About Gretchen Bellinger

As Gretchen Bellinger enters her 30th year as a leader in the interior textile industry, she continues to challenge and delight with a fabric collection that, at once, defines the times while embracing a classical sensibility. It's this quality - a masterful duality - that sets Bellinger apart. With the eye of an innovator and the heart of a purist, she has created an entirely new lexis in the world of textile design; straddling a paradox that today has become her signature.

This is no where more evident than with the introduction of her latest fabrics. Combining the state-of-the-art with the "tried-and-true," Bellinger has emboldened her collection with daring new palettes, innovative print and weaving techniques, and an array of natural and synthetic textiles. In doing so, she has made the familiar fresh, and has given even her most visionary designs an appealing warmth and accessibility.

Bellinger was influenced in her early years by her chemical engineer father, who instilled in her not only a keen sense of organization, but a desire to look beyond mere convention; to understand that the way people lived impacted the products they needed or sought. After graduating from Skidmore College and receiving her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bellinger joined Skidmore Owings & Merrill's Chicago office, where she developed many of the aesthetic sensibilities she continues to draw upon today. It was there - working among the likes of Walter Netsch, Bruce Graham and Myron Goldsmith - that Bellinger first perceived a gap in the interior textiles market. By 1975, after working in sales and marketing for Knoll and V'Soske, Bellinger produced her very first collection of thirteen natural-fiber fabrics, including the much-revered Limousine Cloth® broadcloth.

It was that first collection - refined, subtle weaves with a distinctive neutral palette - that caught the eye of the industry and set the tone for Bellinger's fledgling firm. The thirteen were soon followed by a procession of architectural and tailored fabrics,that remain benchmarks in the annals of textile design. Among them, Pullman Cloth® épingle, Pasha® linen velvet, and the now-legendary Isadora® pleated silk.

Realizing her highly personal designs required a radical departure from traditional marketing styles, Bellinger took a hands-on approach, creating an architectural presentation and overseeing an ad campaign that highlighted Bellinger "the personality" alongside Bellinger designs. (Both were "firsts" in the industry, and are today seen as standards in the field of design marketing.)

In the intervening years, Bellinger's intuitive nature and unflagging personal curiosity have continued to replenish her creative wellsprings. Drawing inspiration from period motifs, she has boldly redefined traditional florals (Petal to the Metal™ jacquard), paisley (In A Swirl™ épingle jacquard), and even lace (Win, Lace or Show™ lace). Pairing unconventional materials - such as silk and copper in Cut a Shine™ woven metal mesh, or cotton twine and polyvinyl in the rustic Nothing to Hide™ textured weave - resulted in some of Bellinger's most popular innovations to date. And even the humble vinyl was elevated to new heights with sophisticated matte hues (Next of Skin™ cotton backed vinyl), metallic finishes (Flexible Assets™ metallic vinyl), and even real flowers (Dusted with Flower™ flowers on vinyl).

It's this level of personality - often daring, sometimes whimsical - that best encapsulates the Bellinger style. It questions the way we live, who we are, and what we aspire to be. It's a philosophy that continues to drive Bellinger and her much-lauded firm, keeping her firmly at the cutting-edge after three decades… and many more to come.