PROPOSTE 2010 – Preciousness against the crisis

Source: Stela Popescu

The Proposte, from May 5th–7th in Cernobbio, right at the Como Lake, has succeeded to prop textile preciousness against the crisis. 103 exhibitors offered an exquisite selection of high-end fabrics, mainly for upholstery, curtains and – following the new trend – for the outdoor sector. Having previously scaled down their general expectations due to the general economic situation, they seemed to be reassured by the propitiatory outcome. Quite thankful they were, too, towards the heavy rain that motivated the professional visitors to stay indoors! Therefore, the frequency at the second day was lower, but in the whole satisfactory.

2010 Proposte – Villa Erba Foto Expoport 

See figures and  compare different years at our Proposte trade-show profile!

Elegance of Design and Technical Refinement
As usual, the Proposte presented itself glamorously: a generous event in a sophisticated surrounding; and the organisers were happy to say that all the surfaces had been given. The finest and most luxurious materials of highest technical standards were here to be ordered. An immense variety in design was presented and special emphasis was regarded to natural fibres. A lot of attention was drawn to textiles with Oekotex Standard 100 to avoid health damaging side effects by use or after disposal. Outdoor textiles, too, found a broad public: having the looks of interior decoration upholstery fabrics, they could hardly be identified as such! In 100% Dralon or Acrylic, they make part, today, of a standard decoration scheme.

The exhibited upholstery fabrics and curtains for the contract market displayed a message: good-bye dull interiors! The practicability was displayed of an aesthetic wish for ‘individual’ solutions. The profiles showed no compromise, but a personalized, lively, decidedly classic, romantic or ‘cool’ interior decoration style. You could still find the trendy sixties’ and seventies’ patterns in browns, ochres, greys and beiges, but there was another tendency, yet, towards tender and light designs in clear spring colours offering more the Biedermeier look than the country house fashion. Wasn’t the Biedermeier a period of taking refuge indoors and home considered a safe haven against an unedifying present?!

The Italian brought light yarns in warm and colourful hues. At Moltenis‘, there were the very fashionable relief structures or suspended warps designs in greys, blacks and whites. Ta-Bru centred on relief structures, too, at high-end level. Canepa Divisione Arredamento promoted the digital printing, showing basketry patterns in diverse shapes, playing with merely visual textures. The Italian were well visited the second day, as well. 

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 2010 Proposte Villa Erba – Presse Conference with Karim Rashid
Foto Expoport

EUROPE AT THE PROPOSTE
As in former years, the Italian had occupied well half of the stands – the other half was used by West European exhibitors. 7 companies from France welcomed the visitors in the round central pavillion, starting point to the other wings, out of a total of 15 booths in this area with only two Italian stands. With 11 exhibitors at the Proposte, France displayed the third strongest presence, following the 16 Belgians, which are always in front at the textile sector.

The French are Positioning: Sophistication in Technical Equipment and Design
Jean-Luc Barbier speaking for Textiles de France from Halluin near the Belgian border said to be very satisfied with the outcomes at the second day of the trade-show. Exactly half of his displayed textiles at Proposte were for outdoor purposes: upholstery, 100%Dralon, in fashionable indoor style! Colours were sober and bright in creams, beiges, greys, light browns and nature. The company is specialized in high technical standard jacquard ready for special requirements.

David Deregnaucourt from Tissages de Gravigny, an important company near Paris, had also many outdoor textile samples on display. The company produces interior decoration textiles as well as heavy duty industry textiles, for instance: space travel purposes. Their interior decoration textiles were as lively as can be: ludic elegance with a touch of courtly and bucolic influence in light and cheerful springtime colours.

Tissages d’Ameublement from Lyon, instead, preferred a heavy sophisticated brocade style and in their modern section jacquards in style of the seventies’, in dark beiges and browns and ochres.

Interesting, that presentations at the French booths did not really emphasize their of course high technical standards, and that the interior decoration factor seemed to be more potential.

2010 Proposte – Foto Expoport  

Sophisticated Scottish – English Understatement
Three of five exhibitors from the Island were from Scotland.
The Isle Mill Macnaughton Holdings, a most traditional more than 200 years old company from Perth, manufacturing high-end textiles in wool and silk.
The Thistle Mills southeast of Edinburgh offer bespoke jacquards, too, made of precious natural fibres as for example  wool, silk, linen, mohair and camel hair. Thistle Mills will be this year at the September edition of MoOD in Brussels, too!
Morton Young & Borland - south of Glasgow - came with a completely new product to Proposte: genuine individually dyed lace and metal yarns on individually dyed groundings. They say to be worldwide the only weavers of cotton lace and madras and have developed, too, for the home and contract market, a wall covering with lace characters on the basis or genuine lace. Further new collections will be presented in September at the Decorex in London.

From England came the David Walters Fabrics Ltd. situated northeast from London in Suffolk, a traditional manufacturing company that has woven many wedding dresses for the Royal familiy, for instance. Richard Norris, the design manager – and I must say, it makes a crucial difference if you have your design manager doing your stand design! – said it was the second presence of the David Walters’ at Proposte and that they were extremely satisfied with the results. The daylight atmosphere of the northern windows had its point to show a wonderful variety of spring coloured silks, fresh and unintrusive, young and cheerful without getting tiresome, timeless but not boring at all. There weren’t many heavy upholstery fabrics, instead, lots of silks and cashmeres on display. On demand, there is fire resistant Trevira CS available. Facing the young and enthusiastic presence of the company at the Proposte, it seems unbelievable that it exists since 1720. It is highly specialized in bespoke manufacturing of design, material and dyeing.

From Bradford, Yorkshire, im northern England, came the Hield Brothers, a traditional manufacturing company since 1922, doing not only bespoke and ready to wear garment textiles, but selling the productions in their own shops all over the world, as well as distributing to retailers. To the Proposte, they arrived with upholstery textiles.

2010 Proposte - Foto Expoport

The Germans, Technically Consistent and Up to Date
The four Germans at the Proposte – the main traditional German manufacturing companies – are habitués at the Proposte, coming for many years and leaving mostly very satisfied. A lot of research combined with a becoming design and organizational skills have gathered the worldwide customers coming around every year. In the first range, there are the contractors coming for object fabrics, upholstery and curtains.

Delius from Bielefeld in northern Germany, founded 1722, is coming for 14 years to the Proposte: one of the big manufacturers of low inflamable object and parasol fabrics. On the present edition, they too, followed the trend towards natural fibres and gathered around the traditional Dralon, for instance, a new collection with 100% wool, class 2 (inflamable degree). The representative Mrs. Franka Kastrup explained, they were not as satisfied as other years, because the main idea launched in February by Proposte, to get architects to the trade-show, had not been achieved in a satisfactory way. In her opinion, there should have taken place an event as a conference or a congress to attract the target group. Delius exhibits also regularly at the Intirio Gent, the Heimtextil Frankfurt, the Sleep London, the Equipe Hotel in Paris, the Stockholm Furniture Fair and the Altenpflege Hannover, the leading exhibiton fotr the care sector. They will not be, though, in September at the MoOD in Brussels.


© 2010 Proposte

The Gebrüder Munzert GmbH from northern Bavaria – founded 1925 – had no problems with the architects; they were quite satisfied, but Mrs. Kerstin Baron-Breuning, the export sales manager, missed clients from the USA and Asia, who had canceled their flights due to the volcano ashes over Europe. Half of the technically highly developed jacquard fabrics made in their home factory go for Export (see Proposte export market index below).
Munzert also exhibits regularly at the Heimtextil Frankfurt and MoOD in Brussels. Though Mrs. Baron-Breuning considers, that the MoOD scheduling is both: too early and too late to launch new collections and that they would launch separately, later on. Since 1996, they are regulars at the Proposte.

The traditional Müller Zell GmbH near the city of Hof in eastern Bavaria is specialized in high-end jacquards produced at home for the contract market. When founded – in 1905 – they became quickly famous doing gold brocades. At the Proposte, they show a repertoire from classic to extravagant, based on the successful Trevira CS: “die hard” heavy duty, low-maintenance, fadeless and of low flammability. The company also produces vehicle fabrics. Customers are from Europe, Asia, Australia and USA.

Founded 1974, the Pongs Velours company not far from Cologne is the youngest amongst the German exhibitors, specialized in luxurury class velours produced at home, f. ex., in mohair, wool, merino, cashmere, silk, linen, cotton, bamboo fibres, polyester, trevira CS, polyamide, dralon / polyacrylics in almost any shape. Unfortunately and difficult to understand, velours has its problems on the market today and at Proposte on the second day, there there was not as much public as wished. It is a pity, considering the elegant and charming material with its versatility and design potential!


2010 Proposte - Foto Expoport

Spain, Conservative in Design
The traditional textile production country Spain was present at the Proposte with 9 companies. 
Mrs. Pampa Ballester, export sales manager of the Rafael Catalá from Valencia was more or less comfortable with the results of the trade-show. They had brought cotton-viscose compositions in calm and natural design and colours, with some ethno-reminiscence now and then. To make a difference, there were also strongly coloured and patterned fabrics in style of the seventies‘.

Gassa, near Barcelona, showed delicate gauze in bright natural colours and a casual leasure look.


Proposte – Villa Erba – Foto Expoport

The Proposte in Figures
• In 2010, there were 103 exhibitors, four Italian less than in the year before – the forgein exhibitor number remained constant with fifty booths. The companies are mostly medium sized with an average of 83 employees
• Among the 6,553 professional visitors, the international ones didn’t show up at the same strength. More than 150 potential foreign customers stayed away in 2010: had there been largely over 4,000 in 2009, the actual figures were 3.855. The Italian showed up in 2010 with nearly 2,700 home visitors – almost the same as the year before.
• The Belgian showed up with 16 exhibitors, they held the strongest foreign presence, followed by the French with 11 and the Spaniards with 9.
• The exhibited product quality shows as follows: 18% for the extra-luxury category, 22% for the luxury category, 38% for the high-end category, 16% for the standard category and 6% for plain fabrics always on demand on the market.
(Source: Proposte Press Office, May 2010)

Distribution Channels
The Proposte management considers that 82% of the exhibited collections at their trade-show go to domestic use. Nevertheless, they deem the contract market as a continuously growing sector.

                                                     Distribution Channels 


Export Markets
The most important markets for Proposte are the USA, followed by the UK, Germany and France. 



(Data: Press office Proposte)

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