Today Geiger introduces the Taconic Collection, featuring five new patterns: Foothills, Graphton, Claremont, Dorset, and Amenia. It’s the first contract textile collection designed by Joseph White for Geiger Textiles.
Joseph White is a weaver—both literally and metaphorically. In White’s day job as Director of Workplace Strategy for Herman Miller, he weaves together Herman Miller’s point of view on work, the process of placemaking, and a rich understanding of human dynamics to help workplaces function better for the people who work there. While White used a more traditional type of weaving, done with yarns on a loom, to build up the five patterns that make up his Taconic Collection, the contract applications of these textiles pull from his background in interior design, specifically his study of the interactions between people and the built environment.
“I seek to create textiles for feeling over fashion, to engage the senses, and shift perception across time and space,” White says. “Interiors are highly unnatural environments. With textiles, you can create some of the natural play of light, pattern, and movement that helps a space engage your brain.”
A self-taught hand weaver, White’s textile designs begin on the loom in his Brooklyn studio, where his interests in traditional quilting patterns, the psychology of color, and other disparate ideas come together to create textiles of unique character.
Named for the northern range of the Appalachian Mountains that divides New York State and New England, the Taconic Collection draws inspiration from White’s childhood ties to Appalachia. Like mountain trails, which seem to come alive in dappled light and shadow the deeper you hike, these textiles reveal a depth of character as you experience them.
In the construction of Amenia and its larger-scale version, Dorset, wool yarns are pressed through a netted nylon and polyester structure, creating a texture that plays in shifting light, revealing subtle flecks of unexpected color. The Foothills pattern is a graphic reference to the foothills of the Taconic range of the Appalachian Mountains. This textural blend of matte wool and lustrous rayon began as a handwoven pattern and is offered in two versions: with or without stripes. Based on a traditional Appalachian quilting pattern known as “Step Around the Mountain,” Graphton is a gridded pattern that highlights the contrasting textures of its content, with the wool more prominent on the surface, and perfectly color-matched to the infill of cotton and nylon. Subtle flecks of unexpected color come out in Claremont, an effect of the three different yarn colors—one base and two contrasting—that make up the pattern.
With their medium-scale patterns, breadth of color, and non-orthogonal geometry, these five seating textiles represent a subtle, yet intentional expansion of the Geiger Textiles portfolio. Ranging from $62 to $94 per yard, the Taconic Collection will be available through Geiger Textiles and Geiger’s contract dealer network beginning June 2019.
About Geiger Textiles
Geiger Textiles impart beauty and sophistication to designs that shape how the individual works. From the utilitarian to the precious, our materials blend quality and refinement, timelessness and value. Comprehensive fabric collections—whether inspired by a palette derived from pigments found in nature or the motifs historically recognized as the essentials of bespoke tailoring—achieve an overall program of abundant choice. Luxurious natural leathers harmoniously complement sustainable, environmentally conscious leather alternatives. Whatever the selection, each offering within Geiger Textiles expresses an adherence to the notion of luxury at every price.