The textile business is cunning, especially in the high-end segment. There are factories, and there are so-called publishers. They differ from each other in much the same way as the "paper" publishing houses familiar to the printing houses. That is, publishers develop the design of the fabric (in a broad sense, from the color palette, patterns, to the method of weaving and composition) and then place an order at the factory. They take the received print run to their warehouse (usually it is several kilometers for one color at once!) and then it is gradually sold.

For example, at one of the main European exhibitions, the Maison et Objet in Paris, there is a huge pavilion called Editeurs. And every year in May, the Proposte exhibition takes place at Villa Cernobio on Lake Como, where only (and only!) manufacturers can exhibit.

Everyone is doing their own thing.

Publishers organize sales, support dealer networks, maintain huge warehouses with leftover fabrics, research the market and, most importantly, are engaged in development. The most striking example of such a publishing house is the company Kvadrat. It is one of the main innovators in textiles, whose products command great respect. Kvadrat fabrics are produced in a variety of places, from the USA and Europe (the most technological) to Turkey (most of the wool is woven in Ankara), but all the processes, methods of fiber processing, weaving and joining of threads/materials, and so on, are all developed by the publisher itself and are under its careful control.

But still, what prevents the factory from organizing its own warehouse? No problem!

A lot of people do. BUT! If the factory does not seriously invest in development, then the fabrics will turn out to be the same as homemade calendars and other souvenirs, which are regularly regaled with ordinary Moscow printing houses before the New Year.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. And the exceptions are outstanding – first of all, these are the wonderful Thai textile Jim Thompson and the American brand Maharam. These are manufacturers who pay great attention to scientific development and design, and achieve simply incredible results. But not only the quality, but also the pricing policy of these companies allows us to classify them more as publishers.