Linda Pride had been searching for many months for just the right fabric for curtains for the master bedroom of her Arlington home when she stopped by the Curtain Exchange in Fairfax. The walls of the shop looked as if they were covered in ballgowns, but in reality, they were sumptuous, mostly silk, floor-to-ceiling curtains. There were 60 choices of fabrics, including linens and toiles, available right off-the-rack priced at $579 to $1,800 a pair.
Pride couldn't resist taking home several panels on approval. She choose a wide-striped robin's egg blue and gold 120-inch silk style that was lined, and then interlined English-style with flannel fabric and fitted with hooks.
One of seven Silk Trading Company stores, this one in Costa Mesa, Calif.
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About a week later the curtains were hanging in the bedroom of her Federal-style townhouse, the kind of high-fashion look that might be expected to cost up to 30 to 50 percent more and take weeks to have custom-made.
"The whole thing was so much fun and you wouldn't believe these curtains were off the rack," says Pride. "They look so tailored and have a beautiful sheen. It was so great to finally get something accomplished." She is thinking about going back for gold silk curtains for the family room.
Window shopping was never like this.
Taking a cue from our society's one-hour-photo and next-day-eye glasses expectations, home furnishing manufacturers and retailers have been cutting the time it takes to get custom-order couches and made-to-measure rugs.
Now, add high-end curtains to this list, available from large chains, small shops and online, to order on sight and have framing your windows in days or even hours. Prices range from $400 to $2,000 a pair, depending on whether they are silk, linen or cotton toile, on detailing and on workmanship. At the higher end, the ready-made curtains are constructed much like their custom-order cousins, with a flannel second lining that protects against fading, makes the curtains hang smoothly and insulates in winter. Weights sewn into the hem also enhance the flow of the material. Fabrics echo today's home fashion trends, from sorbet colors to bold stripes to buffalo checks.
Of all decorating projects, selecting curtains can be among the most intimidating, time-consuming and expensive -- a task many homeowners often put off. Until recently, there were two general ways to do it: buy mass-produced styles sized for standard windows and designed to be accommodatingly neutral -- like a pair of off-white $90 tab-top curtains; or hire a decorator to sort through endless fabric swatches and find a workroom to sew them, a pricey process that can take many weeks.
The new, off-the-rack marketing approach comes just as the style pendulum for window treatments is in midswing. In the 1980s, billowing fabrics dripping with bullion fringes and dressmaker details were the look of the moment. By the '90s interiors tastes began dressing down, and sleek mini-blinds or crisp plantation shutters dominated the scene. These days, glossy shelter magazines and designer show houses are showing both modern and traditional rooms dressed in long swoops of luxurious fabrics. Even some brides are registering for luxury curtains as possible wedding gifts.
"People who have a lot of windows thought that if they needed a quick fix, blinds were their only solution. But now, we are offering something really glamorous very quickly," says Andrea Kay, co-owner of the Silk Trading Co., a Los Angeles-based purveyor of haute ready-made curtains.
Even some decorators are bypassing custom orders for high-end ready-mades for some clients. Kelly Stieff, an interior designer at KMI Design Associates in Leesburg who has clients with lots of big windows to dress, often recommends draperies from a Charlotte-based company called Casa Fiora. "Their look is clean and elegant. It's not all the fussy old swags and jabots we did years ago," says Stieff. "Their look is perfect for a lot of the people I decorate for, especially the high-tech, younger group."
The Curtain Exchange, which opened last fall in Fairfax and Richmond, is a New Orleans-based drapery boutique, the brainchild of British-born interior designer Georgina Callan. In 1996, she and a partner began selling ready-made as well as high-end consignment curtains. Two years later, the company opened their first franchise store; by September there will be 21 shops across the country (www.thecurtainexchange.com). The stores still sell on consignment -- a recent visit to Fairfax turned up a pair of "previously hung" vibrant chintz panels 100 inches long at $1,275 -- but that is now a small fraction of the business.
Part of the store's success is that the choices have been deliberately limited.
"The moment you say to someone, 'You can have any one of these 4,000 paint choices,' you've lost them," says Callan. "Customers come to you for curtains because they think you've sorted this issue on a seasonal basis, so new designs are always coming into stock."
