It's Almost Showtime Folks

The next Showtime fabric show is Sunday Dec. 7 through Wednesday Dec. 10 in High Point, N.C.
Thousands of fabric buyers - and fabric lovers - come to see the latest in all kinds of fabrics from hundreds of suppliers. It's a trade show, but not as exclusionary as the semiannual international furniture market held in High Point every spring and fall.

Most attendees are merchandisers selecting fabric for upholstered furniture that they will introduce at spring trade shows and which will possibly show up on retail furniture sales floors as early as six months later.

But it's not just upholstery fabric - there are breathtaking faux leathers - and real ones - lace, trims, buttons and bows, and nailheads and faux furs and sheers and embroidered everything. I was born without the creative gene, so I can't do anything practical with fabric except throw it over a chair and look at it, but I love it more than almost anything in the world. I love the mathmatical genius of complex weaves. I love the variations of color informed by different constructions and yarns, which are fascinating all on their own. There are environmentally friendly synthetics that can be constructed and/or finished in ways that would make you swear they're pure cotton, or wool, or silk or linen. And there are performance fabrics that look like all those natural fibers but can be cleaned with detergent and bleach - and they won't shrink or fade or rot or mildew.

The fabric industry in the United States has had a terribly difficult past 10 or 15 years and much of the domestic production is gone for now - moved to the Far East where there are fewer environmental regulations and countless workers who are glad to labor long hours for almost nothing. Those Far Eastern countries, now however, are getting more Western in their practices so workers are asking for more money and less exposure to toxins, and the governments are anxious to at least appear to be regulating pollution. The next chapter may include the return of some more domestic production - and it's good to know that some American companies managed to continue to produce goods here at home despite the cheap foreign competition.

If you use fabric in your business - anything from handbags and hats to yachts and private jets - check out Showtime. The venue is a historic building updated and outfitted by Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. For more information, visit www.itmashowtime.com or call 336-885-6842. The show is produced by an association of exhibitors called International Textile Market Assn.