One former retailer’s passion: Keeping heritage crafts alive

A new pillow collection with a vintage spirit popped up in the Currey & Company showroom during market this week.

Eileen Applebaum, a veteran of both Crate & Barrel and ABC Carpet & Home, has channeled her product development expertise into Threads, a curated collection of luxury handcrafted pillows that celebrate the traditional skills of master artisans from all over the world.

“Keeping heritage crafts alive is my deepest passion,” Applebaum said. She spent nearly 20 years in rug and textile development for Crate, a job that enabled her to travel the world and work closely with artisans. “The most profound thing I learned as a product developer is that the best developers work with artisans. It’s a collaboration. Show me the technique you use, and I will marry it up with what I know,” she said. “The best product developers know how to lean into the knowledge of the artisans, to look at every single process and challenge them to make a new, better version of that technique.”

Applebaum, an avid collector of vintage textiles, has just opened a to-the-trade showroom in Manhattan, on Sixth Avenue across from Bryant Park, filled with one-of-a-kind pillows.

In High Point this week, she offered a stocking program. “I wanted to give the High Point shoppers first crack at it,” she said.

Applebaum is eager to highlight both the luxurious natural materials and the dressmaker details that define her new pillow collection: silk embroidery, crewel embroidery in cashmere, gorgeous metal zippers, handmade pulls unique to each pillow, great backings. There is “no synthetic anything,” Applebaum said.

The collection available at market is made in India, and although it is mass produced, it honors heritage craftmaking and does not exploit the artisan or the technique.

“We are going back to the places where the original handcrafts were done. It’s art meets commerce,” Applebaum said. “This is the finest expression of it I’ve ever done, and I’m proud of it.”

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