Inchyra: marrying the beauty of old linens with the quality of new ones

The last year has seen some exciting developments for luxury Scottish fabrics company, Inchyra. Founded in 2012 by designer Caroline Inchyra, the brand’s profile has grown steadily over the last few years, and the company’s beautiful linens and wools are now a regular feature in the UK’s leading interior design magazines.

Caroline Inchyra didn’t set out to be a fabric designer. Her background is in finance, and she has created one of the country’s top wedding venues, alongside a growing music and arts venue. But a long held passion for old fabrics – she had always looked out for vintage and antique finds to decorate her own homes – and an inability to sit still somehow developed into another business. After moving to Scotland to take over an old family home, and following a chance meeting with the owner of the last major linen mill in the country, she set about seeing if it was possible to create new ‘old’ fabrics.

“There’s something very special about the way old fabrics, particularly linens, look and feel. It’s one of the reasons antique fabrics can cost so much. New fabrics just never have that softness – prints tend to sit on the top of the cloth until use and wear pushes them into the weave over time. I was just fascinated to see if it was possible to get near to it with a new print because there is something incredibly special about the lived in feeling that antique fabrics bring to an interior”, she says.

There followed several years of trial and error. “If I’d had any idea of the pitfalls and complications of fabric production I might well have thought twice about it, but happily, I didn’t have a clue!” Fast forward six years and the Inchyra collection now runs to over eighty fabrics, and the company is supplying fabrics for interior projects around the globe, working with some of the world’s top interior designers.

Inchyra fabrics can be seen in interiors from luxury homes in the United States and Australia to stunning chalets in Europe – and in some of the most renowned hotels in Britain. The mission has been successful – thanks to the development of the company’s highly specialist ageing processes, Inchyra linens replicate the look and feel of old linens but give the strength and durability of new fabrics. And the relaxed but luxurious feel that this brings to an interior is appreciated by a growing audience.

The Inchyra Collection can now be seen at The Fabric Collective in Langton Street, Chelsea, at the Cupar, Scotland, showroom of At The Sign Of The Pelican and is exclusively represented in Australia by Nicola Lawrence Textiles & Wallpapers.