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Kravet Introduces Tribal-Inspired Performance Fabrics with J Banks Design Group
New York – Kravet is thrilled to announce the launch of Tanzania, an ethnic inspired performance fabric
collection designed by South Carolina-based J Banks Design Group. The graphically stunning patterns
and textures offer modern interpretations of traditional African tribal designs, a style that has a more
profound meaning for J Banks than just an aesthetic appeal.
Since its inception in 1985, J Banks has grown into an internationally recognized design firm celebrated
for creating casually elegant interiors for residential clients and high-end commercial projects both
nationwide and abroad. For its first-ever fabric collection, J Banks collaborated with Kravet to create a
line of performance fabrics that offer a residential style and feel inspired by founder and president Joni
Vanderslice’s many trips to Africa.
“The varied, beautiful and colorful fabrics, buildings, animals and surroundings stayed with me long after
each trip. I love the way the women mix patterns and fabrics as they cover their head from the sun or
swaddle their babies on their backs,” said Vanderslice, whose first visit to Africa was in 2009, two years
after her husband participated in a medical mission trip on a remote island off of the coast of Tanzania.
One particularly impactful trip for Vanderslice led to the Valentine Project, J Banks’ philanthropic efforts
to build an orphanage in Dar es Salaam. “As I traveled to Uganda, Rwanda, and Ghana, looking at other
orphanages, supporting people who came to Africa to make a huge difference and learning from them, I
became aware of how important the fabrics are to each individual country,” said Vanderslice. “Each
region has unique designs that are identifiable to them.”
The varied patterns and textures of Tanzania beautifully mimic and modernize intricate colorfully
patterned Kente cloths, wood carvings from Zanzibar and the scenic colors of the Serengeti Desert.
Tanzania is available in Kravet showrooms nationwide and at www.kravetcontract.com.
Kravet Contract, created in 1997 to service the contract hospitality market, offers a diverse range of
woven products, sheers, bedding and heat transfer prints to the hospitality, healthcare and A&D
industries. For unique specifications, Kravet Contract offers Made to Order, a comprehensive
customization program designed to provide unique solutions for contract projects. If you can imagine it,
we can create it for your contract, hospitality or health care project. The Made to Order program
includes bedding, prints, wovens, trimmings and wall coverings. All can be created to exact
specifications to address price point, scale, color, durability and more. Kravet Contract has products
that will meet and exceed your specifying and design needs. For more information, go to
www.kravetcontract.com, contact your local sales representative or visit your nearest showroom.
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