OUR ARCHIVES DEPARTEMENT
Textiles bear witness to the civilisation that originated them, acting as a vehicle for a wealth of social, aesthetic and technical information. This relatively recent realisation has given rise to numerous exhibitions and auctions.
It would seem only natural that Patrick Frey, passionate about history and art, be part of this trend. In 2003, he created an archives
department, the purpose of which was to preserve and exhibit the textile resources the firm had accumulated.
The archives department, established near the firm’s head office, was first created for the Pierre Frey collection: 70 years of textile
design plus all the resources used in the creation process.
But the collection is not exclusively composed of Pierre Frey fabrics.Over the last few years, the firm has bought out a number of renowned companies and their respective textile archives:
Braquenié in 1991, Lauer in 1995, Boussac and Fadini-Borghi in 2004. Each firm has a whole world associated with it: in the case of Braquenié it is 18th and 19th-century French cotton and silk fabrics, for Pierre Frey 20th-century fabrics combining tradition and
modernity,for Fadini-Borghi Italian silks from the Renaissance to the present day. As a result, we are now in possession of a very fine
collection of European furnishing fabrics covering a period from the 16th century to the present day.These little-known fabrics bear
witness to changing tastes in interior design.Our oldest resource,an Italian façonné velvet, dates back to the 16th century. Carpets are
also highlighted thanks to the Braquenié collection which includes some 900 gouache drawings from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Our collection includes some 20,000 items,essentially composed of designs, impressions, sample collections, and woven (damask,
lampas, brocatelle and velvet), printed and embroidered fabrics. Although a sizeable collection already, it is constantly being added
to, enhanced by the discoveries of Patrick Frey, whose curiosity never wanes. Sophie Rouart who previously worked for French
museums manages the department.
Each item in the collection, from the smallest sample to the largest pieces such as the Indian palempores, is handled with the utmost care to avoid any deterioration.After micro-vacuuming,the items are
put away in plan chests, separated by sheets of conservation paper or rolled up depending on their size.
The Archives department has a three-fold purpose, namely to preserve this unique heritage, offer fresh sources of inspiration for the company’s designers and finally to provide our customers with a place to research a unique project.In our database containing over
7,000 records each with a photograph, we can search by subject, pattern, colour, etc., in response to a huge variety of requests.