Parlez-vous Passementerie?

On a recent flight to Paris I was seated next to a French businessman. Exchanging greetings we determined my French was better than his English (note: Moi French isn’t that good). He was excited about his first time in NYC and wanted to chat, so before turning to the tv series I had downloaded to my iPhone, we talked about his trip.

Seems he was on a sales call to the D&D Building, which houses many well-known NYC design firms. He is the owner of a family business, but was sure I wouldn’t know the word to describe what they manufacture. I said just say the word: I have a pretty eclectic French vocabulary:

Passementerie

Trims, tassels, fringe, ribbons: all the fancy, decorative details that turn a pillow or curtain into a statement. I’m a tassle freak! Paris bff D buys antique French fabrics and with style and passementerie turns them into pillow works of art…I have a complete collection!

I’ve spent days wandering the streets near the Marché Saint-Pierre in the fabric district of Paris. In New York I head to the garment district, and I always make my 1st stop M&J Trimming. Fringe, tassles, ribbons, sequins, buttons, belts, crystals, lace, and braids; plus all the threads, glues, nails, zippers and supplies you need to create a chef d’oeuvre (masterpiece).

Last week I headed to MJ Trim to find buttons for one of TBG’s suits, and choose some trim for a curtain swag hanging in our dining room. In our last home I’d had silk curtains custom-made for our dining room. In our NYC apartment we have side-by-side living and dining rooms, and 3 large windows overlooking the Manhattan skyline. I wanted to re-use my silk curtains, but only had the 2 pairs. So I called the fabric store, and was able to get the last remnant, just enough to hang a swag over one of the dining room windows. Then for the next 2 1/4 years, I’ve been trying to decide on how to edge the swag. Every time I go to MJ Trim I’m overwhelmed by the thousands of colors and styles and fabric decisions…so I decide: nothing!

Until Friday, it was just dangling loose threads. After I got the fabric up on the rod, I never bothered to take it down to finish the edges neatly. I don’t sew, so this is a big deal for me. Friday evening we were having a cocktail, and some of the guests were repeat visitors, and I was determined that this time, the swag would be finished. So I finally selected a silk fringe in shades of Copenhagen blue, khaki and gold to complement the gold and peach silk curtains. It was a close-out fringe, so I was happy to get the 3 yards I needed.

Once home, I hauled out my handy glue-gun, and hot-glued the fringe to the raw ends in about 15 minutes. Voilà!

Now if someone could just teach me how to artfully drape a swag…

the details:

Moi tip: follow the carpenter’s rule of measure twice, cut once. I thought I had ordered fringe to spare, but as you can see, it was down to the wire: I finished my curtain swag with only 1 1/2″ of fringe to spare!