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I don’t know about you, but great customer service starts at the top and this man is definitely at the top of my list when it comes to company presidents! 
 
Allow me to introduce you to Dick Gentry, President of Wesco Fabrics, one of the many fabric lines I represent but one of the collections I show first, because of Dick.
 
I first heard about Wesco Fabrics from Deb Barrett, a very talented designer of couture window fashions like myself and I have always admired her for her imaginative designs.  She is a gifted speaker and one of her classic seminars is on Runway Fashions for draperies.  In this seminar, she displays many window treatments made from fabrics and trims sourced from all over the world.  And so it was during one of these seminars that she introduced me to Wesco Fabrics.  It was a beautiful sheer that had round sheer petals sewn on.  I was hooked!  I wanted to know more about this company!
 
Enter Facebook.  I got a friend request from this guy named Dick Gentry and I had absolutely no idea who he was!   Call me crazy, but I always Google people’s names when I get a request because I choose to be on Facebook for business.  When I Googled his name, I couldn’t believe that a president of a fabric company wanted to be MY friend!  Of course, I accepted.  
 
This is Dick on a recent trip to China, sourcing out new fabrics from a showroom he and his wife visited.  I took this photo from his blog so please don’t be mad at me Dick.  I loved that at the bottom of this picture on his blog he had the question: 
 
Is this the look of creativity or chaos?
 
I giggled because in all honesty, to me it is creative chaos!  Can there be any other way?
 
 

Dick Gentry in a showroom choosing some great new fabrics for upcoming collections

Because he is a friend of mine on Facebook and subscribes to my blog, he knew the trials and tribulations I have been having with this skin cancer thing.   Last week I was going through old emails trying to clean things up a bit, it’s all I felt like doing for the whole day, and I found a confirmation email from back in October about receiving an addition to my collection of sample books.  I double checked my shelves and nope, I didn’t get it. 
 
So I decided to go straight to the top!  I left him a message about not receiving them and a couple days later, this is what he posted on my page:
 
“I saw your post and made sure the samples are heading your way.  Hope you like them!  They are my gift to you to help speed up your recuperation with creative window covering dreams!”
 
Does this guy ROCK or what?!
 
And so, this next photo is the two books I got over the weekend.
They are the Road To Success and the Light House books.
 
 
 
 
 

2 new sample books to add to my collection!

This set of three fabrics below really grabbed me too!  They are from the Road To Success book.  From top to bottom, the Pattern names are:  Resources/Aubergine,  Communication/Purple, and Focus/Purple.
 
The sheer Pattern name is Paradigm/Purple.  I am definitely feeling some creative dreaming going on here.
 
 
 
 

new samples books with purple fabrics

 
 And this is why:  my office is PURPLE!  This is a picture of a little sitting area I have off of my desk.  I fell in love with this purple toile from Kasmir fabrics years ago and it has since been discontinued, but I am not bored with it in the least.  I used it as an upholstered wall, the whole side wall and I feel so inspired in this space.  It is where I come and have my AHHHHH moments.  I have a purple beaded tieback from Conso strewn on the back of the chair as well as purple beads hanging from my lampshade.   On my table, is an awesome purple purse I got while in Paris.  If you look real close, you will see that it is a bustier with “Paris” embroidered on it.  And yes, I have used this purse on occasion!  Mais oui Madame!
 
 

seating area in office against upholstered wall

 
Here is another shot of the seating area with a really neat print of a gal advertising Luxotica glass frames with purple flowers in her hair and of course, a bejeweled exotic cat.  I have had this up here for years with Scotch tape because I can’t decide on a color for a frame!  This is where my ADD kicks in.  Why is it that I can go into a client’s house and know exactly what they need and I have the hardest time for myself?  I’ll tell you why:  I have too many options at my fingertips.  And I have ADD.  Menus are real bad for me too.  I usually have 3 things I want to order but never know until the waitress takes my order what I will end up with. 
 
 
 

a corner view of the office and upholstered wall

 
This picture I’m sure you remember as I had posted it on a previous blog post.  This is one of Dick’s fabrics that he graciously donated for my display at the Marketplace Design Center in Philadelphia.  It is a beautiful hand woven silk and I knew as soon as I saw it, that I had to have it! 
 
 
 
 

gorgeous handwoven silk Pattern: Connick Color: Cognac

 This is how I used it in my display.  I banded it with another fabric and hung it under a cornice and gracefully draped it through one of Rémy Lemoine’s Straw Marquetry holdbacks. 
 
 

handwoven silk used in the display

 
It now goes on the road with me too when I teach seminars.  You just have to touch and see this fabric in person to really appreciate its beauty.  Thank you Dick, it is getting more mileage on it than you probably imagined it would. 
 

taking it on the road

 
And I know you remember this, it was the tufted wall I did using another of Dick’s fabrics. 
 
 

the dining room with the tufted wall

 
And guess what?  He loved it so much he put it in the latest price list for all to see what they can do with this fabric!   
 
 
 

I made it in the latest price list!

 And so there you have it.  This is how one president operates his company.  Don’t you wish they all were like him?  He has a really neat blog too so I encourage you to follow it HERE.  He recently posted about cycling in Tuscany, yes Tuscany.  Gorgeous pictures of the landscape and he actually had the stamina to ride his bike.  I think I would just follow him in a car and wait up at a bistro having a gelati or some Amaretto on the rocks!  That’s more my speed.
 
So thank you Dick Gentry for being the kind of guy you are.  And yes, I am totally inspired to create great things with these new books!
 
 THIS JUST IN FOLKS: 
 
I got a lovely email from Dick at 1:47 this afternoon (1/26)  wanting me to know that he is actually the Vice President, not the President, and his wife Marla, is actually the President.  Does this not tell you what kind of a man he is?  He is givng credit to where it is due.  He did not let his pride or male ego get in the way and wants his wife to be credited for the excellent work that she does.  In fact, it was her parents that started the business.  Marla is one smart cookie, both professionally and personally.  At one time though, he was the President for 15 years.  Thanks Dick for that correction :)  
 
 
 
 
 
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