Hemingway luxury bedding taps into 'worldly' lifestyle

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 10/29/2001 12:00:00 AM

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA —

The adventurous, worldly lifestyle of Ernest Hemingway has inspired a new line of luxury bedding, which premiered at the recent High Point market.

Joining a well-established list of Hemingway licensees, the Austin Horn collection has bowed four collections derived from places Hemingway lived during different periods of his life: the Midwest, Paris, Africa and Key West, FL.

Hemingway was a "person with a strong image," said Dian Austin, president of the Austin Horn Collection, here. "He inspired people with his great sense of adventure and travel."

The Austin Horn Collection is known for its high-end bedding, which uses "premiere, gorgeous" European fabrics with brocades and chenilles, she said. The new Hemingway license is a natural extension of the line, and allows the company to offer its high-end accounts a line "with a more casual feeling and a friendlier price point."

The collection's introductions included three lines from existing themes, as well as a new one for all of the Hemingway licenses. The Austin Horn collection includes comforters, duvets, bedskirts, decorative pillows and throws, and everything coordinates with the Hemingway furniture line from Thomasville Furniture.

The Kenya collection is designed to exude a soft, sun-washed, jungle feel with shades of fern, clay and khaki that coordinate with a basket weave burlap, a tribal bordered elephant tapestry, and palm-design jacquard. Custom cordings, carved ebony and bone tassels finish the look.

The more formal Paris collection, also an existing theme, uses a subtle "Rue Royale" woven damask that looks hand-embroidered, a petite-striped silky jacquard and a "Coco" chenille fabric adorned with braided fringe and cord, all in various tones of a color called crème brulee.

The Key West group also uses a neutral palette, but pairs it with a woven rattan upholstery fabric, a breezy palm jacquard and Old World trade wind map tapestry. Bedding is trimmed with jute cording hemp fringe, and intertwined seashell trims.

High Point marked the debut of the Windemere collection for all of the Hemingway licensees. Inspired by the boyhood home in northern Michigan where Hemingway spent his summers, this collection has an outdoor look with faux suede accented with chenilles in an arrowhead jacquard design and a woven blanket pattern in vibrant hues of pine, saddle and currant.

All of the collections ship as a 10-piece set, including shams that are already filled.

Each collection wholesales for $1,000 or less.