PARIS—French wholesalers including Pierre Frey, Thereon, Créations Métaphores and Nobilis Fontan are committed to selling custom fabrics from European suppliers and Indian made embroideries with the view that off the shelf curtain panels are products better left to retailers like IKEA. In fact, these French editeurs see a continued expansion of their business in Europe and North America in the custom fabrics area. However, the overall size of the custom fabric market “has most probably been reduced over the last 10 years due to the 2008 economic crisis and changing consumer behavior for buying curtains and wall paneling,” according to Norman Halard, Managing Director of Nobilis, Halard says the retail business remains fragile while the contract business is growing. “Nobilis tried a decade ago to sell readymade panels/curtains, with little success.” Halard believes that a fabrics editeur does not belong to that business. “Pricewise, an editeur will never be as competitive as a mass market retailer and never has the right dimensions of readymade curtains since standard sizes vary in many countries.” He believes in promoting state-of-the-art textiles dedicated to custom-made curtains/panels and upholstery to meet Nobilis customers’ special requirements. In general, Nobilis is focusing on its core business: high end fabrics and wallpaper while looking at opportunities for acquisitions and extending its furniture and home accessories line. The Nobilis 2018 fabric collection blends printed and embroidered raw silks, curtains with bold and contemporary patterns, and oversized upholstery designs. Nobilis has a new classical collection, matte and precious as well as a wide wallcovering program in a previously unseen style. Patterns are revealed by transparency with playing on smooth or fibrous grounds; shell, raffia and straw are interlaced in crafty and rare weavings. Just like Pierre Frey, Nobilis has dedicated one staff member to manage its presence on social networks. An analysis recently conducted by Kim Przybyla, a Paris-based social network consultant, concluded that Pierre Frey is leading with more than 20,000 Facebook subscribers and 101,000 Instagram subscribers vs. 5,000 Facebook subscribers and 25,000 Instagram subscribers for Nobilis. Pierre Frey, (the Pierre Frey company founder’s grandson) insists that his house, has been “selling more, not less” custom-made fabrics, to meet its customers’ needs. Pierre Frey says it will not sell panels, and expects to continue selling high-end custom-made fabrics by the meter. Pierre Frey is considered the leading high-end fabrics editeur, with €45 million annual sales including 70 percent international revenue. “Final customers now need smaller pieces, well below the formerly accepted minimum of 300 meters,” he says. Suppliers have changed accordingly to accommodate those needs. Business customers mostly include hotels, which demand custom-made products. Hotels represent 30 percent of its worldwide business versus 70 percent for residential customers. Frey has close to 2,000 French customers. “The revenue breakdown can vary slightly depending on the occurrence of large special projects, such as the renovation of Hotel Ritz Paris, which happened in 2016. “Most of our suppliers have been our partners for years and can adapt their productions and manufacturing tools to meet the needs of Pierre Frey.” Pierre Frey’s own fabrics production unit in the North of France manufactures nearly 70 percent of its products. Foreign suppliers, especially in Italy, can supply custom-made fabrics. “Pierre Frey does not buy in China and has no plan to do so.”  Indian manufacturers, which supply almost of Pierre Frey’s embroidery, are considered excellent, precise, talented and creative. Some specific products are manufactured in Belgium (velvet) and Switzerland. “Fabrics will remain Pierre Frey’s core business,” Frey says. However, the house keeps developing by-products such as wallpaper, which the company introduced thirty years ago. It also offers custom-made carpets and wall-to-wall carpets to meet an increasing demand and, finally, pieces of furniture, whose first collection of couches was launched in 2002 and is selling especially well, Frey says. Pierre Frey’s opening of a second US showroom in Miami Design Center in October 2007 (10 years after the first one in New York) will be followed by events during Miami Design. Frey is present in Asia, but Japan remains a small market. New staff members were recently recruited for the furniture line, but the management team is still mostly made of Frey family members (four out of six, Patrick, chief executive and his three sons). Pierre Frey was active along with other Paris-based designers in setting up Paris Deco Off, an alternative week-long event housed in the designers’ own showrooms, announced for mid-January 2018 alongside Maison & Objet Paris. A smaller Paris-based fabrics editeur, Gérard Thévenon, still has some of its fabrics manufactured by a production unit in central France. The principle says he has seen the emergence of a new market for excellent quality products at cheaper prices that can be delivered by suppliers in countries such as Poland, but not China, “since it is not competitive if you take into account transportation costs.” Thévenon believes his strategy of selling fabrics at ‘affordable’ prices ‘will be more and more popular with residential customers.” Créations Métaphores, does not see any decline in the custom fabrics market. “Business is expanding, mostly in North America and in Europe, where we recorded double digit growth,” according to Caroline Dumiel, General Manager. Most of Créations Métaphores production is made in France. Its know-how remains quite unique for hand-feel, exclusive printing and dying techniques, interpretation and reproduction of archives from the 16th to the 19th centuries and color palettes.  Créations Métaphores partnerships include Claude Cartier in Lyon (Inside Creative Store), CQ studio for the launch of their ‘Essentials’ collection; designer Pierre Marie for a limited edition collection presented in Créations Métaphores flagship showroom, Bon Marche store for a made-to-measure concept allowing customers to order their cushions from among 2,800 options. By Gerard Poirot