“Shuisky Chintz”: healthy competition is great!

“Shuisky Chintz” is a regular participant of the exhibition, one of the largest textile enterprises in Russia with a rich history. Every season, the company never ceases to surprise visitors with new solutions and interesting approaches to presenting its assortment.

We talked with Katerina Matrosova, Director of Development at “Shuisky Chintz”, about how the company lives today, what development paths will be decisive for it in the future, about collaborations in the industry and how this exhibition season differs from others.

– Katerina, the Shuisky Chintz factory has been a regular participant in the exposition since when TEXTILE&HOME was the salon of the “INTERFABRIC” exhibition. Every season we see your new collections. Is this season radically different from the previous ones?

– "Shuisky Chintz" is traditionally associated with textiles for the home, our main range is bed linen and fabrics for bed linen. But we have never come out brightly either at exhibitions or at any other events with the fact that we also have an assortment of fabrics that we present for sewing clothes, headscarves and cotton handkerchiefs. And at this exhibition, we not only focused on the Trend zone, but also presented our new development - a collection of swim fabrics.

We have a design studio that creates more than two and a half thousand designs every month. Some of the designs were created for bed linen, and there are fabrics that will be used for clothes. This is the eightieth calico, one hundred and fiftieth percale, ninety-fifth calico, which is used for both children's clothing and diapers; this is also flannel of ninety-fifth width, one hundred and fiftieth calico is also used for clothing.
In general, we have several fabrics that are not intended for bed linen – for example, a pattern with blue birds, which is often used for clothing, and we see our partners how they sew dresses and shirts from this. Victoria Andreyanova called this design "Birds of Paradise".

– At the event of the business program, you talked about the work of the "Shuisky Chintz" factory with museum archives. What was the result of this largely unique interaction?

– This is a work that was carried out during the year with the Ivanovo Calico Museum, we presented it this season of the exhibition. The result of the interaction with the museum archives were ten drawings recreated on fabric by two great manufacturers of Russia – Posylin and Rabenek.

We took one part, the red accents, from Rabenek, because his main story is kumachi, the red color, and the second part from Posylin is indigo, dark blue colors with bright splashes of red pattern. We tried to ensure that the creators who will create various costumes, collections from these fabrics, and use them in home clothes, could combine the work of two manufacturers from the same era, but completely different manufactories.

By the way, Kirill Lopatinsky, the creative director of TEXTILE&HOME, designed the Trend zone in red, which we associate with something festive and solemn. That's why our factory chose Rabenek's works for the new collection, his exceptional red, festive color, because even if you go deeper into history, then everything about red (shawls, aprons, aprons) is a holiday.

– The famous Shuisky calico was also presented at your stand – how do you develop this direction?

– It has already become a separate brand. Even those who are not familiar with "Shuisky Chintz" are familiar with Shuisky calico. For twenty years, people have been using our calico bedding, and nothing happens to it. Calico is harsh and rough, but after several washes it becomes comfortable and pleasant. By the way, you can sew clothes from it, it's just that the market demand is different today.

But when they ask which structure is better – satins, poplins, calico, calico, percale – we have no answer. There is nothing better. Every product is of high quality. Each product is made with the soul by the hands of two thousand people. Everyone responds in their own way – who is comfortable, who has what taste. For some, calico is perfect. And just here we can talk about the importance of such a tool as an exhibition: you can touch fabric samples live, choose what you need, and choose from the great variety of designs presented here.

– Which consumer are the new collections designed for? After all, the vector you have chosen cannot be called an absolute trend, it is even an innovative story in some ways.

– By releasing historical collections, we immediately try to show how it can be worn, that it can be modern. This is such a "city pajama": it can be worn both at home and on the street. It will be both beautiful and comfortable.

We conducted surveys and got to the point that now people living in megacities have a different aesthetic. When these people go outside, they see a lot of information noise (banners, billboards, paints, beautiful architecture), and when they come home, they need to smooth out this information noise and calm down. And that's why here you want something pastel, calm, some smoothed shades. But Russia does not end with the MKAD. Drawings with tigers, with animals, some bright, juicy colors are popular in other parts of Russia. It's a holiday for people, they come to their homes and want to see these colors, because they are often surrounded by greyness on the street. We produce for the whole of Russia – and not only. And our desire is to give everyone the opportunity to find something of their own, what they want: both in design and structure.

– During the presentation at the Trend zone of the exhibition, information about the survey expedition to your enterprise was repeatedly heard, that is, is the factory open to visitors?

– Last year we opened tours of the factory, launched industrial tourism. Now we can show you how our products are made. And there is a lot of interest. If we started with one excursion per month, now we have weekly tours. Absolutely different people come. We are showing master classes. And after that, people's eyes open, especially for young people, for children who do not go anywhere, they sit, as they say, on the phone. They touch it and see the scale when we show it: this machine is 80 meters long, and we paint fabrics on it. And it is controlled by two operators. And that's just dyeing. We are currently working very hard with young people on career guidance, developing working professions, and increasing their importance. For example, we have a tour "Moscow through the eyes of an engineer".

– At the exhibition, much attention was paid to the collaboration of the "Shuisky Chintz" factory with the Avangard weaving and finishing factory. What is the significance of such cooperation for you?

– We met the guys last year (thanks a lot to the organizers of the TEXTILE&HOME exhibition, who brought us together). And this year we have already visited each other. We looked at each other's production and assortment. And we have already approached the Trend zone of the autumn exhibition together.

If last year we entered the Trend zone with what we have within the framework of a given topic, now it was a completely different approach, when there is a common theme and a common product that we each made in our own production. And it would seem we are in the Ivanovo region, they are in the Vladimir region, there are only 150 km between us, but we did not know about each other! And now we are already looking at further collaborations as a partnership.

“Avangard” makes cool towels, cool jacquards. We understand that our consumer, visitor, guest, coming to our representative office or buying our collection on marketplaces, wants to make their home in a single style, in a single-color scheme. And it is very difficult to choose textiles from different manufacturers in this way, so such collaborations help to expand our lines, expand the range of our brands and work not only within the Trend zone, but in partnerships in the market. Healthy competition is great because you're getting better, you're growing.

– Is there already an understanding in which direction such a partnership will develop?

– There are many different ideas. Now, in the space of the Trend zone, we have combined the idea of historical painting and production – terry, jacquard, textile cotton, supplemented it with dishes and furniture – Belarusian colleagues helped us here. Then we can be joined – and I believe that next year it will be – by other partners who will also be able to present their products. After all, we have a lot more at home: various interior items, wallpapers, and many different other directions.

You just need to choose a topic and go on a trip around Russia, visiting enterprises, getting acquainted with some new productions, some new ideas. The basis is the organizers of the exhibition, who set the vector for us, and thank you so much for such trust in us. I can see from the reviews that we met expectations and did a lot of teamwork, which proved itself for many years to come.