When considering the best design shopping in New York City, the East Village isn’t the first neighborhood (or second, or even third) that comes to mind. Yet, when Turkish decor shop Tamam opened on East 5th Street in late 2018, designers immediately gravitated to the petite, buoyant shop brimming with vibrant Anatolian kilim rugs, Armenian embroidery, and vintage Uzbek ikat bowls—a spilled-over suitcase homebound from a successful sourcing trip to Istanbul, in shop form. Now, there’s another reason to schedule a visit to the appointment-only lair: A debut range of by-the-yard fabrics exclusively for the trade.
An ode to Iznik tile and ceramic patterns from the Ottoman Empire, the fabric series is a follow-up to the inaugural tabletop collection Tamam launched in 2020, which also draws from antique Turkish ceramics. “We wanted our fabrics to be a further expression of our love for these beautiful designs,” Tamam co-owner Clare Louise Frost tells AD PRO.
Frost, a textile designer and actress who splits her time between the U.S. and Turkey, founded Tamam with Istanbul-based Hüseyin Kaplan—a prominent carpet dealer—and Elizabeth Hewitt, the visionary behind Tulu Textiles. As Frost puts it, “We are all old friends who met in Istanbul and love to collect old Turkish objects.”
Dreamed up collaboratively by Frost and Hewitt, the five new fabrics are a departure from the designers’ individual textile works. “My patterns are usually chunky and angular, and Tulu has its own personality. These fabrics have a specific voice,” Frost says. She also points out how the expressions telegraph the Ottoman era through fresh, rescaled motifs that are hand block-printed on a cotton-linen blend by artisans in Rajasthan, India. “I love pulling influences from different countries and telling the story of world textiles.”
Despite being a trade-only offering, the fabrics are garnering attention beyond the designer set. The collection’s very first customer? “My mother, who re-did her dining room chairs in time for Thanksgiving with [the pattern] Izzet,” Frost says. To create the chain-like print, which derives from Islamic patterns, “octagons are placed over each other, and there are flowers in between. The mathematics behind it are fascinating,” Frost says. The collection also includes Selin, graced with subtly rippled swaths of florals, and elegant Zerrin, emblazoned with diamond shapes that possess an understated Victorian air.
Color plays a prominent role in the designs. The Osman fabric, for instance, stands out for its rich blue ground punctuated by thick braids of orange and white. Aziz, by contrast, is delicate, mixing pink, purple, and pale turquoise hues with undulating scrolling forms that conjure a “stylized cloud,” Frost says, a modern update to a cloud band design originating from China. “It’s a reference to nature that feels like there is movement, that even in something simple there is something going on underneath.”
The fabrics, which also adorn throw pillows, tablecloths, and napkins throughout the shop, intentionally bring a new layer to Tamam, helping to expand it as a brand, and “untether it from the idea of just a store,” Frost says. “Each design is distinct, but they play well together.” As versatile as these patterns are, Frost says, “I’m sure they’re going to be popping up in many places.”
