We caught up with Peter Fasano to discuss the inspiration for his new collection of handmade textiles and his creative process.
How did you start in this line of work?
That was a long time ago. I was a student at Parson’s School of Design and David Ethan—who was one of my instructors—said one day, “Did you ever think about painting fabric for a living?”
Who in the design field do you admire?
Albert Hadley. Above and beyond. I started working with Albert around 1975. He was probably the easiest designer I ever worked with. He had some of the best ideas and he never really worried about the color being so so perfect. He really liked to let certain things just happen. He was so confident about what he did, that he didn’t have to put the perfect round circle in the perfect round whole every time. Albert saw things as a collage as opposed to scientific formula. I didn’t like to do flowers, and Albert said, “I don’t like to sit on flowers!” So we worked well together.
How did you come up with the name for the new Kuba Collection?
Naming things is a challenge and fun at the same time. My wife, my team and I throw a bunch of names out, set a deadline and something floats to the top. A lot of times we turn to the National Geographic Atlas to look for names and places that are somewhat sympathetic in geography to what the collection represents. In this case, we were inspired by Kuba cloth [which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is made from woven palm leaf fibers].
What inspired this new collection?
Initially, it was when someone gave me the Clarence House book and I was looking through what Kazumi Yoshida, who was the design director for Clarence House, did and I just said, “Wow!” It reminded me of stuff I had done a long time ago and I wanted to go back in that direction. In this case, the colors that we chose—when we printed square blocks of test colors on linen—look like vegetable dye in the the way they sink into the fabric. So for the Kuba Collection, the color was inspirational and it really became the tale wagging the dog.
What is your favorite part of the hands-on process of creating handmade textiles?
The hands on part of it, period! It’s so much fun. If somebody comes to us with an idea, we can make it happen. Between our art department, the people who mix the color here and those who shoot the silk screen, I have to rely on no outside sources. We buy fabrics and paints, of course, but we buy letters A-Z then make words from them. It’s really great having the ability to replicate or make a reality anything that involves printed or painted fabrics. And we’re not making a Model T. We make different cars every day and we work quickly! We love deadlines! Deadlines have a way of pulling creativity out of our heads.
Fabrics, from left to right: Nile Stripe in Wengé/Walnut; Tangiers in Palm/River; Supai in Fire/River
Every aspect of production takes place in your environmentally friendly studio. Is this particularly important to you?
Everything that we’ve done from the beginning has relied on water based coloring systems. That’s how it’s always been. And I don’t want the place to stink! We’re in the studio every day working elbow to elbow, and I wouldn’t have anyone put up with something I wouldn’t put up with!
What opportunities and challenges have you come across when creating a custom textile?
It is really exciting for us when somebody comes to us with an idea that allows our thinking to go in a different direction. We have a private client that we’ve been doing a lot of work for recently. She had an idea based loosely on a Monet painting and a botanical print that would incorporate flowers and perennials in her garden. So we went through books with her to match the idea in her brain. The key in cases like this is to get a client to point to a visual realization in some form that will eliminate nine of the 10 possibilities. From there, we go and massage and rework with drawings, photographs and all different forms of media to come up with something.
Do you have a favorite of the prints you’ve created?
Not even a print. It is a very simple stripe.
And how do you know when a simple design like that will work?
We are a little bit different than most companies that buy fabric and put it on the shelf, which means putting money on the shelf. The market serves as a barometer that will tell me if it’s good or not. It takes at least a year—sometimes even two or three—to know if a design is successful. That’s why customer feedback is so important to us.
How do you determine which material to use with a print?
Since we print with pigment, which is not dye, it sits on top of many fabrics. So we have used trial and error and discovered pigments that sit within the fabric. After someone sees a fabric and you make their eyes happy, the next step is to make people happy when they rub the fabric between their thumb and forefinger. That’s critical.
Is there anything you’d like our readers to know about you?
I’m really lucky to be able to make a living doing something that I love to do. I meet the most interesting people and visit the most interesting places. It’s like a great pinball game; I keep bouncing around, landing on different islands, cities, houses and apartments that I’d never see if I didn’t do this for a living.
Peter Fasano, LTD (T), through John Rosselli & Associates, D&D, 212-593-2060.
