Contract - December 2012 - (Page 44)

Far Fewer Mills Impact Textile Design and Production The supply chain in the American textile industry severely contracts as demand for product grows By Murrye Bernard When specifying a fabric, or a fabric-covered product, do you know where the textile was produced? What is the supply chain for that fabric, and how has it changed in recent years? Despite growing demand for fabric, the number of mills that produce textiles in the United States is far fewer now than at the start of this century. And that has an impact on the product you specify as a designer. The textile industry in the U.S. was hit hard by the recent recession like many other industries, but the closing of mills and loss of jobs began years before and a domino-like collapse has trickled down the textile supply chain. The chain begins with yarn suppliers and dye houses, and when they close shop, the mills that weave and finish textiles are crippled and often succumb to the same fate as their suppliers. Since 1997, 662 textile mills have closed in the United States, and 232 of the closures were in North Carolina alone. Contract textiles are a smaller niche within the larger textile industry, which encompasses apparel and products for the military and the automotive and medical fields. While the apparel industry in the U.S. has particularly suffered since the 1990s—when trade agreements relaxed import limits, allowing more production overseas—a significant amount of contract textile manufacturing still occurs stateside. Most contract textile companies prefer to work with U.S. mills, many of which are family-owned businesses concentrated in the rural Southeast. When a mill closes, and mill workers lose their livelihoods, the impact is devastating to a community. A look at the numbers Since 1997, 662 textile mills have closed in the U.S., according to the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO). And while closings occurred during the recession and continued through this year, the majority of closings were years earlier when 124 mills closed in 2001 and 82 shuttered in 2003. North Carolina alone was home to 232 of the 662 mills that have closed since 1997. Employment numbers in mills also dropped precipitously. According to NCTO, the average annual employment in textile mills dropped from 379,000 in 2000 to 120,000 earlier this year, and the average annual employment in textile product mills fell from 230,000 in 2000 to 117,000 in 2012. Those numbers do not include apparel mills, by the way, which also saw a similar decline in employment from 484,000 in 2000 to 150,000 in 2012. American textile designers and furniture manufacturers make it a priority to work with U.S.-based mills, but with so many mills shutting down, designers are competing with one another to secure relationships with those that remain. Textile designers and contract jobbers—companies who order large runs of textiles—view their relationships with mills as long-term collaborations. Unlike their counterparts in the fashion industry, who release new collections each season, textile designers hope to have their collections available on the market for decades. Given the upfront investment—typically a yearlong process from design to development, testing, and production—it can take years to reap rewards. When a mill shuts down, designers are often forced to discontinue products and face a loss in profit. For example, KnollTextiles recently received a call from a mill that it had been working with announcing that the mill was closing in only three days. KnollTextiles Creative Director Dorothy Cosonas had to then scramble to bring that product to market as planned. “We 44 contractdesign.com december 2012 photography: courtesy sunbury textile Mills feature http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - December 2012

Contract - December 2012
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Product Focus: Rex-Ray Analysis
Designers Select: Office
Designers Select: Healthcare
Designers Select: Hospitality
Designers Select: Education
Highlights of the Year’s Great Products
Far Fewer Mills Impact Textile Design and Production
IIDA Best Interiors of Latin America
Showroom: Swarovski Lighting Showroom
Showroom: Milliken Studio New York
2012 Contract Brand Awareness Survey
Sources
Ad Index
Installation: Petra Blaisse and Desso Woven into the Fabric of Stedelijk Museum

Contract - December 2012