F. Schumacher & Co.

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).[4] 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 factory later helped with the production of parachutes and other military equipment during the World Wars.

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.[4]

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.

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.

Currently F. Schumacher & Co designs, manufactures, and is a supplier of decorative fabrics for residences and other interiors. They sell luxury textiles to the contract market. They specialize in historic reproductions, oriental rugs, exclusive designs by Wilton, and rugs which are tufted by hand. They also design handmade rugs. They sell exclusively to interior designers utilizing a network of sales people and showrooms located throughout the world.[5]

In 1990 the company opened a distribution center in Richburg, South Carolina. In 2014 the company moved to a smaller facility in Fort Mill, SC to better accommodate a work force of 40 while still being a convenient distance to the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.[1]

The company is planning to move its headquarters in New York from 79 Madison Avenue between East 28th and East 29th streets to 875 Avenue of the Americas at West 31st street. The move is planned for the summer of 2015.[3]

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.

The company has supplied textiles to the White House, the Chambers of the United States Supreme Court,[3] and the Smithsonian Institution.[1]

F. Schumacher was involved in the design of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.[1]