MALABAR
Malabar was founded in the U.K by Peter Sterck in 1986. While running his successful furniture stores throughout London with his brother John, he came to find a passion for the textiles they were selling. In that time he struck up a friendship with an older fabric merchant who sold them a selection of 12 richly coloured handloomed cottons, which Peter took a liking to. As the man was retiring and with no family interested to take on his small fabric business, he offered it to Peter.
Peter took the journey to a remote village in the south west of India to meet the weavers; back then a small family run business. He became enamoured at the slowness of life, the poetry of hand weaving and the depth of colour that surrounded him. He quickly expanded those 12 colours into 99 rich and varied hues right at the time when England was awash in muted greys and flat chintz in dusty colours and the designers went mad for it! And thus and a company, and a reputation for colour, quality and charm was born.
Today Malabar has a world-wide reputation for its beautiful collections of unique furnishing fabrics – handloom fabrics in vibrant colours and textures, embroideries, appliqués, sheers, silks, chenilles and velvets. The scope of the fabric collections ranges from decorating basics – plain cottons in an extensive range of colours, stripes and check – to chenilles designed for robust contract use and complicated silk jacquards with large repeats, ideal for big design statements.