05 Sep Collect Vintage French Trim with Deborah Main Designs!

Had a wonderful chat today with the owners, Jan & Billy Niels, of Interior Design Gallery. Just love it when you can pop into a showroom and sit down and have spontaneous conversation. So much fun!!  I got to meet their new assistant Karen who wants to learn how to sew zippers.  Zippers are NOT my favorite thing!! But steered her in the direction of another great local business, Stitch Lab…full of wonderful classes.  Stitch Lab is actually where I first learned how to sew!!  And my daughter now takes fashion design classes there too.  Love to talk design, sewing, textiles, trade shows, kids, you name it, with friends!

But onto our subject at hand.  Because I’ve been reading all these blog posts on Paris,  I’ve decided to take a small diversion from all the fun color stories we’ve been sharing on our blog, to share my passion with you for collecting vintage French trim.  Why French trim today? Well, because I love it, I collect it, and I’ve been following some amazing bloggers that blog about everything French  – their trips to Paris, the museums, fine wine, and of course best dining & shopping places! (My favorite is The Weekend In Paris blog!) Reading about Paris brings me back to the very first time I learned about French trim.We promised our daughter that when she graduates from high school we will take her to Paris…..but I want to go NOW!!! I can just imagine me going to the famous Paris market and hand selecting amazing French Passementerie (like I used in the design of this pillow below).

(Note: Passementerie or passementarie is the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery…)

The heart on the above pillow is actually made from three rare corner pieces of vintage silk French Passementerie.  I hand stitched them together to form a heart and then sewed faux pearls onto that.  This is one of my favorite pillow designs!

Did you know that every Deborah Main original pillow comes with a story? 

You may not know this, but Deborah Main Designs first signature collection was our Rococo Ribbon Collection. All our Rococo Ribbon pillows originally came with a rolled up scroll detailing its description. We now hand write the descriptions of every pillow on our tags so the customer learns the story about their pillow and the collection. It’s just one feature that makes our pillows so unique!

And where that all began was discovering vintage French trim in a warehouse owned by a wonderful French antique dealer.  And from there, the rest is history! But full of stories and tales of meeting so many amazing woman who collect vintage and antique textiles and more. What a fascinating educational journey it was for me!

Deborah Main Designs, a design studio that began in 2004, started when I began to make ribbon pillows weaving together new ribbon with beautiful vintage French trim. Once I discovered the irresistible French trim, I would collect a yard or two each visit, because that is all I could afford at the time.  Plus I loved it all….had never really been exposed to it before…didn’t even really know how it was used! (I later learned that it came from old European factories and just wasn’t being made any more, so it was very rare and collectible). But in the beginning I think it helped my designs that I didn’t know much about it, because I just created my own use for it into Rococo Ribbon pillows. (Funny thing, is that the trim was all so gorgeous that in the beginning I used to sometimes put it ALL onto one pillow…I just could NOT edit!!) It was a total love affair!!  So much so, that I probably made over 50 Rococo Ribbon pillows in my first creative burst!

I was obsessed with the colors and textures of this gorgeous vintage French trim ….fascinated with how it all looked interwoven onto a pillow…and where it came from and the stories behind every piece! 

I would take a cork board and create my design over a span of about 2-3 weeks, tweaking here and there, then tack the ribbon and trim down, select a fabulous back to the pillow (that most designers would put on the front of a pillow!) and stitch it up.  I was in heaven and loved every minute of it!! Still do, but we’ve expanded now to 8 different collections, so I don’t always get to spend weeks on end with just one pillow.

But collecting the vintage French trim was my very first love affair with textiles!!

So that’s how you start collecting…by falling in love with something you want more of! Years later, I ended up purchasing the entire collection!  That’s why we have a studio FILLED to the brim with delicious vintage French trim available to make hundreds of pillows. It’s like candy in a candy store…you can never get enough!

So please enjoy these photos of some of our very first designs. We can reproduce many of these in different color ways, simple or more complex designs.  A fond memory in the beginning or my career,  is when an interior designer once said to me, “You know Deborah, you really don’t have to put ALL the French trim onto one pillow!“

THAT was a design eye opener for me, and I’m happy to say that eventually I did learn how to edit. 🙂 Enjoy! XO, PG

The center ribbon running down this pillow above is a charming woven cotton trim available in 4 different color ways.

This Amethyst Novelty Weave pillow above is made with mostly contemporary ribbon, but there is one ribbon in there from the 1930’s. And this is a great example of another hallmark of Deborah Main Designs pillows –  we love to put a fabulous unique, textural fabric on the back of our pillows (see below)!

The back of the pillow above is a fun sheer fabric with chenille swirled around and around.

This final one-of-a-kind Rococo Ribbon pillow is a 16 x 20 with a gorgeous silk tapestry on the back.  It has 7 unique woven French trims & ribbons on it, along with contemporary ribbons.This is when I first started adding the vintage brooches to my designs. (See more on that in a future Deborah Main Designs post about collecting vintage brooches). We love to create pillows like this, and have plenty of vintage French trim in many different color ways.  Need a magical gift for the holidays? Call Deborah Main Designs studio (512.207.0681) and let us create the perfect pillow for you!

Note: All professional photography by, with permission from, Gregg Cestaro.