So people will ask me..”What do you do for a living?” and I always respond with “I manufacture custom drapes”. Almost always the response is “Well you don’t actually make them here in America do you?”.

It really is incredible how American Manufacturing is almost all but extinct. People who actually make things here built the foundation for America. They powered us through World War Two and created generations of skilled artisans.

The industrial revolution propelled the United States to it’s prominence in the World as a true “Super Power”. It brought us wealth and security. It provided our Workers with an “Honest Days Pay for an Honest Days Work”. It help build our value system.

Today we living in the “Electronic Revolution” where nearly everything we do is on some type of “electronic platform”. We are captivated with instant messaging and immediate availability of nearly everything we desire.

Circa 1940 Singer Drapery Tacker

At DrapeStyle we are embracing both the old an the new. We still manufacture our drapery on machines that are older than any Employee we have, and probably older than the combined ages of our Web Developers. I actually love our machines. I don’t spend nearly as much time with them as I do my shiny new iMac or my iPad but I will often walk our onto our production floor and look at some of our old Singers and think that they were the most state of the art equipment of their era. And the reality of it is, they will still be state of the art when my iPad is long obsolete.

Our Design Team couldn’t be happier about the new Schumacher Fabrics we have just introduced at DrapeStyle. Schumacher has long been known for their luxurious fabrics and now we can create your most inspired Schumacher Custom Drapes or Roman Shades from them in as little as 3-4 weeks!

Please keep an eye out for new additions and remember, we make all of our custom drapery right here in our California Studio in any size you can imagine!

Sorry – Been a long break in Blog Updates and this one will not be very long. I wanted to just let everyone know that silk prices continue to climb.

The price that we pay for silk fabrics are directly related to the price of raw silk that is sourced primarily in China. I don’t want to bore you with the entire “silk fabric story” but I’ll give you a little background.

Like many larger drapery manufacturers, DrapeStyle imports the majority of our silk fabrics directly from mills in India. Most of the fabric mills in the US that were producing silks have all but vanished.

The silks that we purchase are woven or “spun” from raw silk that is produced by silk worms in China. You may remember studying the “Silk Road” in high school. The raw silk is shipped to India where it is spun into silk fabrics. From there the fabric is shipped all over the world. This is pretty much the fabric industry in a nutshell.

So here is where we run into some problems. Like any commodity such as corn, wheat or pork for that matter, raw silk is a natural product that is actually produced from silk worms. When the “crop” is good, pricing is low. Unfortunately for all of us who rely on Silk Fabrics the “crop” has been very bad for the last couple of years. The worms aren’t producing and, as a result, our silk pricing has more than doubled in the last 12-14 months.

We certainly hope that the pricing won’t stay this high for long. In the interim we will be bringing in some great new designs in Polyester (not your grandma’s polyester) and Linen.

Thanks for checking in with DrapeStyle!

When you are at work, you want to create a comfortable environment while you and your employees are clocking in 40 hours (or more) weekly. Create a home away from home as you whistle while you work with the right window treatments.

Make your employees and clients or customers feel as if they are in the best business by glamming up your decor with shades. Window treatments are great for lawyer’s offices, doctor’s offices and more to create a comfy environment. Whether you select impressive roman-style shades or even woven wood shades, you will make people who enter your office feel more comfortable and they’ll even view your business as more professional. Remember, first impressions are everything from the way you present yourself and the surroundings around you.

You can also add an extra designer touch to shades by adding drapes. From linen drapes in solids and patterns to the classic look of velvet drapes, you add an amazing professional look to the interior of your office. Even better, you can install drapes that match your company’s colors.

An added bonus of installing window treatments is that they can even help you save on business overhead by reducing the amount of energy you need to keep the office warmer or cooler. With energy costs rising, save money for other aspects of your business! Remember that during the summer, you will need to draw together the treatments that receive the most light from the sun. In the winter you will need to close the treatments at night to retain heat in your business; during the day you will want to keep the treatments closed on windows that do not receive direct sunlight.

By purchasing window treatments with insulation, you can save 33 percent on your energy bill. Best of all, doing so is good for the environment by reducing the need for energy and its production byproducts. Also, the window treatments can block harmful UV rays.