PHOTO BY SOPHIE KOHN
Clay McLaurin Studio has much to celebrate. This spring the fabric company launched its latest collection, Conversations with Silence, a group of patterned textiles inspired by a trip founders Clay McLaurin and Todd Piercy took to a 12th-century Cistercian monastery in Spain. Its cloisters’ tracery, gothic columns and brickwork made an impression on McLaurin (below, right, with Piercy), who translated the shapes into three patterns and 11 colorways. This September, the duo also fetes their one-year anniversary as the owners of venerable LA Mills in downtown Los Angeles, where they now reside. The mill, which has been in production since 1964, continues to manufacture luxury textiles for esteemed brands such as Kravet, Holly Hunt and Schumacher, among others, and now also produces McLaurin’s designs. “There’s cachet to boutique fabric lines. There’s honesty about where things are made, how we source, our footprint,” says McLaurin. “But to be a manufacturer right now, you have to think differently. We want to create a synergy and treat our employees fairly. We’re makers, and together, the sky’s the limit.” claymclaurin.com
