Chase Erwin Lunch & Learn: Translating Quiet Luxury for the Contract Market
During an engaging Lunch & Learn hosted by Chase Erwin, designers explored how the brand’s quiet luxury and refined craftsmanship are strengthened through its position within The Panaz Group.
Known for its layering of textures, natural inspiration, and delicate colour palette, Chase Erwin embodies understated elegance. Traditionally rooted in residential design, its aesthetic is now reaching the hospitality and contract markets through the group’s vertical manufacturing capabilities, enabling fabrics to be reimagined for performance-driven spaces without losing their tactile beauty.
Chase Erwin’s elegant design philosophy is strengthened through collaboration within The Panaz Group, bringing together artistry, performance, and value for the hospitality sector.
From Boutique Heritage to Group Collaboration
Chase Erwin built its reputation on beautifully woven textiles defined by craftsmanship and timeless design. In 2020, its acquisition by The Panaz Group marked a pivotal step, merging its bespoke, decorative sensibility with Panaz’s strength in performance and large-scale production.
This integration opened opportunities for the brand to transition its sophisticated residential aesthetic into contract and hospitality projects, ensuring that luxury design could meet the durability and compliance demanded by the sector.
The group’s expansion continued with the acquisition of thesign, a European brand founded in Switzerland and woven in Italy. With a more decorative and fashion-led approach, the sign complements Chase Erwin’s quiet luxury with vibrant, contemporary energy.
Together, the three brands form a cohesive portfolio that allows designers to specify across multiple price points and performance levels, much like selecting from a family of hotel brands, each tailored to a distinct client or project need.
A Portfolio Defined by Quiet Luxury
At the heart of Chase Erwin’s portfolio is a celebration of texture and tactility. Collections such as Solstice, Kayi, Mazarin and Alda, express the brand’s poetic design language, subtle, organic patterns that evoke mountain ranges, clouds, or rippling water.
Chase Erwin Swatch – Kayi Rose Quartz
These designs are versatile enough for drapery, wallcoverings, and upholstery, creating continuity across a scheme.
Chase Erwin Swatch – Mazarin Mist
Each fabric is crafted to capture a handmade sensibility, yet adaptable through processes such as paper backing, acoustic layering, or FR conversion, allowing designers to preserve the same visual aesthetic across multiple applications. It is this ability to balance refinement and resilience that has made Chase Erwin a trusted partner for designers working at the intersection of luxury and practicality.
Chase Erwin Swatch -Alda Mystique
The Art of Value Engineering: Trevira CS and UK Weaving
A defining advantage of Chase Erwin’s position within The Panaz Group lies in its access to Trevira CS high-performance yarns and UK weaving facilities, creating a vertically integrated process from fibre to finish. This allows Chase Erwin designs to be re-engineered into inherently FR and contract-grade textiles that meet international specifications while maintaining their artistry.
Original Chase Erwin Solstice alongside Solstice reinterpreted in Trevira CS
An example shared during the session illustrated this process in action. For a Monaco hotel project, a silk-rich Chase Erwin drapery fabric was reinterpreted in Trevira CS, maintaining its fluidity and texture while meeting FR standards, and achieving a 50% cost reduction. The team referred to this approach as “value engineering,” not as a compromise, but as an intelligent collaboration between design and manufacturing to deliver creative results within budget.
Similarly, for a Rosewood hotel project, Panaz fabrics were re-engineered to meet both aesthetic and performance demands, including the creation of a double-width headboard fabric with soil and stain resistance. The project required balancing cost, specification, and finish, a process made possible through the group’s technical and creative alignment.
Original Chase Erwin Alda alongside Alda reinterpreted in Trevira CS
This collaborative approach to value engineering ensures that design integrity is never compromised, allowing bespoke aesthetics to be maintained even within demanding commercial budgets.
Production Efficiency and Reliable Stockholding
The integration with Panaz also delivers efficiency and scale. Designers can expect sampling for woven fabrics within 2-3 days, sampling for woven custom fabrics within 2-4 weeks, with even faster turnaround for digitally printed designs produced in-house.
With stockholding exceeding 2 million metres, Panaz ensures dependable supply across high-volume collections such as Aston and Riva, held in thousands of metres and over a hundred colourways. This infrastructure allows for swift order fulfilment, accommodating both bespoke developments and urgent projects, an essential advantage in the hospitality sector, where timelines are tight and consistency is critical.
Panaz Riva Collection
Luxury in Practice: Hospitality Applications
Through collaboration with Panaz, Chase Erwin is now firmly established in global hospitality projects, supporting designers in achieving aesthetic continuity and technical compliance.
In addition to the Monaco and Rosewood hotels, the brand’s Kayi design has been adapted for use in luxury hotels across the Middle East, where its organic, landscape-inspired pattern has been scaled and recoloured for wall panels and drapery. These projects exemplify how Chase Erwin’s distinct handwriting can be tailored for large-scale commercial environments without losing its artisanal character.
Chase Erwin Solstice Collection
Evolving Design Trends: Textiles as Wallcoverings
One of the session’s highlighted trends was the rise of textiles as wallcoverings, a trend driven by designers seeking warmth, depth, and acoustic benefits. Fabrics like Solstice and Alda are increasingly being paper-backed or FR-backed to create layered wall surfaces that deliver texture and serenity.
This approach has been embraced in hotels and cruise ships, where textile wallcoverings add luxury and performance in equal measure. Panaz’s UK facilities offer a range of backings, including acoustic and FR options, ensuring that designers can specify confidently, knowing both beauty and compliance are achieved.
Performance Finishes that Protect and Preserve
The Lunch & Learn also explored technical finishes that enhance the longevity and cleanability of fabrics. Treatments such as Soil & Stain and ShieldPlus antimicrobial coating are applied during production to create an invisible barrier that repels spills for up to an hour before absorption.
These finishes are carefully calibrated to each fabric type, ensuring performance without compromising texture. For example, Elki, a boucle yarn collection, incorporates Soil & Stain while retaining its soft, lofty texture, an achievement that demonstrates Panaz’s technical precision.
Panaz Elki Collection
Beyond stain resistance, ShieldPlus provides immediate antimicrobial protection, while waterproof constructions layer barrier films between fabric and backing to create hygienic, durable, yet tactile surfaces. Together, these innovations ensure fabrics maintain their beauty throughout extended hospitality lifecycles, supporting both sustainability and cost efficiency.
Conclusion: Redefining Modern Luxury
The Chase Erwin Lunch & Learn revealed how the brand’s philosophy of quiet luxury has evolved through its partnership within The Panaz Group, allowing designers to access bespoke Trevira CS textiles with built-in performance.
By aligning creativity, technical expertise, and large-scale capability, Chase Erwin and Panaz are redefining what luxury means in the contract market, where aesthetic refinement, performance, and value meet seamlessly.
For designers, this collaboration offers the ultimate assurance: the freedom to specify beautiful, handcrafted textiles that perform as flawlessly as they look!