Robert Allen intros DwellStudio line

Collection includes wovens and prints

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/16/2010 3:03:49 PM

New York - The Robert Allen Group has signed an exclusive design partnership with DwellStudio, a contemporary home furnishings company.

The first collection, residential decorative fabrics in wovens and prints, was introduced at Showtime in High Point, N.C., earlier this month with distribution set for August.

More than 70 designs encompass the debut residential collection, and 41 upholstery and privacy curtain designs debuted at NeoCon in Chicago this week.

DwellStudio was founded in 1999 as a design house for modern home and family furnishings with graphic prints and bold colors for bedding accessories, table linens, travel accessories and a line of baby and children furnishings by Christiane Lemieux.

She earlier was design director for Portico New York, and began her career in fashion working as a designer at Isaac Mizrahi and the Gap.

The company has grown to a $25 million brand known for its high-end contemporary baby furnishings and in 2008 launched a program with Target with its signature styling for popular priced housewares and baby collections.

For her new affiliation with Robert Allen, Lemieux commented "I'm getting to know the hospitality market and see there is room for innovation, barrier shields, nano and Crypton fabrics and family fabrics that can be brought into residential. We're now putting together a hospitality collection for 2011."

She added, "We brought a new perspective with our Eclectic Mod - a group of geometrics and vintage-inspired designs that mix together right for this moment. The mix and match let designers and consumers not make a mistake."

"We're very happy to be DwellStudio's exclusive partner in these market and believe their distinctive modern aesthetic will be an exciting new resource for designers and specifiers," said Jeff Cordover, chairman and ceo of The Robert Allen Group.