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SHAW LIVING TO DEBUT KATHY IRELAND
GEE'S BEND COLLECTION BASED ON ACCLAIMED MUSEUM QUILT EXHIBITION
Shaw Living Kathy Ireland Multi-color Strips design in
Gee's Bend Collection
RINGGOLD, GA -- Shaw Living is launching the Gee's Bend collection from the Kathy Ireland licensing program at the Summer market next week.
The collection is based on the critically acclaimed Gee's Bend quilt exhibition which toured the country in 2003 and 2004. The first group of GeesBend rugs are double woven with drop stitch detailing. Power-loomed of soft olefin yarns, the heavy, plush rugs will retail for approximately $429 in 5'5"x7'8".
"The line, with over a dozen rugs, represents a new direction for the Kathy Ireland- Shaw partnership," noted Kim Barta, Shaw Living brand manager.
Two years ago, The Quilts of Gee's Bend, a traveling museum exhibition, generated renewed interest in this folk art form. It contained quilts made from the 1920's to the 1990's by an African-American women's collective in rural Alabama. Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times called the Gee's Bend exhibition and books "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.€VbCrLf
Part of the profits of the Gee's Bend rugs will go to the Gee's Bend Foundation, which supports the rural Alabama community of artist-quilters.
The Shaw Living rugs are part of a wide-ranging licensing partnership between Kathy Ireland World Wide and Tinwood Alliance, which owns reproduction rights to The Quilts of Gee's Bend.
The first Kathy Ireland Gee's Bend products were introduced in October by Arrow Home Fashions, which manufactures bed linen items such as sheets, comforters, duvet covers, throws and quilts.
The Gee's Bend designs represent a traditional American craft, but at the same time they have a bold, contemporary look.
Here are a few of the Gee's Bend rugs being introduced by Shaw Living:
Housetop
H-Variation
Blocks and Strips
7.12.05
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