O'BRIEN'S FORAY INTO BEDDING

From Silk to Cotton

A New Velvet Experiment

One of our newest collections is our “Glazed” cotton velvet that we’ve been developing for the past year here in the studio. We wanted to introduce something that has a more casual feel while still maintaining the integrity of our signature hand-painted technique.

Kevin experiments with various color tests, he won't stop until it's right!

"Just keep piling on the work, guys"

This collection adds a new depth to our line with a textured printing technique. Our printing process creates a resist print that also leaves a crackled effect when we paint our dyes. This is where the collection gets the name “Glazed” as it appears to look similar to a cracked glazed ceramic. 

This fabric not only offers a different style of products, but it also has the ability to serve as upholstery-weight fabric. This collection is currently available in six colors including: Black, Caramel, Chartreuse, Dusty Blue, Ocean, and Sangria. 

Top: Ombre in Sangria / Bottom: Lovebirds in Caramel & Ombre Medallion in Dusty Blue

(left to right) Tapestry in Chartreuse, Tapestry in Ocean, Lovebirds in Black

Best of NYNOW

               

The orders counted and the verdict is in, we’re back today to give you a taste of our most popular colors and patterns this season. We showed you the process of setting up our booth, and now we’re going to give you a glimpse of our most sought-after products.

New Gun Metal Colorway

This season we introduced three new colors: Gun Metal, Cobalt Black, and Desert Rose. Each of these colors have (as always) been hand mixed and conceived right here in our studio with trends in mind. We'll definitely be busy the next few months painting a lot of these deep blues!

New Colors: Desert Rose (top left and bottom right) and Cobalt Black (top right and bottom left)

This season we’ve also introduced some new metallic velvets that are printed onto a long-haired velvet giving them an embossed look. Not only are these metallic, but we've come up with a whole new range of colors specifically for this new line!

(From left to right) Moroccan Metallic in Eucalyptus, Lovebirds Metallic in Violet Silver, Ombre Medallion in Ruby

New Mohair Tufted pillow with Silk/Velvet button and cording in (from left to right) Bark/Rust, Black/Charcoal, Purple/Amethyst

We've developed a new tufted style of our mohair pillows that have been well received thus far. These go well with our silk velvet decorative pillows and add depth with a more matte texture.

Be on the lookout for our next post about the making of our new cotton velvet line!

NYNOW

A Very Velvet Story

How many Kevins can you spot?

It’s been a crazy few weeks here at KOBS! We even had to make clones of Kevin to cope (see above image).  We’re just settling into our orders from NYNOW as we begin our busiest season, and we wanted to share a bit of the behind the scenes with you. When it comes to trade shows, we pack up about 200 of our prettiest plush pillows and put them on display for buyers and designers alike.

This year we introduced a lot of new products including three new colorways, new metallic designs, and new cotton velvet designs as well as our new scarves. We were thrilled to have our best show to date! Here’s a bit of our process  from start to finish:

From our studio to the Javits!

The Javits!

Oh how far we've come

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into making our velvets look good. We hope that you enjoy seeing them as much as we enjoy showing them! Stay tuned for our best sellers coming to you next week.

"See y'all in High Point!" - Kevin

Art&Sole

SERIOUS BUSINESS AND SERIOUS FUN

Robb Reichard (executive director of AIDS Fund), Jane Gershon Weitzman, Kevin O'Brien (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska)

Jane Gershon Weitzman, the inimitable woman behind much of the success of Stuart Weitzman Shoes,  has been a fan of Kevin O'Brien Studio, and a friend of Kevin's for many years.  Building their company since the '80s she and Stuart have sold their business and now Jane has even better things to do, she raises money for any number of good causes through a book about shoes she has created.  Now that we at Kevin O'Brien Studio are finally on our feet in our new headquarters (a totally rebuilt movie theater from the thirties), we are able to invite people to our manufacturing and design facility.  So it became clear that Jane and Kevin had to do something together, that something was an event to support the work of the AIDS Fund.

(photo by Urszula Pruchniewska)

Some sample photos from Art&Sole

For more information on the AIDS Fund, please visit their website (here) (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska)

For many years, Kevin O'Brien Studio lived up to the description "scrappy upstart" and did our business from a historic, but creaky and ancient loft in Philadelphia's Old City district, but all things, even companies, must grow up.  After an unseemly long adolescence, we have burst upon the scene (in our own minds at least) and opened our beautiful new space to our guests. On a recent May evening, Jane gave her funny and heartwarming address about her new book, Art&Sole. The book would seem to just be about shoes, but the stories that Jane told were about a lifetime of using her company to create opportunities for all sorts of New Yorkers who needed a bit of a helping hand, be it in the LGBT community, inner city schools, or breast and ovarian cancer.  There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd as Jane recited stories about how she was able to help so many people simply by thinking differently about how to use her position at a very successful company.

(photo by Urszula Pruchniewska)

Jane giving her presentation (photo by Urszula Pruchniewska)

Afterwards, Jane answered lots of questions and signed books while the Aids Fund volunteers served up food and drinks. Meanwhile, Kevin and Angela (the KOBS manager) gave tours of our facilities. Then the raffle winners were read out and people went home with goodies from El Dorado Rum, Bernie Robbins, Bitars Restaurant, Starbucks, Trinity Framing, Merritt Gallery, Philadelphia Theatre Company, In Liquid, A Girl Named Katie, Shane's Candies, Candy Coated, Blush Salon, South Philly Accupunture, Farm & Fisherman Tavern & Market, Nickolette Phillips Design & Tailoring, Eat-a-Pita, More Then Just Ice Cream and artists such as Nikolay Milushev (YOMI t.g.m.b.) and Tim McFarlane.

(photo by Urszula Pruchniewska)

Catherine, Lee, and Sarah modeling some of our raffle items

We clearly take fun very seriously

Serious money was raised and serious fun was had.