On a recent afternoon, Textile Fabrics is bustling with activity.
A Belmont design student at one end of the cutting counter has laid out a dress pattern she designed. Veteran employee Vicki Long helps her select the right fabrics, as she’s done for countless others over her 28 years here.
At the other end of the cutting counter, employee Charles Brown is working on repurposing three thrifted blazers, sorting through laces and silks in hopes of saving the jackets from an untimely end.
The peaceful, focused energy of the store is interrupted by a dog coming through the door. Everyone turns around to greet Bella, who belongs to Sheila Cook, a customer at Textile Fabrics for 30 years.
“I see a sign in the front that makes me sad,” Cook said. “I’m retired, so I understand it, but I’m sad about it.”
“30 percent off retirement sale,” is plastered across the windows in big, bold, red letters. Textile Fabrics in Berry Hill off of Craighead Street is set to close as soon as it sells out of fabric or someone purchases the building.
‘Chevrolet and a Mercedes’
“I’ve been unwell for a while, and it just seemed like the right time,” Textile Fabrics owner Chip Grimes told the Banner.
Grimes has owned the shop for 32 years.
“I don’t have anybody in the family to take it over or anything, and I just can’t put the time into it or be here like I was able to earlier,” he said. “I wasn’t planning on closing it quite so soon but it’s just the way it worked out.”
When he took over, the store was in Green Hills, but it moved to multiple locations before it settled into its current location about nine years ago. His parents purchased the store in the 1980s, but the Grimes family’s involvement in the fabric business goes even further back. His grandfather owned a fabrics store right here in Nashville, where Grimes’ father worked.
So, the love for fabrics runs deep in the family. But, like his mother, Grimes has never learned to sew himself.
“I’m not that patient,” he said, adding that he finds joy in watching other people bring their ideas into fruition at his store.
“We have several different classes, including a ‘sit and sew’ for people to work on their individual projects. So, I see them struggling and getting help with all the stuff that they do,” Grimes said. “They seem to have a good time doing it.”
Much of Grimes’ work entails locating the highest quality fabrics, and curating such a selection can be a lot more work than it sounds.
“We go to shows, and sometimes go to markets. And then, of course, salesmen come here with their samples,” Grimes said. “Lately, it’s easiest to get stuff through the internet although we prefer to see it in person, because it’s so tactile, you know, you need to get the feel and everything right.”
Over the years, Grimes tried to go the extra mile to make sure he had stocked just what his customers seek — whether it’s a polyester blend for less than $20 per yard or a camel hair blend for more than $130 per yard. Cook has certainly appreciated the effort, which has contributed to her longevity.
“They have a little bit of everything for everybody, and they always listen to their customers about what they want with fabric,” Cook said. “Nashville needs this store, so I hope somebody buys it.”
While a city like New York may have an entire district devoted to fabric stores, in Nashville, Textile Fabrics is the go to place for anyone looking for quality fabrics. And while one could make their way out to one of the three Joann fabric stores on the outskirts of the city, or Botani Fabrics on Nolensville for synthetic material, just a few minutes perusing the aisles at Textile Fabrics is a reminder of why the slightly — but not by much — higher price tags are worth it.
Customer Connie Smith, a friend of Cook’s, said the comparison between a place like Joann and Textile Fabrics is simple.
“Chevrolet and a Mercedes,” she said.
A fit for everyone
The Textile Fabric’s clientele ranges far and wide. Women needing a dress for the Swan Ball might be shopping next to drag queens assembling their outfits. A touring musician might be shopping for tour outfits next to a man who needs to make pants long enough to conceal the stilts on which he performs. Someone who does vintage furniture reupholstery might be shopping next to someone looking for water-resistant materials to reupholster their boat.
“We get a lot of photographers coming in who need backdrops. We get lots of audio engineers who want fabric to cover sound panels in their studio. Not a week, I would say, goes by that we don’t have at least one,” employee Charles Brown said.
Cook and Smith’s favorite pieces in their wardrobes all began as bolts of fabric displayed along the aisles of Textile Fabrics. Smith can recall multiple pieces over the years that she no longer wears but can’t help but keep around, feeling as if they’re art pieces. Because while a piece of clothing from Shein or Zara or even Louis Vuitton or Dior has hundreds of thousands of identical copies, many of the pieces in Smith and Cook’s closets are one of one.
“I’m hard to fit. Most women are not just going to pick a dress off the rack and it fits in every area,” Smith explained. “That’s why I like to have clothes made, because my clothes fit.”
And Rosie Barnett is who they have to thank. She has been working at Textile Fabrics for as long as Cook has been a customer. And she’s been sewing since she was just nine years old.
“There was a lady that lived next door to us when I was growing up, and she’d sew for other people,” Barnett said.
“Back then [in the 1960s], there was a lot of prejudices. So she would go to their house to fit them. She taught me how to sew the correct way, where no one would be able to tell whether you made it, or you bought it.”
Barnett has crafted clothing for everyone from Swan Ball attendees to touring musicians to local news anchors. She pointed at a green silk satin 1950s swing dress she once made for one of her coworker’s daughters, now on display. But she won’t make things for just anyone.
“I’m very selective about the projects that I take. I kind of get a feel for their personality,” she said.
Sewing clothing from scratch is a time-consuming process — especially when you have a weekly commute between Nashville and Chattanooga. When she moved to Chattanooga 15 years ago after her husband got a new job, she quit Textile Fabrics. But two weeks later, she was back.
“That was enough time, and then I said, I want to go back to work,” Barnett said.
She’s been working part-time ever since.
While Barnett may be the only staff member who consistently picks up projects for other people, all of the staff sews — “threadaholics,” as they call themselves. Brown is one, and he come by it honestly.
“My mom, so she’s a seamstress and tailor — she actually works here now one day a week, she started a couple of months ago — but I remember coming when I was in high school and sort of studying the fabrics and stuff and just sort of learning what is what,” Brown said. “At that point, I already knew I wanted to be a designer.”
One day while wandering the aisles of Textile Fabrics, Brown met a woman who was a teacher at the O’More College of Design. She told Brown about a design school she went to in Atlanta.
“I wrote it down in my little sketchbook, went home and looked it up. And that’s where I ended up going to college,” Brown said. “A lot of my life spun off from just happening upon this fashion design teacher in a fabric store. So, you know, 20 something years later, I’m working at the fabric store that sort of fed me even as a kid.”
While Brown’s first collection out of college may have used Joann fabrics — he was working there at the time — he quickly upgraded.
“Anytime I’ve had a client who needed something clearly remarkable or special, I’ve always come here,” Brown said. “I would say that our store is on par with the best in the country, and every time I travel, I go to fabric stores. I don’t see how any local designers or makers could do what they do without us to some degree.”
And while everything is still up in the air, Grimes still has high hopes that the store will live on.
“I wasn’t planning on selling it, but I’ve had several express interest in it,” Grimes said. “So I’m hoping it’ll continue in some form not with me involved, but with somebody else.”
“It’s a really cool place, and it’s great to sort of be in the epicenter of the creative community in terms of fashion, in terms of clothing, garment making,” Brown said. “Not everyone considers themselves designers, not everyone considers themselves seamstresses, but we all kind of end up intersecting here. It’s a great community center in that way, and I’m hoping we can find an owner and stay open and maybe even in the new space, create more space for community to meet and congregate.”