F. Schumacher & Co.
# F. Schumacher & Co.

F. Schumacher & Co. is a privately held company based in New York City and Fort Mill, South Carolina, that designs products for the interior design industry in the United States. Established in 1889 by Frederic Schumacher, F. Schumacher & Co. is a fifth generation business and the only supplier of decorative textiles from the 19th century still privately owned and managed by direct descendants of its founder. The company sells fabric, wall covering, trimming, floorcovering, finished goods, paint, as well as print media, social and digital platforms under five brands, Schumacher, Patterson Flynn Martin, Backdrop, Freddie and Frederic. F. Schumacher & Co. currently maintains 18 showrooms in several countries and sells to the interior design trade.

## History

### Beginnings (1889-1925)

Frederic Schumacher came to New York with the French textile company Passavant & Co. In the same year, he opened F. Schumacher & Co. at 22nd Street and Broadway on Manhattan's Ladies' Mile (now the Ladies' Mile Historic District). With the Gilded Age in full swing by 1893, Schumacher became a textile supplier and sold decorative fabrics to new American mansions and hotels, including the Waldorf-Astoria and the Vanderbilt.

In 1895, the company purchased a domestic fabric manufacturing facility, the Waverly Mill in Paterson, New Jersey. The Waverly Mill produced woven fabrics for residences, businesses and public buildings, including a satin lampas that Stanford White designed in 1902 for Theodore Roosevelt’s White House.

### A modern approach (1925-1945)

In 1925, Schumacher took part in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, an exhibition of Modern Art, a movement which inspired styles such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco. According to Jeffrey Simpson, who wrote in Architectural Digest in 2008, it is most likely that just before 1930 Pierre Pozier, nephew and heir of Frederic Schumacher, brought Poiret into the company as its first fashion luminary. At that time Poiret was asked to create the first designer fabric collection for the company. Poiret came up with simple Modernist shapes for his fabrics inspired by his contemporaries, Cubist painters.

By 1939, during the Great Depression and Second World War, the company contributed to the war effort by producing material for parachutes, life preserves, and other wartime products for the navy and air force. From 1939 until 1946, Schumacher's New Jersey-based mill, Waverly, operated 24 hours a day.

### Post-war (1945-1970)

With rise in suburban communities and the American housewife, Waverly (a division of Schumacher, which was sold in 2007) marketed directly to the department store consumer and began advertising in print media in 1944 with the first slogan "all three," allowing customers to purchase fabric, wallpaper and carpeting in one place. In 1951, a custom-designed Liberty Bell and Liberty Cap were woven at the Schumacher mill for both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. In 1950, First Lady Bess Truman selected fabric from F. Schumacher & Co. designed by Vera Neumann ) to decorate the White House's third-floor Solarium windows and upholstery.

In 1956, upon learning that many famous generals in history had been honored with a commemorative toile, Mrs. Eisenhower and decorator Elisabeth Draper devised a design from the buildings, trophies, and motifs that symbolized President Eisenhower’s life and career. The pattern was even fashioned into a dress for Mrs. Eisenhower to wear during the president’s successful 1956 reelection campaign.

Schumacher’s Blue Room Lampas was featured in Jackie Kennedy’s famous TV tour of the White House, which aired in 1962.

### Growth (1970-2021)

In 1998, F. Schumacher & Co. acquired Patterson Flynn Martin, which was established in 1943 as a purveyor of fine Wilton and Axminster carpets from Europe, and authentic hand-made reproductions of traditional rug designs from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries making it the sister company to Schumacher. Presently, it also focuses on making custom rugs for interior designers and architects

In 2021, F Schumacher & Co also went on to acquire Backdrop.

### Today

F. Schumacher & Co. has 5 divisions that provide products and inspiration for interior decoration and design:

**Schumacher**

Schumacher specializes in fabric, wallcovering, trim, furniture and home accessories. It has a portfolio of over 10,000 products available for sale to interior designers and architects on fschumacher.com as well as in the 18 Schumacher showrooms in the United States: New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Dania, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, Troy, Los Angeles, Laguna Nigel, and San Francisco. Schumacher is also sold in 28 countries including Canada, Australia and the UK.

**Patterson Flynn (PF)**

PF, the rug and carpet atelier, is a purveyor of rugs, as well as carpets. PF sells exclusively to the interior design trade and has nine showrooms across the United States in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Dania, Laguna, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C.

**Backdrop**

Paint company.

**Freddie**

Freddie is a "membership experience" designed for the architectural interiors community.

**Frederic**

Led by Editor-in-Chief Dara Caponigro, Frederic is a lifestyle magazine.

## Collaborations

Schumacher released several collaborative collections with such designers as Cecil Beaton, Dorothy Draper, Vera Neumann, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joseph Frank, Saul Steinberg, Karl Lagerfeld, Jeremiah Goodman, Saul Steinberg, and Elsa Schiaparella. Many of the patterns in these collections are still available today along with reboot collections with the estates of Vera Neumann and Frank Lloyd Wright released in 2014 and 2018, respectively.

In addition to its proprietary products, Schumacher continues to collaborate on collections with artists, artisans, interior designers, architects and notable brands. Current collaborators include:

* Celerie Kemble
* Mary McDonald
* Timothy Corrigan
* Miles Redd
* Matthew Patrick Smyth
* Trina Turk
* Todd Romano
* Veere Grenney
* Studio Bon
* Caroline Z Hurley
* David Kaihoi
* Iksel Decorative Arts
* Mark D Sikes
* Vogue Living
* David Oliver
* Clements Ribeiro
* Charlap Hyman & Herrero
* Porter Teleo
* Stephanie Seal Brown
* Vera Neumann
* Frank Lloyd Wright
* Johnson Hartig
* Colette Cosentino
* Peg Norriss
* A Rum Fellow
* Molly Mahon
* Neisha Crosland

## High-profile clients

### Film industry

Set designer Hobe Erwin designed a line for Schumacher that was used to decorate the set for Gone With The Wind (1939). Cecil Beaton, society photographer and fashion designer for stage and screen — My Fair Lady and Gigi — was enlisted as a guest designer for F. Schumacher. In addition, sets for A Bed Time Story (1933), I Love Lucy (1953), The Age of Innocence (1993), Washington Square (1996), Atonement (2007) and others included Schumacher in their designs.

### Government

The company has supplied textiles to the White House, the Chambers of the United States Supreme Court, and the Smithsonian Institution.

### Public spaces

F. Schumacher was involved in the design of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

