a day @ supreme

lace exploration for some is serious business.

Bridal Gown Trends for 2013

With the winter snow beginning to thaw, spring is in the air, and with that, the highly anticipated start to wedding season! For months, newly engaged brides have been planning their weddings down to the smallest detail, especially, (the most important in our opinion) the wedding dress.

Having been selling bridal fabrics for over 80 years, we see bridal trends come to life as brides flow in and out of our store to pick the fabrics for their custom dresses.  Working with these brides inspired this blog.  Read about all of the 2013 bridal trends and see the fabrics at Supreme that have been most popular among our amazing and beautiful brides.

1. Colors: Blush and Grey

Jenny Packham Bridal Gown

We love to see this break from the traditional white and ivory colored dresses (which is actually a newer trend – from the last 100 or so years) and incorporating hints of color into their dresses.  By far the two most popular colors this year are blush and grey.  However, we have gotten a few brides who are very experimental with their color choices and are incorporating marigold yellows or kelly greens into their dresses.

2. Old Hollywood/Screen Sirens

Jenny Packham Bridal Gown

Think Greta Garbo, Jan harlow, and Rita Hayworth.  The Old Hollywood/Film Noir style is back and we could not be more excited about it!

3. Bare Backs/ Portrait Backs

Claire Pettibone Bridal Gown

There is nothing sexier than a portrait back or back detail – it really makes the dress a 360 degree piece.  Too often people forget that the back of a garment can be just as interesting or even more interesting than the front.

4. Lace Nouveau

Jenny Packham Lace Bohemian Wedding Dress

We saved our most favorite trend for last: lace.  Lace is having a strong comeback in bridal wear.  Supreme Novelty fabrics has a room completely dedicated to lace – its hard not to fall in love with it when you spend as much time with it as we do. From chantilly to lyon lace, SNF has it all.  Build the wedding dress of your dreams with us, and one or two amazing bridal designers.

Supreme’s First Pop Up Shop

Supreme Novelty Fabrics strives to support and cater to students who study fashion design at the local Chicago-land Universities.  It is the reason we have started doing student fashion design competitions – which we love!

Well, this week, we tested a whole new idea – A Fabric Pop Up Shop! Our guinea pig for our first trial run: Columbia College Chicago.  Besides having a snow storm in the middle of our time at Columbia, it was really fun.

We got to interact with students and teachers, and find out what they are specifically looking for!  We hope to see some of your wonderful faces in our store! We have a ton more fabric then just what we brought in!

Project Runway comes to Supreme

We are lucky enough to say that we have a few local Project Runway Alums that frequent our fabric store.  It is our small claim to fame, but then again, Supreme Fabrics could really be the Mood Fabrics of Chicago if Project Runway were based here….right? Lifetime here we are!  Julia would be more than happy to bring her dog, Mya, in to be the next Swatch?

Julia’s Dog, Mya – Probably the cutest dog in the world!

Peach Carr has been a client of Supreme’s for years, and has even hosted an event in our space to benefit breast cancer research.  She is one of the most awesome people ever, and we are so happy to have her as a customer! A few weeks ago, Josh McKinley was in town for an event with Peach.  If you don’t remember who Josh is…”If you’re tired, take a nap”  Peach was nice enough to bring Josh by Supreme so that we were able to meet him….and we love him too! Move to Chicago Josh!

Josh, Julia, Richard, and Peach – Supreme Love’s Project Runway!

Most of you who shop at our store know and love Lalo, Supreme Fabric’s store manager.  Lalo rearranged his whole schedule to be in the store on the day Josh was coming, he was so excited….then he got sick.  We made up for it by getting this special picture just for him.

We would also like to give a shout out to Ms. Katelyn Pankoke.  Back in October, we hosted a bridal event during Fashion Focus Chicago which Katelyn and her bridal line, Elaya Vaughn, were part of.  A few months later, we receive an e-mail from her that she is on Season 11 of Project Runway!  We absolutely love watching her compete every week! We are cheering for you Katelyn!

Dress from Elaya Vaughn Bridal Line by Katelyn Pankoke at Supreme’s Bridal Brunch: From Fabric to Fit

Katelyn Pankoke, Chicagoan, Project Runway Season 11 Contestant, Supreme Fabric Favorite

Lyon Lace to Drool Over

Those of you who have visited our store know that we have thousands of bolts of fabric, seemingly well organized by color and fabric type.  However, every once in a while, we uncover a buried treasure that was lost in the mix at some point.  We have been doing a bit of New Year reorganizing and stumbled upon this beautiful piece of Lyon Lace.

Laces are named by the region in France in which they are made.  Lyon lace comes from Lyon, France.  The main thing that makes Lyon lace different from other lace, is that it has a very large pattern repeat.  As you can see in the lace above, the pattern is very large.  Another specialty of Lyon lace, is that it often has different types of netting included in on repeat.  Look at the closeups below and notice the different nets!

It is somewhat surprising, but there is not a lot of information about Lyon lace online.  It is a lace on the verge of distinction.  Lyon lace has not been produced for the last 30 or 40 years.  This could be for a few different reasons: 1.  Because of the scale of the print, Lyon lace can be very challenging for a designer.  The lace itself dictates the design of the garment.  It takes a very skilled designer to use Lyon lace. 2. Lyon lace is an expensive lace.  It is expensive to produce and it is expensive to purchase.  The market that could afford this lace just might not be there.

It saddens us greatly that this lace is disappearing…but there is hope!  When this piece of lace was discovered in our store, it spurred owner, Richard Schneider, to call his lace contact to find out more about Lyon lace.  Well, it turns out that recently the LAST Lyon lace machine was about to be melted and recycled, but was saved by this wonderful lady and a client in need of Lyon lace!  Does this mean that there is a future comeback of Lyon lace? We can only hope!

Textiles Cheat Sheet: Wovens vs. Knits

One of the hardest parts of shopping for fabrics, is not knowing the type of fabric you are looking for.  You have no idea how many times we have people come into the store and say “I am looking for black fabric, how much does it cost?” – well pretty much EVERY type of fabric comes in black and the price ranges dramatically! Fear not, we are starting a blog series that will help you learn about the different types of fabrics out there so you will know more of what you are looking for!

Today, we will be covering the different between the two most common categories of fabrics: Wovens and Knits – feel free to comment if you have any questions!

Wovens:

Woven fabrics are made on a loom.  The yarns or threads that make up a woven fabric run along the length (grain or weft) and width (crossgrain or warp). The threads weave together to look like a basket.

Knits:

Generally knits have more stretch and natural give than wovens.  Knits are made using a knitting machine.  Unlike wovens, that use multiple threads, knits are made using one long thread that is knitted together with interlocking loops. When knitted together, they look like a tiny row of braids.

As with any rule, there are exceptions to these two categories: Examples of this would be felt and lace.

Still don’t think you will be able to tell the difference? Do these tests to find the difference:

1. Stretch Test:

-Knit: When you stretch a knit across its width, you will have a significant stretch

-Woven: Most wovens cannot stretch across the lenghtwise grain, and there is minimal stretch across the crossgrain (width of fabric)

2.Wrinkle Resistance

-Knit: When you ball up a knit in your hand, it will easily crush, but once released, it will spring back to its original shape with little or not wrinkles

-Woven: When you wad up a woven, it will wrinkle easily once released

3.Inspect the Edges

-Knit: Either sold in a tube or flat – when it is flat, factories commonly put either starch or glue on the edge to keep the fabric from curling

-Wovens: Wovens have a selvage edge which is very strong and doesn’t give

We hope that you have found this blog to be helpful!!  We want to spread our knowledge and love of fabric with the cyberworld!  Feel free to also shop our products on our Etsy store!

Shop at Supreme in your PJ’s

Great News! Supreme is now selling products online at our Etsy Storefront!  Shop our great products from the comfort of your own home!

Supreme Fabrics Etsy Storefront Homepage

We are adding new products to our Etsy store daily…and some of these products, you may not even know that we have! We have been digging around in our back storeroom and have found some really great things! Example: Hat forms and vintage bridal headpieces

Supreme has so much stock, that you may miss things when you are visiting our store.  Our Etsy store takes our supplies and makes them into a very customer friendly site!

Visit our Etsy Store here!