SPARTANBURG, SC—Milliken & Company is re-entering the residential upholstery fabric field with a patented, trademarked performance fabric named Breathe™. The first sale of Breathe has been made on a direct basis to the retailer Pottery Barn with 200 stores. “Pottery Barn has made the commitment to our customers to provide them with a range of sustainable options to build both a comfortable and healthy home,” Pottery Barn President Marta Benson says. “We selected both the performance cotton twill and the performance slub cotton in the Breathe fabrics to offer our guests new choices when it comes to shopping for performance fabric.” Current colors for Performance Twill include warm white, cream, silver taupe, cadet navy, stone and metal gray.  Current colors for Performance Slub Cotton are white, ivory, silver taupe, stone and metal gray. While Pottery Barn is the first buyer of Breathe which is featured on frames soon to be on the retailer’s furniture floor, Milliken is hoping to capture orders from other furniture manufacturers. For that purpose, Milliken expects to attend Showtime in High Point in June with plans to display their fabrics at Showtime in December. Milliken also has successful entrees in the hospitality business through Visa^® table linens, contract upholstery and floor coverings. While the market is already loaded with performance upholstery fabrics and finishes, Milliken feels its product and technology is superior to anything else on the market. Similar to all high-performance fabrics, Breathe by Milliken products are durable, stain resistant and easily cleanable as well. Milliken says that Breathe “is a fluorine-free high-performance product that derives its liquid repellency from an environmentally-friendly, unique in-house developed plant-based formula.” The fabric is available in natural and synthetic fibers ranging from cotton to polyester that is manufactured from recycled plastic beverage bottles. Milliken officials say the fabrics have either met or surpassed the standards of third-party testing in the areas of water repellency, soil release, spot cleaning, colorfastness, abrasion resistance and piling, and have received Greenguard Gold certification, which is awarded to products proven to conform to the world’s most rigorous environmental standards, according to David Smith, vice president of Milliken division Engineered Performance Product, one of 44 companies that comprise Milliken. In addition to containing no fluorine, Breathe also contains no formaldehyde or fire retardants, Milliken says, yet the fabrics conform to industry flammability standards.  They also contain no other potentially harmful chemicals that recently have been deemed unsafe for fabric/furniture production and/or protection because of their potential to negatively impact the environment. “The front room is no longer off limits,” Milliken research manager Emily Michaels said with tongue-in-cheek yet serious in her reference to the single room of a typical residence that traditionally is reserved for “adult” company and, with rare if any exceptions, was virtually off-limits to children and pets.  Durable high-performance fabric upholstery covers resistant to stains and spills are easy to spot clean and, in extreme cases, can be unzipped and removed from cushions to be cleaned in washing machines without diminishing the integrity of the product. Michaels, who holds a doctorate degree in inorganic chemistry from Clemson University and received a post-doctorate appointment with Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, is the mother of young children as well as the scientist who developed the environmentally-friendly plant-based formula responsible for the fabrics’ liquid repellency.  Well respected by her peers at Milliken who credit her for fast development of the plant-based water repellency formula, Michaels said she was inspired to “think globally, act locally” to create environmentally friendly furniture with benefits that extend into the home. “We want to serve not only our manufacturing customers, but their end-users as well,” Michaels said.  “This product is a continuation of that philosophy.  Breathe fabrics not only meet industry standards.  It raises the bar.” Although Milliken officials have attended industry showcases, the company itself has not yet displayed its products to the industry at large, mostly because of Michaels’ ability to work significantly ahead of schedule.  Sales efforts have thus far been directed by Rene Vaughn, director of sales and marketing for Milliken who was instrumental in acquainting Pottery Barn with the new product. Breathe is manufactured in southeastern USA in plants located in the Carolinas and in Georgia, although the company itself has more than 35 manufacturing plants throughout the world.  The company, which reportedly has been in operation since 1865, employs more than 7,000 associates worldwide. By John Lowe