Decor Arts Now

By Lynn Byrne. Lovers of interior design have had an infatuation with suzanis and, their close cousin ikat textiles, for sometime now.  I was not surprised to see this booth last week at the NY International Gift Fair filled with suzani pillows and throws.

Photo by Lynn Byrne

What is a bit more unusual are accessories adopting the pattern.  Ikat and suzani teapots anyone?

Photos from modernluxury.com and Distant

They have also crossed over to fashion–the border between interior design and fashion being so amorphous.  I am not wearing ikat tights, but I guess someone is.

Photo from Wide Open Spaces

What everyone does seem to be doing, however, is using the textiles as upholstery fabric.  I spotted this chair done up in suzani at the NY International Gift Fair.

Photo by Lynn Byrne

And later that same week, I unearthed this lovely pair of Jansen style armchairs recovered in an ikat fabric at the Hamptons Antiques Gallery in Stamford, CT.

Photo by Lynn Byrne

So what makes these textiles so special?  Cue the history lesson.

Suzanis and ikat textiles have been with us for thousands of years.  Suzanis are Central Asia’s answer to the American quilt.  A real suzani is handmade and hand stitched, with, generally, all natural dyes.  Like quilting, traditionally, different family members each stitch a section and later all of the sections are sewn together.  Things don’t always match up perfectly, which gives a true suzani its charm.

Older suzanis have a neutral background, while newer ones can have colored backgrounds like red, pink, yellow and occasionally violet.  For a brief period during the late 19th and early 20th century, some suzanis were colored with synthetic dyes.  These are less desirable and considerably duller than those made with natural dyes.

Ikat  (pronounced “ee- cat”, not “eye-cat” ) is a textile that is made with what is essentially a “tie-dye” method.  The technical name is “resist dyeing”.  Parts of the  threads are tied up in bundles (today, often using plastic) and then dyed before they are woven.  Typically it is the warp threads (the ones going cross wise) that are resist dyed, but occasionally the weft (vertical) threads are also dyed.  This is known as a double ikat.

Then, true ikat textiles are woven by hand on narrow looms.  A pattern emerges from the resist dyeing as the threads are loomed.  The hand-woven fabrics have a completely different feel and appearance than fabrics made from a power-loom production.

Now, back to the eye candy.  Here are some inspirational rooms featuring suzani or ikat.

These dining room chairs are upholstered with an ikat inspired fabric from Osborne and Little.  Love the lucite based table.  (For more lucite, click here.)

Photo by Paul Massey for British House and Garden

The suzani settee relates well to the art hung above it and makes this small area special.

Photo via The City Sage

Here is a sofa done in a very traditional ikat pattern.

From Patricia Gray Interior Design

This bird’s eye view of Kathryn Ireland’s living room shows a chair upholstered in suzani in the left side.   Following the birds eye view is a close up of the chair.   Interesting how the suzani is highlighted by using it only in the middle of the chair and surrounding it with white.

Photos from housebeautiful.com

Suzani and ikat are combined in this room with suzani-like fabric on the valance and ikat on the sofa.

Photo via Cote de Texas

Love this ikat inspired rug.

Photo from Dose of Design

An absolutely amazing transformation of a granny wing chair using antique suzani textiles brought to us via Design Sponge.

And, finally, ikat fabric applied to the walls.

Photo from the Elle Decor book, Style and Substance

I love pattern and color so much that I don’t think I will ever tire of suzanis and ikats.  How do you feel about them?

Suzani and ikat history via housebeautiful.com, wikipedia, and mekongrivertextiles.com.

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