Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Bernstein.
Hi Andrea, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in a family that owned a textile mill in Philadelphia. My mother was a textile designer and artist. I was very influenced by her bold sense of mixing different styles, patterns, and colors in a colorful free way, based on her exuberant love of color in our home. After bouncing around art schools and studying fashion and photography, I finally graduated college with a degree in painting. I was always a rebel. I went to work in the fashion industry and started painting stripes at Calvin Klein in NYC, and finally had my own brand of contemporary knitwear. At 23, I still knit and do needlepoint. I am obsessed with yarns. After years in the garment industry, I wanted a change. I went to work for a small luxury home textiles company and grew their business in what seemed overnight. The owner decided to close on a high note and paid all of us a share of the sales price of the company after 30 years, and I was suddenly out of a job. I was hired by a fabulous textiles company (one of our top vendors) called Chris Stone Fabrics in downtown LA, a printer, converter, and fabric dye house, and I became the creative director. With my team, we transformed the company’s style from outdated contemporary to modern and provocative, and we exploded with success. We began our relationships with Williams Sonoma, RH, Crate, Kravet, Ralph Lauren, and others, and we developed prints and upholstery fabrics for them. I was traveling every two weeks to SF to work with the design teams. In 2009, I left and started The Millwork Group. I opened our first design studio and offices in a giant loft on Spring Street in DTLA long before the arts district started. We introduced the first-ever home collection for Urban Outfitters with iconic designer Alexander Girard, and we created tons of art and textiles for large customers in the US.
In 2012, I started painting again, and my art went on pillows and bedding. We launched the Millworks Brand in LACMA museum, HD Buttercup, and many other retailers via our showrooms around the US. I began to want to add designs with my more feminine side, and reached back to my childhood, growing up with ruffles, chintz, Ralph Lauren florals, and recalled my mother’s love of gingham. I launched Linen Salvage et Cie with One Kings Lane in 2012, and we were their exclusive and only bedding line for years. We created amazing combinations of linens and velvets for them. After eight years, I wanted to be more independent, so we launched our Linen Salvage website and brand on our own and did a collaboration with Anthropologie. It was very successful and well-priced. We reached a whole new customer base with younger customers that loved our pretty style.
I was asked to design and work with the Rue Gilt Groupe, and we designed and made five different brands of textiles for them and all made here in LA. In 2019, with the pandemic, our linens business and factory stopped suddenly like everyone, and we transitioned to making masks to keep our factory and workers busy. I designed and merchandised collections of unique masks that featured beautiful toiles, floral prints, and even silk velvet masks because nobody could wear lipstick. I wanted to give our customers something beautiful In 2021, we started selling our bedding online, and it took off like crazy. I was totally surprised but happy that I could finally control our own designs and products and speak directly to our customers. I have always been committed to making products in the US and keeping our factory here in California busy with work so our workers can support their families. They are single moms like me, many of them. I lost my husband in 2016. I view my job as a means to keep a roof over all our team’s heads so we can all feed our families.
This year, with our website growing, we were approached by an investment group to grow our wholesale business. I loved the idea as for so many years, many of our customers always ask, “Where can I see your products ?” We opened our first permanent showroom in Dallas with the amazing team at In-Detail in the World Trade Center and then our second showroom in Las Vegas in July; we added a powerful rep group in the Southeast last month. We launched our first catalog just weeks ago, and our sales have been growing. Our stores and designers are the best in the country. Our brand is rooted in my love of all textiles and bringing utterly beautiful style to as many people as we can to give our customers a lovely, sumptuous place to rest their heads and feel wonderful in at the end of the day in our currently chaotic and difficult world. If I can make our customers’ days and nights filled with beauty and softness, I have done by job.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The pandemic brought us to a complete stop. But I had an idea for a fabric mask that could use any kind of filter and had a simple pocket and a comfortable design. We made it in different sizes so everyone in the family could have one. Remember, there was nowhere to get one except from random places online…
I wanted to make them fashionable and cool to lift people’s spirits in such a difficult time. That’s when we started offering prints. Some of the original prints we still offer started as prints for our masks. We donated thousands of masks to anyone that couldn’t afford them, and I drove around with boxes of masks in my car and handed them out to anyone that didn’t have one.
We have faced price challenges because 90% of all home textiles sold in our country are imported; I firmly believe in making products in our own country, having grown up in a family that did the same. It can be a difficult environment now because so many big retailers want everything on consignment, so the burden of paying and holding inventory is on the brand. Many companies can’t do this, and their inventories become obsolete quickly. That’s where we win. We can turn quickly because we make everything in our own place here in LA.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I love designing beautiful prints and textiles that feel wonderful. I am an expert in fabric development so I focus on the feeling you get when you touch the fabric and when it’s next to your skin what will it feel like. I love color, and it takes me hours to pick the perfect colors for our collections. My favorite color is blue, then pink. And blue and pink together for me is the essence of soft, beautiful style. We obsess over colors, and the perfect iteration from them, like Creme. Our creme is the perfect creme.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Every single day, I take a risk to step off the cliff. I have owned my own business for 11 years, supported my children from it, put them through college, and taken care of myself and my family. I feel responsible for making sure our local vendors are getting work from us so they too can keep their families fed. Every day brings new risks, but trusting my judgment making and always seeking the highest best road has kept us on our path. Self-trust, confidence no matter what, and never ever give up. These words ring true every day.
Pricing:
- $50-$500
Contact Info:
- Website: Retail: https://www.linensalvageluxe.com/
Wholesale: https://www.linensalvage.com/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/linensalvage/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/linensalvage/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/LinenSalvage/
