the good old days...The workers would hold the fabric yardage up to the sunlight to look for imperfections.  Nowadays modern factories use light meters, scales and various machinery to check for holes, discoloration and tensile strength.

Now that you know this fabric's journey you can see why we stand by these pieces

as being truly special.