Maresca Textiles Unveils New Collection, Inspired By Southern Roots

After graduating from design school, Kathryn Faull founded Maresca Textiles, where she creates luxurious printed linens, wallpapers and outdoor fabrics available to the trade. “I thought I would study fashion design but realized that textiles were my true passion,” she says. The studio, now based in Chicago after six years in Georgia, recently launched the Andrews Collection with four new prints. Here, Faull talks to LUXE about her process and aesthetic sensibility.

How do you approach your work?

My intention is to always maintain the artisanal feel of my brand. All my designs start from marks made on paper using various techniques that display and highlight the hand at work. My prints are designed with purpose, referencing architecture, nature and my Southern heritage. Take the Andrews Collection: The colorways adopt the quirks of the Lowcountry and evoke nostalgic memories of home. Designed through a modern lens, the traditionally inspired motifs and layouts are transformed into a collection of contemporary textiles and wallpapers that live in the present but honor the past and its influences.

Can you give us some insight into your process?

I use many different mark-making techniques, from pen-and-ink drawing to watercolor. Each method has its own visual language, and I like to use them together to tell a story. Keeping the handmade look in the end product is important and sets the designs apart from others on the market. I want clients to love their textiles for years to come, which means keeping the designs classic and using the highest quality pigments, dyes, and ground fabrics and papers.

You’re from South Carolina and started your company in Georgia. How has living in the Midwest influenced your work?

While living in Savannah, I had time and space to get started, but it took relocating to a bigger city to get my business off the ground. We live in Riverside, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. It’s one of the oldest suburban communities in the country and is rich in historical architecture. Victorian mansions sit next to craftsman bungalows, and there are even a few Frank Lloyd Wright homes. Architecture has always influenced my work, so I’m grateful to be surrounded by these gems.