COVER STORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Becky Miller

I love fabric.

Two of my hobbies (costuming and home decorating) regularly bury me under yards and yards of cloth. Textiles are spilling out of my sewing cabinet and flooding my home.

A vibrant blue Indian sari snakes around a curtain rod hung in the middle of a blank living room wall. A parchment-colored cotton-poly billows in clouds from the bathroom ceiling, transforming the small room into a spa. Tulle defies gravity and hovers over my bed in a canopy.

Beautiful fabrics are filling my closet as well. In the midst of Black Friday holiday shopping, finding the perfect first-leaf-of-spring green jacquard for a Regency-period ball gown made my day. And just last night, I saw a baby-soft synthetic wool that will become a cape…or three. “There may not be any more of this left if I come back later,” I thought, “so I guess I better go ahead and buy the whole bolt!”

You can imagine, then, how pleased I was that my first feature assignment for Futon Life concerned futon covers. Diving into the world of cover manufacturers and hearing their enthusiasm for the art of their craft was a treat. Futon covers are uniquely able to both stay current with trends in the furniture world and break some of its rules. I hope you will enjoy immersing yourself in this paradox as much as I have.

I. TRENDS
"Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess."
-Edna W. Chase

Emerging trends

Three phrases sum up the most-discussed fashions in futon covers today: faux leathers and suedes, washable fabrics and bright colors. The three exist happily in different
circles – patterns on high-performance washables, soft browns and tans in leather looks and brightly colored wovens. Surprisingly enough, however, the top three trends can even go together. For example, SIS makes a faux suede cover that can be thrown in the washer and dryer, and suedes are increasingly showing up in vibrant colors, as opposed to the neutrals more natural for leather and suede.

Fabric

The best-selling futon covers right now are made of microfiber (particularly faux leather and suede), woven (such as jacquard and dobby) and chenille fabrics. "

Faux suede has eaten into a lot of the fabric market," said Shari Hammer at SIS, located near Minneapolis, Minn. "They’re currently our best-selling item. Business is actually down at pattern mills because of the prevalence of these fabrics."

Manufacturers and retailers agree that durability and washability are important factors when a consumer is selecting a cover. Texture is also important. Consumers favor fabrics with a soft hand, such as chenille, suede, velvet and pre-washed fabrics.

The expanding trend toward indoor/outdoor living spaces is influencing fabric choices as well. Shoppers are looking for weatherproof fabrics and are now able to find them in the same styles they buy for inside their homes.

Prints

Printed fabrics make up the majority of futon covers, although the ratio of prints to solids varies between manufacturers. Elite Products of Corona, Calif., stocks 10 prints to every one solid, while CottonBelle of St. Louis, Mo., stocks one print to every two solids. Other manufacturers come in somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum.

The currently favored prints are geometric designs, particularly stripes, circles and retro 60s and 70s styles.

Ethnic prints, such as African and Middle Eastern designs, are steadily growing in popularity as accent fabrics and seem to have replaced animal prints like leopard and zebra. More unusual animal looks, such as faux crocodile and faux rhinoceros, are showing up here and there.

Novelty fabrics have always been popular with futon buyers. "It is just the nature of our product," said Hammer. "Because you can change the cover, the customer is not afraid to be more bold." SIS’s line of novelty themes includes NASCAR, travel, Old World and lodge.

A few specific types of prints are so prevalent that they warrant more detailed examination.

Southwest

Southwest prints have been popular since futon covers came into existence. Mike Chaffa at the retail store Futons, Etc. in Providence says that while Southwest is still around, it has gone from loud to very subtle. He used to sell a lot of Southwest covers even in New England, a market that tends to go for more traditional styles, but Southwest is not as sought-after any more. In many areas, it fits into the novelty cover category.

However, “the Southwest look is still popular in the Northwest and Southwest regions,” said Mike McCarthy at Elite. "It’s very traditional for them. It has historical and
cultural significance."

Asian

Asian is probably the new Southwest. Asian prints have been showing up in futon covers since the beginning, and they continue to sell well in many different fabrics.
"Someone told me a couple of years ago that Asian prints were going out of style, but that just isn’t true," said Yeeling at Ling’s Design Covers in Dallas, Texas. Rather, the style seems to be gaining popularity. This category includes more than just Chinese prints. It also contains Japanese and Indian designs.

Asian prints used to be available mostly in cottons and tapestry fabrics. Now they also come in chenille and other higher-quality fabrics, which Yeeling says has increased her sales of Asian prints.

Tropical

The growth in the indoor/outdoor fabric market has also affected prints. "Tropical has become a category, not just a trend," said Mary Lou Rath at CottonBelle. The company offers a palm tree pattern that has been its number one seller for four years. CottonBelle has never had a cover with that kind of popularity before.

Hammer concurs: "Tropical is still really great–everybody wants to be in some kind
of paradise!"

Color

We do not like green eggs and ham, but we do like green futon covers. All shades of green are fashionable with manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike, and green is set to continue growing. Pink, orange and purple are the other trendiest color statements.

In general, color is brighter and there’s more of it. Yeeling is picking bright colors for her reorderable line. "Retailers can use bright colors for eye-catching window displays," she said. "Consumers who buy these colors can use them for spring and summer then put the covers in kids’ rooms."

"We’re seeing a blast back to the 70s," said Marcia Nachreiner at Omni in Madison, Wis. "The colors are back, only brighter – lime green instead of avocado, bright orange instead of harvest gold."

Neutrals and earth tones also sell well. "Spa colors are in," said Rachel Taylor at Dream On Futon in Bellingham, Wash. "Seafoam, robin's egg blue, light teal, bone–colors that remind us of sun, surf, sand and relaxation, tranquility."

II. INSPIRATION
“‘Where do architects and designers get their ideas?’ The answer, of course, is mainly from other architects and designers, so is it mere casuistry to distinguish between tradition and plagiarism?”
-Stephen Bayley

Traditional upholstery

For the most part, trends in futon covers are similar to trends in upholstery for traditional furniture.

“It is very important that futon covers and upholstered pieces match up,” said Chris Van Genechten at Burlington Futon in Burlington, Vt. “Especially in furniture stores that carry both traditional sofas and futons, it’s nice to have the same fabrics in futons as in couches.”

“You can never go wrong to follow what’s going on with traditional upholstered furniture,” said Yeeling. “Consumers shop in regular furniture stores a lot, so they are familiar with what is available in regular furniture–so when they see the same fabrics in a futon shop, they pick it right away. People like their futons to match their other furniture. Usually the futon is not the main piece, so it needs to match the others.”
The real difference between the traditional upholstery world and the futon cover world is prints. Prints are hardly as common in the rest of the furniture market as they are in futon covers.

“What people are buying is changing,” said Hammer. “The trend in traditional upholstery is solid colors. We offer samples side by side–the print next to the solid–and almost every time the futon customer buys the print. However, we are certainly selling more solids now than in the past.”

“Most futon cover buyers still put a busy pattern with solid pillows,” said Lynn Martin at Cotton Works in Albany, Ga. “I have tried to reverse that trend. You don’t see a lot of busy patterns for traditional sofas.”

Rath has a similar desire for change. “When choosing our covers, I’m trying to introduce new looks, trying to be more like traditional furniture.” She looks for
materials that go against the grain of stereotypical “futon” fabrics: busy patterns and bright colors.

One plausible explanation for the pervasiveness of prints in the futon cover market is the usefulness of a heavily patterned cover for hiding stains and signs of wear. “Because futon buyers use them as couches and as beds, the futon can be in use 24/7,” said David Wiener at Life Style Covers in Queens, N.Y. “Therefore, it’s important for a futon cover to have hiding ability.”

Another interesting idea is the duality of the target futon market. “When customers see, for example, a lot of plaid in the furniture stores, then they see a similar cover in a futon store, it legitimizes the futon product because it looks like what they’ve seen in a traditional store,” said Hammer. “So we do sell what furniture sells, but we also sell what furniture can’t sell–the wild and funky covers. We have both customers.”

Fashion industry

Futons are wearing the same things as their owners: pink, leather, bouclé, retro prints, corduroy.

“Futon covers are a fashion item like clothing because they can be updated more easily than upholstered items,” said Taylor. “Like the fashion industry, futon consumers can be more ‘trendy’ in their pattern choices, using more bold or eclectic patterns and daring colors. Patterns can be hard to live with for long periods of time, so you generally tend to see them more within fashion and futon covers.”

McCarthy said that following clothing trends “is especially important in fabrics chosen for foam furniture and beanbags–the younger people who are buying those items like their furniture to match the clothes they’re wearing.”

A wildly popular fashion item we have yet to see on a futon is shearling. UGG®, the sheepskin boot from Australia, started a frenzy for shearling footwear that has trickled all the way down to Wal-Mart. Throw pillows done in faux shearling have started to crop up, and it can’t be long before this trend appears in upholstery and futon covers as well.

Choosing fabric

Cover manufacturers and retailers stay abreast of the trends by attending the
markets (furniture shows, gift shows, fabric shows); reading shelter magazines, furniture
publications and fashion magazines; listening to color forecasters; hearing from their customers; and drawing on their own innate creativity.

Along with examining publications like “Furniture Style,” “HFN,” “Metropolitan Life” and “Better Homes and Gardens,” Rath also buys decorating books. She feels these more permanent publications help her balance out what is trendy with what is classical and will last.

Lorrie Mello at Providence Futon, a retail store, likes to refer to www.accessorymerchandising.com, which is connected with “Furniture Style” magazine.

Wiener seeks feedback from retailers when choosing which covers to carry. “The retailers reflect what the consumer wants,” he said.

The medium itself–cloth–can be the inspiration for a new form of expression. “Sometimes it‘s a yarn that‘s inspiring,” said Taylor, “like hemp yarns, or chenille yarn that has been washed, a gold thread in the pattern. Other times the construction of the pattern is intriguing. Some examples are pocket weaves that create a ‘puckered’ look, microfibers laminated onto knits to create an animal skin look and velvets that change color with the light. When you look at thousands of fabrics, it's the small differences that add up to make some fabrics more unique than others.”

Other manufacturers trust their instincts. ”When I go to fabric market, I know what I like when I see it,” said SIS’s Hammer. Occasionally she will buy something she doesn’t like yet recognizes will appeal to a lot of people, but most of the time she picks what appeals to her. “To choose a fabric, I have to love it,” she said.

III. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
“Society is founded upon cloth.”
-Thomas Carlyle

Custom vs. factory select

“Do-it-yourself shows have given people confidence,” said Rath. She sees the popularity of shows like “Trading Spaces” and “While You Were Out” as fueling a growth in made-to-order covers as well as increasing CottonBelle’s sales of additional yardage that consumers are buying to sew coordinating pieces themselves. CottonBelle offers a lot of fabric “stories,” groupings that can be mixed and matched. “Coordinates make people feel like they’re decorating a room, not just buying a futon cover they’ll stick in the basement,” said Rath.

Omni gives customers the option of purchasing fabric elsewhere and sending it in to be made into a cover. Nachreiner said that this is a growing part of their business and makes up a quarter of their sales or more. Kind of like the slogan, “Your way, right away, at Burger King now,” Omni makes all of their covers to order except for the 20 percent or so of their business that is factory selects.

Mello at Providence Futon likes what Miwa is doing with coordinates. The manufacturer does Japanese fabrics in covers that are extremely customizable. The consumer picks the center, border and inlay fabrics in complimentary prints and solids, creating a one-of-a-kind, quilt-like cover.

Elite finds that most of their customers buy from their reorderable line, while discount retailers offer more of Elite’s factory selects. Since a key to competing in business is offering what no one else has, Elite sometimes creates exclusive lines. “For our big retailers we offer new fabric ideas that are not currently in our lines, and we make exclusive covers for them,” said McCarthy. “We work with them to determine what will sell in their stores.”

Yeeling does particularly well with factory selects because she carefully tracks what each retail customer is selling and sends them only the types of factory select covers that sell quickly in their stores.

Many consumers are enjoying great design freedom in coordinating futon covers and accessories with the rest of a room. On the other hand, there is still a vast number of consumers who want to walk into a store and walk out with an inexpensive cover moments later. With the variety of programs and lines offered by manufacturers and retailers, both kinds of consumers are able to find what they want to make their futons their own.

Price

On average, the best-selling retail price point for a futon cover falls in the $99-
$119 range.

Some manufacturers, such as CottonBelle, specifically create more expensive covers. The company’s best-selling covers are those that are marked up to $160 at retail. CottonBelle has also seen success with an Asian-inspired cover called “Silk Road” that retails for over $300. “I want other retailers to know that it is possible to sell something that expensive,” said Rath.

In the least expensive price categories, there are a lot of prints. The covers that sell for rock-bottom prices are usually simple, solid-colored cotton covers for about $29.99.

Predictions for the future

Changes to the cover business will blow in from the East. “The single biggest challenge to the cover business is the impact of China, the Middle East and Turkey in terms of what they’ll be producing and what price points will be,” said Rath.

The direction that futon retailing takes will certainly affect covers. “Burlington is working hard on working with furniture stores,” said VanGenechten. “Most of our retailers are still specialty stores, but I see this changing in the future. As futons move more into traditional furniture stores, so will the cover business.”

Rath sees innovation in making futons look more like a “real” sofa than a typical futon with two bolsters and two 20- inch pillows. “Different pillow shapes, fabric-covered buttons and a lot of piping are giving futons a more tailored, ‘real’ furniture look,” she said.

Changes in family life will also affect the business. “Families are doubling up,” said Wiener. “As the cost of living increases, apartments that used to hold two people will now house six. This is increasing the need for multi-use furniture like futons, so business will be increasing.”

As far as the covers themselves, it looks like we’ll be seeing more of what’s popular right now: faux leather and suede, washable fabrics and bright colors.

“You can’t beat a good solid-color leather,” said Mello. She also predicts that texture will continue to be popular.

“Shades of pink will stay,” said Hammer. “Pink and brown and blue and brown
combinations are everywhere, so we will continue to see a lot of those.” She thinks contemporary geometric patterns will stay popular.

VanGenechten forecasts retro prints in all fabrics and in colors like lime green, turquoise and lilac.

Martin thinks that colors will be toning down a little–not becoming muted, but
toned down.

All different types of fabric will be available, particularly high performance fabrics. “Suppliers are offering better quality fabric at lower prices,” said Chaffa.

“You can’t go wrong with microfiber,” said Rath. “I would like to see more patterns
in microfiber.”

“We are starting to see more microfibers with embossed patterns or heat-transferred designs,” said Taylor. “Paisley is coming back around too. There's truth in the cycle of the fashion circle!”

Conclusion

As long as individuals have individual tastes, fashions will vary widely. Carrying a broad range of styles is particularly important in the futon world because the covers are so easily changeable.

Fashionistas may claim varyingly that “brown is the new black,” “red is the new black,” ad nauseum, but black will always be the real black and will always be in style. Neutrals will always go with everything. Quality will always be in style for discerning consumers.

Enjoy the trends and celebrate the latest fun fashions while remembering to offer classic styles as well. “Carry covers that are attractive to mainstream as well as trendy consumers,” McCarthy suggests.

Mike Chaffa of Futons, Etc. sums it up: “The basics always sell.” FL

Comments? Questions? Please email me with any feedback.