Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, June 7, 2010

HIGH POINT — High-end producer MDS Fabrics  is introducing 10 new hand-embroidered fabrics from India at Showtime here this week.The company said the new designs use traditional Indian hand embroidery techniques such as chican, aari and adda.

MDS is one of over 200 fabric and trim exhibitors at the International Textiles Market Assn.'s semiannual trade show, which began Sunday and runs through Wednesday.

Sunil Eamani, owner of MDS Fabrics, sees “a lot of natural fabrics with muted color tones to give that natural look. That's what customers are demanding and what I believe fabric manufacturers like us are reacting to.”

MDS has taken its popular patterns and done them in all natural fibers, Eamani said, eliminating dyes and chemicals and capitalizing on the company's hand-weaving capabilities.

Eamani said he gets good customer feedback from an on-line retail store the company uses as a test site, often talking directly to callers. He said many of these customers are moving away from short-term trendy furniture to longer-lasting purchases of environmental sound products.

“They're looking at this as a long-term sustainable investment rather than changing every few years as they have in the past,” he said. “They're looking for true value for the long term.”

Besides greening its product line, MDS also has begun calling manufacturers and asking them to send back their outmoded fabric samples. “We're investing some time in getting the samples back and repurposing them,” Eamani said.

This Showtime, MDS will offer a number of new silks and wool embroidery on silk that Eamani said he hasn't seen in the North American market.