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Having just celebrated its 10th birthday, Alpha Workshops teams up with Milli Home to offer a line of "ready-to-wear" home furnishings that celebrate individual craftsmanship, the most luxurious materials and the art of eclectic, ornate design.
The match-up is so well-calibrated it seems as though embroidered in the stars. Alpha, the non-for-profit decorative arts atelier that provides training and jobs for people living with HIV/AIDS and services the interior design industry with custom hand-painted textiles, furniture, accessories, and decorative wall finishes, champions artistic expression and the hand of the artisan. Milli Home's knowledge of and appreciation for textiles is extensive—the attention to detail and the ability to adapt global styles and trends to the home accessories market is their strength.
Both enterprises have dealt in made-to-order products available to the trade. Now, their fortuitous collaboration has resulted in a collection that maintains the high standards of their custom work and brings the same originality of design and peerless quality of materials to the most discriminating of retail shoppers.
New and pre-existing patterns conceived of by Alpha members serve as templates for the collection. The workshop submitted a selection of drawings and documents to Marsha Cutler, Milli's under. She found fresh and beautiful ways in which to incorporate these motifs into a line of pillows that look anything but derivative. An abstract red and gold dinnerware pattern is enlarged and combined
with fuchsia to grace a cushion. In olive and burgundy or aqua marine and beige, the same motif takes on a completely
different attitude. A sketch for wallpaper becomes an exquisite pillow - the pattern, now executed in three-dimensional
beaded form, takes on the appearance of a resplendent mosaic. Gold embossing painted onto fabric for an Alpha project
makes for a rich, sophisticated, shimmering throw pillow. Traditional Indian beadwork takes the metallic lines that
striped lavender wallpaper and turns them into veritable skeins of gold when the pattern reappears in textile format. Each motif upholds the vision of its Alpha artisan and Milli's selection of fabric compliments and maintains that
integrity. Thanks to this partnership, crepe de chine usually reserved for scarves and gown enters the home arena for
the first time; covering accent pieces, the pure Irish linen of men's shirts dresses up sofas, chairs and beds.
Beading is exemplary and generous, embellishing entire surfaces of pillows so that each becomes a work of art.
Palettes range from eye-popping jewel-tones to earthy neutrals. The collection reflects the diversity of Alpha's
designers and of Milli's techniques.
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