In addition to wool, reused cotton and velvet, we have recently welcomed a new material to our family. We have been working on adding boucle for a while now, but it took some time to find the right fabric providers with the right colour pallets for our designs. We try to build honest and long-term partnerships with our providers but also make sure we don’t stock up on too much but rather order on demand. In addition we work very hard to create as little leftovers as possible or to reuse leftover material from the upholstery for our pillows.

We added boucle to our shop because it’s a timeless, elegant material that brings softness and cosiness to our homes. The word boucle is derived from a French word meaning “curled”, “looped” or “ringed” and it refers to a yarn, made from a series of looped threads. It is a rough textured fabric, generally and historically made from wool and mohair. Nowadays, cotton, linen, silk, and synthetic mixes can also be used to create its distinctive look and feel. 

To touch, it’s somewhere between the soft fluffiness of sherpa fleece and the natural texture of marled linen. Boucle can have metallic fibres of gold or silver, which makes it all the more special, but be aware, that boucle is not tweed and while they might appear similar and originally they both have been made on looms, and out of wool – they are not the same. Boucle is softer and richer in texture. Because it is a little thicker than other materials, it is harder to manipulate it for armchair and chairs covers, but we still love it because of how it feels and the warmth it brings to home decor. 

History of boucle

The boucle history is as elegant as the material itself. It became popular in the U.S in the 1940s when an architect asked a designer to make a chair that would allow someone to curl up on it. The designer, Eero Saarinen, designed an iconic chair that featured the soft boucle fabric. The Womb chair by Eero led to an increased rise in popularity of the fabric. After being featured prominently in furniture designs, it later also became an important material in the clothing industry when it was first used by Coco Chanel in her jackets designs. Boucle is used for upholstering sofas and chairs, drapes, pillows, blankets and garments.

Boucle in our shop

It is durable, soft and very easy to maintain. For certain designs of chairs and armchairs, it will be possible to remove the covers and wash them in the machine at 30 degrees on the delicate or hand wash program. If removing the covers is not possible, you can always use a damp cloth and a little bit of detergent. You can also use various preparations (foams) for cleaning and caring for upholstered furniture. We always advise our customers to test the cleaning product on a small piece of fabric in a less visible part to check how the fabric reacts to this specific cleaning solution. 

In line with our vision of sustainable manufacturing of furniture, we of course offer certain repairs and also re-dressing of textiles when you need to change this up a bit. All this to provide second, third and fourth life stories for our pieces. 

Literature:

• https://teachyoutosew.com/boucle-fabric-history-properties-uses-care-where-to-buy/
• https://thedesigntabloid.com/2021/02/17/decorating-dictionary-boucle/ 
• https://food52.com/blog/26032-boucle-the-internets-favorite-fabric
• https://revolutionfabrics.com/blogs/gotcha-covered/what-is-boucle-fabric
• https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/boucle-fabric-is-back
• https://blog.treasurie.com/what-is-boucle/
• https://www.sewingchanelstyle.com/boucle-fabrics.html
• https://www.larforma.com/journal/2021/2/14/why-boucl-fabric-is-back-and-everlasting 
• https://thelatch.com.au/boucle-trend/
• https://www.couchdesign.co.uk/what-does-boucle-mean/