F. Schumacher & Co. is a privately held company that designs products for the interior design industry in the United States. Established in 1889 by Frederic Schumacher, F. Schumacher & Co is a fifth generation business and the only supplier of decorative textiles from the 19th century still privately owned and managed by direct descendants of its founder. The Company sells fabrics, wallcoverings, trimmings, furnishings, and floorcoverings under two brands, Schumacher and Patterson, Flynn & Martin. F. Schumacher & Co. currently maintains 18 showrooms worldwide and sells exclusively to the interior design trade.
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Frederic Schumacher came to New York with the French textile company Passavant & Co. as well as a knowledge and taste for luxurious fabrics. In the same year, Schumacher opened F. Schumacher & Co. at 22nd Street and Broadway on Manhattan’s Ladies' Mile (now the Ladies' Mile Historic District). With the Gilded Age in full swing by 1893, Schumacher quickly became a leading textile supplier and these decorative fabrics had found the way into new American mansions and hotels, including the Waldorf-Astoria and the Vanderbilt.
In 1895, the company purchased a domestic fabric manufacturing facility, the Waverly Mill in Patterson, New Jersey. In addition to being known for its role in the textile production industry, the facility later helped with the production of parachutes and other essential military equipment during the world wars.
In 1925, Schumacher took part in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, when the company became one of the first to carry the banner of l'art moderne, also known as Modern Art, a movement embodied the visual expression of the new ideas of modernism that swept the world at the time and inspired styles such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco. In 1930, Poiret was asked to create the first designer fabric collection for the company, a tradition that has continued into Schumacher's current collections. Using distinct bold colors, Poiret came up with simple Modernist shapes for his fabrics inspired his contemporaries, Cubist painters.
By 1939, the Great Depression and Second World War were unfolding internationally. F. Schumacher & Co. contributed to the effort by producing material for parachutes, life preserves, and other wartime products for the navy and air force. From 1939 until 1946 Schumacher's New Jersey-based mill, Waverly, operated 24 hours a day.
With rise in suburban communities and the American housewife, Waverly (a division of Schumacher, which was sold in 2007) marketed directly to the department store consumer and began advertising in print media in 1944 with the first slogan "all three," allowing customers to purchase fabric, wallpaper and carpeting in one place. During this period, Schumacher remained committed to serving the customer with high end products through interior designers. In 1951, a custom-designed Liberty Bell and Liberty Cap were woven at the Schumacher mill for both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. In 1950, First Lady Bess Truman selected fabric from F. Schumacher & Co. designed by Vera Neumann ) to decorate the White House's third-floor Solarium windows and upholstery.
Schumacher fabrics and wallpaper have a long history in the movies and on television. Acclaimed set designer Hobe Erwin designed a line for Schumacher that was used to decorate the set for Gone With The Wind (1939). Cecil Beaton, society photographer, darling of the British royal family and fashion designer for stage and screen — My Fair Lady and Gigi — was enlisted as a guest designer for F. Schumacher. In addition, sets for A Bed Time Story (1933), I Love Lucy (1953), The Age of Innocence (1993), Washington Square (1996), Atonement (2007) and others included Schumacher in their designs.