Gulistan Launches Bedding

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 2/6/2006 12:00:00 AM

Frankfurt, Germany — —

Frankfurt, Germany — Gulistan Group, a long-time Pakistani yarn and greige-goods producer, has launched its first manufactured product collection: decorative bedding.

New York designer Peter D'Ascoli has created three bed collections under the brand name Dandy Villa D'Ascoli, using the company's 210-count cotton piece goods, yarn dyes and solid-color piece-dyed fabrics.

Gulistan, listed on the Karachi stock exchange and a major supplier of yarn and greige goods for home and apparel, began yarn dyeing three years ago.

“Our finished goods facilities are new and functional,” said Kashif Shakoor, a company director and grandson of the chairman. As a prelude to this launch, in the past year the company has supplied packaged sheets to companies across the globe through local buying offices, said Shakoor, who is overseeing the bedding program.

D'Ascoli said the bedding using the firm's coordinated fabrics “is a way of introducing Gulistan to the home fashions market by displaying what its facilities can do.” D'Ascoli was most recently co-vice president, co-creative director at Covington Industries and earlier was with Waverly and Diane von Furstenberg.

The three beds feature an Ikat-inspired group, a fresh, feminine style using a print on yarn dye with a calico; solids in pinks to purples; and an elegant yarn-dyed gingham overprinted with a damask design.

Packaging also will sport the Dandy Villa D'Ascoli brand.

“We are working with Peter on this collection to demonstrate to the market that we are capable of putting together complex ensembles as a one-stop shop and we're very excited by the results so far,” added Shakoor. D'Ascoli is also helping Gulistan develop sales representation in the United States and Europe.

At the same time, D'Ascoli & Co., a New York-based company with offices in Paris and New Delhi, expects to have a fabric and product studio up and running by the second quarter for design and marketing. Products will include decorative fabrics, home textiles, rugs and light furniture.

“This will not be a buying and sourcing agency, but will be close to the factories as a creative hub for Asia,” D'Ascoli explained.

The Gulistan program will include custom and private brands with “an emphasis on style, design and marketing as a way of differentiating and elevating the company from other commission Asian manufacturers,” D'Ascoli added.

Gulistan has 10 factories for yarn production, weaving and dyeing as well as 500 sewing machines for home furnishings and apparel products, according to D'Ascoli.