Brunschwig & Fils®, Inc. was established by Achille Brunschwig in 1900 as a tapestry-weaving mill in Aubusson and Bohain, in France. Early in the twentieth century, the firm expanded its collection to include printed and woven silks and cottons from the finest European mills. Brunschwig soon enjoyed an international reputation for quality. By 1925, under the direction of Captain Roger E. Brunschwig, the founder's son, the company had opened showrooms in New York and other American cities.
In 1941, Captain Brunschwig joined General de Gaulle's Free French Forces in London, leaving Zelina, his American wife, to direct the business. Mrs. Brunschwig, a successful interior designer who had joined the firm as a stylist, found herself without French imports and being forced to be innovative, she substituted parachute cloth for silk, unbleached muslin for linen and found American mills to weave and print her designs, all to great acclaim.
Following the war, Roger Brunschwig, now a Colonel, returned to head the firm, which was again able to import fabrics from France and England to augment its American collection. Under Mrs. Brunschwig's leadership as design director, the company broadened its product base to include wallpapers and trimmings, many of which coordinated with existing fabric designs. Mrs. Brunschwig also continued to enrich the company's archives of antique textiles, wallpapers and trims--originally established by Achille Brunschwig--as well as collaborating with museums and restorations to create further documentary fabrics.
Today
Brunschwig & Fils continues as a family-owned company, under the direction of Thomas P. Peardon, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Murray Bartlett Douglas, Vice-Chairman and Thomas Peardon's son Olivier Peardon, President & Chief Executive Officer. Thomas Peardon and Murray Douglas, the nephew and niece of the late Zelina Brunschwig, worked closely with the Colonel and “Mrs. B" at company headquarters which were until 1984 in New York City . They are now situated in North White Plains in Westchester County , New York .
The firm now offers more than 20,000 fabrics and 1,200 wallcoverings, ranging from fine documentary reproductions to striking contemporary designs. Resources include relationships with more than 200 mills, most of them in Europe, as well as Brunschwig & Fils' "secret weapon"--the wealth of design history in the firm's extensive archives.
Believing that good design is forever, Brunschwig & Fils does not retire its designs quickly. Many of the designs in today's collections date from the early 1940s, while still others are more than 200 years old. A hand-woven, brocaded ecru silk in a Louis XV design is made in one of the Lyon ateliers that rewove fabrics for the restoration of Versailles. Brocades, lampas and velvets created for Louis XIV are produced today on the same looms as the originals.
Each year the design studio creates two new fabric collections consisting of as many as forty designs, each available in a variety of colorways. One of the two collections is usually inspired by a museum or historic place. Previous collections have originated from such diverse sources as the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and The Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware.
The studio also annually introduces a new wallpaper book and adds to its extensive collection of passementerie--tassels, braids, fringes, ropes and cords.
In 1986, the company launched its first collection of upholstered furniture. Now, numbering nearly 100 styles, many of the pieces are available in custom as well as conventional sizes. As it has with other products, Brunschwig & Fils has produced timeless designs of exceptional quality that are suited to both residential and contract use.
Included in the collection are sofas and récamiers; armchairs; slipper, dining and occasional chairs; bar stools and banquettes; ottomans, benches and footstools. All of the designs can be customized in endless variations for diverse traditional and contemporary settings.
The exceptional custom quality of this collection is demonstrated by hand-assembled, kiln-dried hardwood frames and individually placed and hand-tied coil springs. Numerous custom options include tufting, buttoning, pleating and shirring. Choice of custom trim and nailhead application provide the final touch to these distinctively styled pieces.
In the most significant expansion since its introduction of upholstered furniture in 1986, Brunschwig & Fils launched lighting and table collections in the spring of 1992. The collections, in part, were inspired by the need to accessorize Brunschwig & Fils showrooms, where lamps and tables of consistent quality and design suitable to a wide range of fabric and furniture were not always available. Those collections have been significantly expanded annually since their introductions.
Services
A wholesale house, selling to contract and residential interior designers, architects and interior design departments of fine retail and furniture stores, Brunschwig & Fils provides its customers with extraordinary personalized attention and a myriad of custom services.
The first company ever to offer "scheming," Brunschwig & Fils' design experts will bring together all elements of a room to illustrate for the customer how an assortment of fabrics can be coordinated. The firms 26 showrooms in the United States, Canada, France, England and Australia have natural light with comfortable furniture, so that the designer can sit back, away from the racks, and look at fabrics, trimmings and wallcoverings as they might be used in a setting.
Brunschwig & Fils' custom capabilities are truly infinite:
As few as 50 yards of fabric can be custom-colored and enlarged or reduced in scale. Quilting, trapunto, appliqués and other special effects are also available.
