Back in the 1930's, for instance, Olive, Lady Baillie directed her decorator, Stephane Boudin, to create elaborate embroidered edges for the silk sheets on every bed at Leeds Castle, her country house in England. The matter was settled out of court with the stipulation that he not contact any of Leron's clients for six months, unless their addresses were available through public sources. You'd be surprised how many people are listed,'' he said. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. But in three years, he said, he went from 6 clients to 300.
Women seem drawn to the prices.
Mr. Stoddart gets his fabrics from Egypt, Italy and Belgium and then sends them to workrooms in Portugal, Vietnam and Madeira. He finds some hand-embroidered trim in the garment district. Mr. Shoulberg said, adding that thread-count wars, which started in America in the late 1980's, created a competition to draw a new market. Until then, he said, it was hard to find counts of over 200 threads in the mass market. Almost all must be ironed by hand or sent out to fine launderers, said Carolina Donadio, a spokeswoman for Leron.