Keeco, WPS among Cotton Inc. honorees

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/18/2002 3:32:00 PM

New York — Home textiles companies and fabric makers were among the winners last night at the Cotton Inc. Textile Designer Awards held here at the American Craft Museum.

Winners were selected for their ability to bring aesthetic creativity and functional effectiveness to all-cotton or cotton-rich products. Winners in the home area included:

Technical achievement: WestPoint Stevens' Ida Moran for The Natural Stretch Sheet from Martex, a fitted sheet that uses no synthetic or elastomeric yarns but stretches 11 percent when covering a mattress and has a 97 percent recovery rate.

Bed fashions: Keeco's Lynn Neulander, Mary Briggs, Julie Freimuth and Steve Cantrell for the B. Smith and Tracy Porter licensed bedding collections that used globally-inspired motifs in fabrics to reflect multi-cultural viewpoints.

Bath fashions: Michele Sinai Inc.'s founder Michele Sinai and the MSI team for 100 percent cotton sculpted jacquard towels that combine terry and flat woven constructions in non-conventional ways.

Decorative fabrics: Craftex's Kim Grimsely and Allison Hockerfor for cotton and cotton-rich upholstery fabrics that combine interesting textures with intricate details woven into the cloth. Motifs include Jacobean patterns, Asian florals, crewelwork looks and Victorian tapestries.

Prints: Michael Miller Fabrics' Mark Eduard Hordyszynski for a whimsical collection of prints featuring scuba-diving cats and fishing fish.

The 2002 Global Recognition Award was presented to Toyobo Co. Ltd. of Japan, makers of technologically advanced textiles and fibers, primarily for the apparel market.