Read more from NeoCon 2022.
A lot of practical demands come with designing contract textiles, often making beauty the last priority. With In Your Skin, HBF Textiles’ new collection previewed at Neocon, designer Erin Ruby seems to address all practical considerations and still create something quite stunning. Inspired by the individuality of humans and the fleeting nature of life, In Your Skin is warm, tactile, and high performance.
“It’s full of life – imbued with optimism and aspiration, which I think will resonate within a space,” Erin says. The collection earned Neocon Gold for Textiles – Upholstery with six sensorial designs: Laugh Lines, Tattoo Toile, Chubby Baby, Goosebumps, and Stardust, all available now, as well as Matriarch, which will launch this fall.
Each textile is named to reflect an element of its design: Stardust contemplates the infinite cosmos, the scale of life, and the individuality of each human in it with a scattered, randomized pattern. Chubby Baby’s soft, tufted matelassé mimics the pudgy rolls of a baby, and Laugh Lines embraces the little details of our faces and skin with a joyful stripe pattern. Together, they interpret what it means, and feels like, to be comfortable in your own skin.
“In Your Skin truly showcases Erin’s strengths as a creative. She maintains a sophisticated color palette, weaves in meaningful stories to showcase her inspiration, and executes her vision by minding the smallest of details,” says Mary Jo Miller, vice president of design and creative direction at HBF Textiles.
Erin comes from an interior design background, and this is her third collaboration with HBF. She calls Mary Jo her “encyclopedia,” helping her ideas become real by nailing down the best color and fiber combinations to tell the story at hand.
Produced in 55 colorways, each piece also has the durability to hold up in contract and hospitality applications. Each is certified Indoor Advantage Gold (SCS), woven and manufactured in the US with locally sourced wool. Most of the patterns are manufactured using post-consumer and/or recycled materials.
Though each pattern can easily stand on its own, In Your Skin is designed to be layered and coordinated together as well. The differing textures lend themselves to many pairings and applications, making the collection a likely classic for years to come.