You've likely heard the term "painterly" used to describe a fabric pattern, but nowhere is that adjective more apt than on this new line of textiles from Carmel, Indiana–based Lantz Collective for Kravet.
Lantz Collective is comprised of father-daughter duo Barry and Amanda Lantz, who have been working together for five years, after Amanda joined Barry at the firm he'd run for decades (oh, and they have a store, too!). In addition to outfitting interiors, Barry is also a prolific artist, painting abstract canvases in bright, saturated colors. Now, with the help of Amanda, he's translating these artworks into fabric in the aptly-titled Canvas to Cloth collection for Kravet.
Barry's work is inspired by his home state of Indiana, whose natural beauty informs his abstract style. "Some people don't think about landscapes in Indiana, but they're beautiful," he assures. "They're very linear. Growing up in Indiana and living here my whole life, I've appreciated our sunsets and our horizon lines. I tried very hard to illuminate that in my work."
Translating that natural beauty from the artist's canvas to fabric is where Amanda's design eye came to help her father's. "To start, we looked at his paintings and kept thinking of parts and pieces that could easily be pulled out from the canvas, put into a repeat digitally, and printed onto a gorgeous textile," says Amanda.
The effect is an array of patterns that are both graphic and painterly, ranging from woven fabrics with rich color variation in the fibers to motifs inspired by cloudy skies and fields of flowers.
"We loved seeing how gorgeous these paintings can be when applied to upholstery, applied to drapery, and how painterly they come across in a textile," Amanda says. "How water color-like, how fluid they are."
While Barry's paintings are often super saturated, the fabrics are more muted, making them easily adaptable to a variety of interior settings—something the Lantzes are already proving in their own projects. "It's been a wonderful layer to add to our design practice," says Barry.
In another example of the collaborative style of the Lantzes work, each textile is named for an influential woman in Barry's life, with his favorite pattern dubbed Manders for (who else?) his daughter.
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