Frette's latest returns to Italian roots

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 3/4/2013 9:11:02 AM

New York - Frette's spring/summer collection is inspired by the writings of two ex-patriots who fell in love with Italy: Elizabeth von Arnim, the Australian author of "The Enchanted April," and British memoirist Daphne Phelps, author of "A House in Sicily."

Frette's Couture collection includes Boiserie, which keys off Sicilian stucco wall decorations; Contessa, featuring hibiscus blossoms on ornate baroque frames; Baglio, which ocminbes baroque and geometric elements; Maiolicato, a bi-color cotton sateen jacquard with discreete Frette logos; and Illusione, a brightly colored geometric embroidery on white cotton sateen.
Colors recall the hues of Phelps' Sicilian home: blue sea and sky, lemon yellow, hibiscus red, beige and stone. Everything in the collection is grounded in white.
Also in Couture, Paraggi features plumbago blossoms and Ligurian pittosporum leaves on a geometric trellis in all-over or border designs. Caruggio is inspired by cobbles lining the streets in the Ligurian villages of von Arnim's book. The design also appears on embroidered cotton satin quilts. Cammeo features a toile de jouy design depicting a pastoral river scene. Paraggi Pizzo, an unusual colored macramé lace, replicates Pittosporum flowers in beige, or plumbago and pale green, on a white ground.
Frette has also added to its season-to-season Essentials collection with Baia, a simple graphic using strips of colored fabric sewn into white sateen cotton sheets and shams, creating two-tone frames or stripes. The design provides an alternative to Essential's line embroideries. Colors are opal, beige, sunny yellow, ultramarine or plumbago.
Mirasole is the new Essentials print, with colours inspired by vintage Portofino. This cotton duvet set, quilt and comforter features a painterly, 1950s floral design with pink and blue irises sweeping across a faded yellow ground.
The new Permanenti or 'Permanents' range complements Essentials with a season-to-season collection that lets customers build a set of classic linens over several years. Designs include Illusione, a rhomboid geometric in sateen jacquard, and Weave, a looping embroidery on bed and bathroom sets. Macramé Pizzo, a classic Sicilian lace trim with interlocking diamonds, completes the collection.