designer's notebook - from founder Anki Spets

In this post, I share my process for designing a new product. For the current fall/winter season, I knew I wanted to create a new cotton jacquard pattern. I began my design process by establishing a few basic parameters. I wanted to: Riff on Art Deco or Wiener Werkstätte motifs (Maybe) name the pattern FRANK, if I could invent a...

Summer is nearly here and that means warm weather. Our collection of linen bedding and clothing will keep you cool.  1. BREATHABLE The weave in linen allows more airflow and won't cling to your skin. Louie linen bedding 2. LIGHTWEIGHT AND ABSORBENT Moisture is absorbed and evaporates quickly. Linen can absorb 20% of its dry weight before giving a feeling of being...

Introduced in 1995, our Speed Rail bed was made of aluminum scaffolding pipes and fittings from the local hardware store, Metropolitan Lumber in Manhattan's Soho. Pictured here is the Speed Rail bed in our Varick Street showroom (left) and featured in a home from Architectural Digest magazine in 2002 (right). In the early days of AREA, we had no bed...

Printed fabrics were the very beginning of AREA. They have changed over time but the techniques and how Anki designs them are still the same. Here you can see the steps in design - in this case, linen/cotton blend table top items from 1998-99. Anki made the original print for the circles pattern below by hand printing on a small...

Here's a little history about the bedding DIA grey.We loved this diamond patterned collection when it was first introduced in 1994. The fabric was a cotton/linen blend that had the best qualities of both materials - sturdy sheen of linen with the softness of cotton.We reincarnated the RIGA pattern with our cotton sateen DIA duvets, launched in 2014.