The Journey of one textile sales agent
Recently, we reorganized my office adding an 8ft bookcase to house all of my photos and memos of international travel over the past almost 50 years. We have made these photos available for others to see for the first time as we thought they may be of interest.
This international journey started in 1975, when my Dad closed his California warehouse where I was manager of Keeton Industries, our family upholstery distributor of fabrics and supplies. My Dad had sent me in 1972 to replace my uncle who was retiring.
Deciding I wanted to be an agent, rather than an importer or wholesaler of fabrics, I began to find good fabric lines to show my clients on the West Coast where I had been working for Keeton Industries. I knew all of the American fabric manufacturers because we had been a major client for many of the best mills. The problem, they all had super good agents in Los Angeles making big money. I quickly saw I was going to have a problem.
Then I let them know I spoke Spanish and it all changed. None of the mills were selling in Latin America directly. I had a new job. Quickly, Malden Mills, Quaker Fabrics as well as Chris Stone and David and Dash made up my line filling 3-4 cases or American sample trunks as we called them back then.
Mexico
The first country we visited opened up my eyes to the issue with trade with Mexico. The export of fabrics to Mexico was actually prohibited and had to be “smuggled” through the border towns. Legal imports were few and far between. My New Mexican importers introduced me to ITMA, a weaving mill in San Miguel de Allende, in the Guanajuato state.
Surrounded by sheep in the rolling hills of central Mexico, the designing, carding, dyeing, weaving and promotion of hand loom wool fabrics went into my sample bag for potential sales in America. My first meeting was with Allan Wyatt of Robert Allen in his hotel room in Chicago. Allen and Robert were friends of my Dad, and were the first jobber who showed interest.
Mexican wool manufacturing factory 1976
Photos by Johnny Keeton
Germany
Years of travelling primarily in Latin America, eventually led me to Europe for Heimtextil in Germany. During these years, working now from my office and showroom in New York’s home textile district, I met a man that was the most talented textile designer/producer/promoter still to this day I have ever met. Diethard Stella was the president and owner of Aste Mobilstoff in Eislengen, German. His line was hugely successful in Asia, and my territory for eight years was to show the new lines and attend the shows to all the key clients from Japan to Indonesia.
I was on salary plus commission. It was a great learning experience. At the time I was still representing American mills…when America was the go-to country for prints…Chris Stone and David and Dash were right up there with the heavy hitters like Lanscott, Anju, Richloom, P Kaufmann, Swavelle… all had a big run for years.
Morocco
As our agency kept the Asian market up on the Aste line…a line starting at $20.00 per meter and up…back in the 80’s, Dr. Stelzl made an agreement with Manatex Casablanca, a jacquard mill he helped start in the mid 80’s in Casablanca. A mill with all new Dornier jacquards looms that was, at the time, doing some weaving for Mastercraft, America’s most exciting jacquard producer. For five years our team in High point and Los Angeles promoted the tapestry and the Moroccan Kilim looks from the historical Berber tribes of the Sahara. The furniture retailers loved the looks.
Morocco
Photos by Johnny Keeton
South American Source of design and colour
During my time with Dr. Diethard Stelzl in the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s he became interested in Latin America and the idea to visit these countries for ideas and new colour combinations. This led to a long trip where we visited a number of areas of Latin America where the local Indians continue the weavings that could have been dyed and woven in the same way centuries ago.
We visited Guatemala where we saw textiles being woven with back strap looms and hand loom qualities used for clothing, window and upholstery. A textile market, held on Thursday and Sunday, was an incredible site for Dr. Stelzl to see.
Guatamala
Photos by Johnny Keeton
In Panama, the gateway to South America we visited the San Blas Islands, a group of 250 islands that are inhabited by the Kuna Indians…primarily making their funds from the “Molas’ seen all over the world as decoration for the home.
Panama - San Blas Islands Kuna
Photos by Johnny Keeton
Bolivia and Peru
The trip finished with Dr. Stelzl seeing the beautiful Indian monuments in Machu Picchu in Peru and the llamas in Bolivia…both countries with rich hand woven textiles…accented with brilliant vegetable dyes.
Bolivia
Photos by Johnny Keeton
Heimtextil 1988 Aste stand
Dr. Stelzl featured a hand loom and a back strap loom on the Aste stand, and showcased a number of new Aste designs with motifs that were by the Indian textiles he saw and bought on his trip. It was a huge success for Aste. I saw many companies at the Koln furniture show the same January who had for one, the exact copy of the Mexican calendar. I am not sure if the Germans even knew it was the Mexican calendar but the design was a big success.
Mexico- again
As time went by, we were drawn back to Mexico. The early 90’s Europe discovered flock fabric. Microfibers led the way and within a few years, the Koln Furniture show was all flock velvet from a host of printers and converters taking advantage of the trend that was unstoppable. We teamed up with Terpel, located in Mexico and for 5 years we sold containers from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia and all parts in between. One season, I asked the owner, Mr. Abraham Dialostozky if I could go to Oaxaca and look for designs for the flock fabrics we were printing. We returned with 10 different Tapises that eventually we put into repeat and launched in the USA and Europe at the next market.
They were accepted and sold worldwide for several seasons…even in Mexico, which no one expected. Again, ethnic motifs in a sophisticated setting wins the day!
Guess what, this is still going on…..
Side Note: During the days of flock sales in 1989, I passed by the stand of Quaker Fabrics in Heimtextil. It was EMPTY. At a time all American companies were selling like crazy, Quaker did not even show up for the show, making the rest of us look bad. Having worked with Quaker and knowing the team, when I returned to the states, I called the new President and owner Larry Liebenow and complained. He was very receptive and, in fact, surprisingly, he asked me to come to Fall River and meet with him and the Quaker sales team. I did and during Heimtextil of the next year, we had a sales meeting at the Frankfurter Hof Hotel . We had 42 agents attending, from all continents. A new American textile powerhouse was “relaunched”. The company would eventually do over 80 million dollars a year in sales outside of the USA. That was in the days when in America we did not say “Buy American Products” our motto was “Sell American Products”.
