Faux-suede Footstools

The “must have” fabric of the moment is “faux suede”. It has made a huge impact to the upholstery industry over recent years and its popularity seems to be growing by the day. Its usefulness as a hard wearing versatile fabric is well documented however for use on footstools its flexibility is without question.

Created by Japanese textile technologists in the 1980s, faux suede was developed as a micro fibre to readily accept colouration and have applications both in clothing and soft furnishings. The base of faux suede is polyester, a man made fibre extracted as a derivative from petroleum. Polyester can be blended with any other textile fibre however to maintain performance and satisfactory texture a faux suede fabric should ideally be woven from 100% core polyester. We at Foostools2u do not blend our faux suede fabrics and we would urge potential customers to resist cheaper alternatives particularly as footstool abrasion requirements are necessarily onerous and we want our footstools to last for many years to come.

As a fabric for footstools faux suede has no equal. With a brushed “napp” faux suedes exhibit a velvet appearance similar to the effect found on snooker or pool tables. The lustrous feel reflects light in the direction of the false pile, created during the fabric’s finishing process. The wide colouration of faux suedes is made easier by the receptive nature of the fabric to complex dyestuffs. Polyester is most receptive to deep and rich colouration allowing the dyer to employ deep reds, bright pinks, oranges and various pastel shades that are more problematic to natural fibres.

Contemporary shades for faux suedes tend to be centred around “earth tone” pallets whereby natural colours predominate. Foostools2u are well represented within these tonal areas having twelve colours to offer on their footstools range. The most popular shades include, coffee, ivory, chocolate, black and hazelnut. Among several new shades offered for the first time are red, muscat and white with another set of favourites from which stone, natural camel and beige are prominent.