Season's Greetings From Langhorne Carpet Company - An American Classic

When our great grandfather and grandfather founded LanghorneCarpets in 1930, our company was one of many thriving American manufacturers. Today, our Bucks County, PA-based, family-run business is a rarity in our region and in our country.

Langhorne began with six “velvet” looms purchased from Henry Ford after his company found them too complicated, cumbersome, and costly for a mass producer of “affordable” automobiles to run. Our team, our family, took on the challenge of weaving the highest quality Jacquard Wilton wool carpets anywhere. We did not make carpets for car interiors, but instead for the interiors of fine homes and iconic structures in the U.S. and abroad. More than 80 years later, we proudly weave our carpets using the same methods our ancestors did. Technology has changed and assisted us along the way, but we’d be nowhere without the wise, dedicated and diligent workers and artisans of Langhorne Carpet.

In this season of celebrating and giving, of gathering with family and friends, we’d like to take a moment to honor our staff—the Langhorne family. Heartfelt gratitude to: Andy, Saul, Jose, Benny, Hector Pagan, Cheka, Wanda, John, Sue, Felipa, Vanessa, Danielle, Carmen, Ana, Maria, June, Kim, Manny, Diane, Michelle, Andi, Mark, Jerry, Lydia, Matt, Luis, Oti, Grace and Hector.

Thank you. Wishing you and your families, both at home and at work and in your communities, healthy and happy holidays and all the best for 2017.

Cozy up on one of our carpets. We promise it’ll do you a world of good.

Picture courtesy of the Bucks County Courier Times

Langhorne Carpet Company Reveals Restored Mill Sign

The 109 year-old red brick exterior of our Wilton Jacquard mill stands tall with a new hand-painted sign. Thanks to our friends at the Vital Signs project of Temple Contemporary, Langhorne Carpets proudly reveals a thoroughly restored company mural along Route 1 in historic Penndel, Bucks County.

The sign now proudly reads:

Langhorne Carpet Company

Manufacturers of the Unusual

The Foundation of Fine Interiors^®
Wilton Carpet

Penndel Proud

Since 1930

The Morrow family would like to thank Robert Blackson and Sarah Biemiller of Temple Contemporary,  Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Assistant Director of Exhibitions, respectively, for including our family-run company among the multi-generational Philadelphia-area businesses who have benefited from Vital Signs. We’d also like to thank painter William Sanders and his team of Lauren West, Justin Phillips, Dan Sanders, and Denise Botcheos, for their exquisite work to re-create a sign Langhorne’s founders would be proud of. Thanks, too, to Mural Arts Philadelphia, co-founder of Vital Signs with Temple Contemporary in 2013, for loaning the scaffolding that allowed the group of talented local artists to complete the 20’-by-40’ mural.

Please join our team and representatives of the Borough of Penndel for an official reveal of the restored sign at 1 p.m. on Thursday, December 1, 2016.

Langhorne Carpet Company Exterior Sign Makeover!

If you’ve passed by Langhorne Carpets on Route 1 (West Lincoln Highway) in Penndel lately, you might have noticed some extra activity. Scaffolding has gone up, down, and up again along the red brick wall that faces the busy Bucks County thoroughfare.

The brick exterior of our Wilton Jacquard mill has seen more than a century of changes. When it was built in 1907, the structure was an  architectural pioneer because of its free-standing roof—no supporting beams. For generations, our mill has withstood time’s tests. Alas, over the decades, the hand-painted mural outside hasn’t had such luck. Through the years, environmental and man-made conditions have taken their toll. Every few decades, we’ve had to repaint it.

This time, we’ve gone a step further. We joined up with Vital Signs, a project founded in 2013 by our friends at Temple Contemporary (part of the University’s Tyler School of Art) and Mural Arts Philadelphia. Vital Signs pairs active, multi-generation Philadelphia-area businesses with local artists to restore hand-painted exterior signs to their original glory.

For the past few months, we’ve worked with artists and re-pointers to get our wall back into shape. We’re excited to invite the public to an official reveal of the restored sign at 1 p.m. on Thursday, December 1, 2016!

Sculptor Finds Creative Use for Langhorne Carpets Jacquards!

Activity at our mill seems to increase in autumn. This season is no exception: Langhorne Carpets family has been busy making our new Pixels, awaiting the installation of a new historic reproduction in a grand government building, and ramping up our collaborations with cutting-edge designers.

Still, we wanted to stop to recognize the creativity of longtime Morrow family friend Edward Murphy, a Buckingham, Pennsylvania-based artist who re-purposed a box of our hand-punched cardboard Jacquards in his studio.

Murphy is a sculptor known for his exploration and manipulation of geometric shapes, and his use of found natural objects such as bark and old wood. He shares studio space with his wife, a painter. The couple works side by side in a late-19th century blacksmith’s barn on their countryside property. Years ago, Ed brought home a box of unused Jacquards—the traditional, rectangular hole-perforated cards that run through our looms, dictating the pattern of each of our carpets—from the mill, envisioning using them for a future project. For eight years, those Jacquards sat idle. Then he decided to renovate the barn, turn the second floor into an office, and use the cards as a window treatment.

A large window looks southwesterly onto the artists’ property, offering a stunning view of nearby farms. But this summer was a hot one. The Murphys needed relief from the sun streaming into their office. That’s when Ed remembered his already-strung cards. “I just flashed on it. The cards were exactly the right size,” he recalled. He screwed them in place, and, behold: “A beautiful pattern of dots that are just random enough let in just enough light, and disperses the pattern into the room.”

Langhorne Carpets applauds our friend Ed Murphy’s creative reuse—and always welcomes creative thinkers and makers to our Penndel, Bucks County mill for tours and inspiration.

Langhorne Carpet Restoration Graces the 1786 Physick House in Philadelphia

Langhorne Carpet Company is proud to have a place of honor inside one of the most prominent historic homes in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia. The circa 1786 Physick House belonged Dr. Phillip Syng Physick (1768-1837), the Father of American surgery, physician to James and Dolley Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall, Andrew Jackson and Benjamin Rush.

In the 18th century, the Physick House was the largest residence in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Today, the attraction is open to the public and serves as an elegant example of both Empire and Federal styles—and of Dr. Physick’s less-than-elegant 19th-century surgical instruments. When lauded Society Hill-based interior designer and historic restoration expert Gail Caskey Winkler, PhD, FASID, asked Langhorne Carpets to create a carpet for the parlor in the Physick House, the Morrow family gladly accepted the opportunity to be part of the restoration.

Along with partner Roger W. Moss, PhD, Winkler quite literally wrote the book on the restoration of late 18th through 19th century American buildings. In order to recreate the Physick House’s interior authentically, she chose a carpet pattern that had graced the floor of the reception room in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, a National Historical Landmark that housed the Virginia General Assembly, the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere. For the Virginia State Capitol, Winkler recreated a grand woven carpet featuring large medallions in shades of gold and tan that repeat on a terracotta background. For the Physick House, she set those same medallions against an intense green background to match the home’s wallpaper and décor. The pattern is now part of Langhorne Carpets’ Capitol collection.

We encourage you to view both Langhorne Carpets’ contribution to—and all of—the Physick House at 321 South Fourth Street in Philadelphia. For information about visiting this and other Philadelphia landmarks, go to philalandmarks.org

Newest Line Announced by Langhorne Carpet Company: Pixels!

Circa 1930 Langhorne Carpets proudly announces the launch of our newest running line: Pixels. Woven in pure wool on our Wilton looms, Pixels is so named because it includes an impressive 35 different yarn colors in a vividly geometric pattern that reminds us of the tiny squares that comprise modern photographs. The story of how Pixels came to be is a very happy accident for Langhorne and the Morrow family.

For years, our Bucks County-based heritage Wilton Jacquard mill has been the maker of choice for top-end international design houses. Schumacher, Stark and other textile specialists have long visited to Langhorne to commission, order and observe the fascinating creation of their signature floor coverings. During one such visit, buyers glimpsed the end run of a carpet—the outcome of running yarns through a loom in order to change from one pattern to another. Although unintentional, the resulting striated design struck our guests as wholly unique and distinctly current, both traditional and contemporary, artisanal and sophisticated. Our visitors encouraged owners Bill and Winnifred Morrow and head designer Andi Perlman to turn the overrun into a full-fledged running line.

Making Pixels intentionally was quite an endeavor for our expert group of creelers, weavers and machinists. Feeding and maintaining nearly three dozen distinct colors as warp (up and down) on looms like ours is no easy task. But, as always, the mill was up to the challenge. The results, we are all proud to say, are even more spectacular than we expected. We hope you love Pixels as much as we do

Langhorne Carpet Company - A Close-Knit Family!

Here at Langhorne Carpets, we say “every carpet tells a story.” There’s the story of the wool itself, raised in the U.K. and New Zealand, dyed here in our century-old Bucks County mill. There’s the story of the design, created by in-house by our very own Andi Perlman/ Lydia Whitford (intern), or in collaboration New York interior designer Alex Papachristidis or Philadelphia talent Alex Stadler, among others. There’s the story of the family—three generations that started out with an idea and Wilton Jacquard looms that once belonged to Henry Ford.

But there’s much more to the story—and that’s what takes place behind the scenes in our vital, vibrant working mill itself, one of very few left in the United States or in the world. Langhorne’s floor, filled with machines, some that have served us for decades, some that we’ve recently invested in. They are our machines, and they are machines we often fix ourselves.

Jerry Bell and Mark Wolf are two such fixers. Through the years, the machinists have spent decades learning the ins and outs of each loom, each part, each replacement part. Workers like Jerry and Mark have more than skills. They have an encyclopedic knowledge of how Langhorne runs that makes them absolutely essential to our operation.

“You might say I’ve grown up here,” said Jerry. “I started 35 years ago, tying bobbins, creeling, weaving. Then a mechanic [Bill and Winnifred’s uncle] took me under his wing and taught me how to fix the machines. How to make a part that’s no longer available to buy. How to assemble every nut and bolt in a loom. How to solve a mystery and repair a problem.”

Added Mark, “We are big, yet small. We create these incredible pieces that go all over the world. We’ve made carpets for the Pope and for ambassadors. And still, we’re a close-knit family. People matter here, and it shows in everything we do.”

Labor of Love - Langhorne Honors Behind-the-Scenes Makers of Carpet

When Langhorne Carpets set out to create an unprecedented direct marketing campaign to highlight all the heritage mill has to offer, subjects were easy to choose. Naturally, the Morrow family focused on the traditional, historic and modern Wilton Jacquard carpets they’ve made for going on a century. The Morrows also showcased their pure wool, produced in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. They selected stunning design projects, from penthouse to beach house to state house for lush photographs.

But most important among the choices were Bill and Winnifred Morrow’s insistence on honoring the behind-the-scenes makers who make the Bucks County business the vital, vibrant and absolutely unique place it is. Each mailer—there are four in all—proudly features portraits and stories of Langhorne’s devoted community of contributors.

Andy Ruiz stands in front of a Langhorne loom, alongside his son June and brother Bennie. Together, they are two generations of weavers. “I taught [Bennie and June] to watch the looms run… to listen to them, ” said Andy, “To take pride in what they do.” To the Ruizes, the complex job of transforming skeins of wool into precise designs is both a challenge and a source of great satisfaction. “After all this time, I am still excited to come to work each day. There’s always something new here.”

In another portrait, longtime burler Danielle Archambault lays a hand on a custom design she’s inspected and hand-sewn. “There are about 80,000 loops in a single square yard of carpet,” she said, “My job is to inspect every last one.” Danielle compares her profession to another métier she knows well. “I have five kids and four grandchildren. Being a good burler is a lot like being a good mother. It’s a lot of work, and you have to keep your eye on everything at all times. But at the end of the day, you see the results—and it feels really rewarding.”

British Wool Marketing Board Representative Visits Langhorne Carpet Company

Tim Booth tours Langhore Carpet Company

For decades, Langhorne Carpets has proudly sourced pure, hearty wool from the United Kingdom. Durable British wool has been essential to the creation our Wilton Jacquard carpets. This July, our heritage Bucks County mill became doubly proud when British Wool Marketing Board representative Tim Booth dropped in from across the pond. 

Mr. Booth’s visit wasn’t his first—the Bradford-based textiles expert joked he’d gone out of his way to find the mill before. But the afternoon he spent with mill owners Winnifred and Bill Morrow served as a reminder of the history and commitment to integrity British Wool and Langhorne Carpets share.

"Fifty-five percent of all British wool goes into carpets," said Mr. Booth, explaining that his native country’s particular climate has created particularly hearty sheep, which translates into particularly hearty wool. He also offered a presentation about one of the lesser-known advantages to using pure wool in the home: Fire safety. Wool fibers burn hundreds of times more slowly than synthetic fibers. Wool also tends to self-extinguish. (And, as we saw in a video featuring H.R.H. Prince Charles, wool is also biodegradable.)

British Parliament formally established British Wool in 1950. Back then, the goal was to encourage the United Kingdom’s renowned sheep farmers and wool mills to collaborate in creating a uniform product that represented the best the country has to offer. Today, the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) represents more than 45,000 wool producers across the U.K. The nonprofit organization also works closely with H.R.H Prince Charles on the Campaign for Wool. Additionally, British Wool works globally to educate interior designers, distributors, showrooms, consumers—even school children—on the value of wool through an online curriculum, site visits and more. (Check out BritishWoolLearning.com for a truly adorable wool tutorial.)

No matter the client, said Mr. Booth, "We show them this is what quality looks like. This is what quality feels like." Langhorne always looks forward to new shipments of British wool, and new collaborations with the British Wool Marketing Board.

Iconic Langhorne Wool Carpets Highlighted in New Marketing Campaign

This month, Bucks County’s historic Wilton Jacquard carpet mill makes history once again. Langhorne Carpet Company announces the first phase of an elegant and unprecedented direct marketing campaign to promote the custom weaver’s one-of-a-kind, artisan-crafted, U.S.A.-made carpets. The campaign’s initial launch audience: the coveted design community along the Pacific Ocean between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Sophisticated and meaningful, the four-phase direct mail campaign is based on actual Langhorne customer experiences. Architectural photographs feature select historic, modern and casual homes across the country. There’s the stunning Manhattan penthouse of internationally renowned interior designer Alex Papachristidis, a longtime Langhorne creative partner. There’s the parlor of circa 1830 national landmark Old Economy Village, and a tranquil family vacation home by the sea, rendered in Atlantic blue and pure white.

"We are showing the width and breadth our abilities," Langhorne co-owner Bill Morrow said of the campaign, "Langhorne is known for historic reproductions, custom work, and classic running lines. But we’re also very versatile. All of our work exhibits intricacies in design and color, which we apply to all our projects."

The campaign also includes the story of the circa 1930 suburban Philadelphia mill and the Morrow family’s four generations there. The campaign touches on the source of Langhorne’s iconic carpets: the finest grade wools from Great Britain and New Zealand—as symbolized throughout by serene sheep and lambs.

But, perhaps most importantly, each mailer highlights proud portraits and stories of Langhorne’s exceptionally gifted team of creelers, burlers and weavers. This campaign is more than a campaign: It’s a document of the diverse and uniquely American story of Langhorne’s lasting heritage.

Langhorne Carpets Does Bring Barbra Streisand Flowers

When internationally eminent songstress, director and actor Barbra Streisand recently posted a Happy Birthday message to her beloved Coton de Tuléar Samantha, observant Instagrammers noticed a certain detail in the image. Streisand’s sweet little white companion, making her best puppy-dog eyes beside of white peonies, was  also posing atop a wonderful rosebud-dappled carpet—made in Langhorne’s very own Wilton Jacquard mill.

Longtime Langhorne customer, interior designer Marcy Monheit of Rydal, PA, brought the photo of the lucky dog, nicknamed “Sammie,” to the Morrows’ attention.

“I’ve been buying from Bill [Morrow] for years and years and years,” said Monheit. Although the East Coast designer’s tastes tend more toward Langhorne’s Leopard, Zebra, Cosmos, Herringbone and Stria Cuillere lines, she instantly recognized the classic floral pattern of Ms. Streisand’s carpet. “It’s one of the Langhorne carpets my mother’s interior designer used in the house I grew up in,” she said.

The pattern is part of the Nantucket line, currently available through custom order. The Morrows are unsure how, exactly, the work of their heritage mill came to inhabit one of Ms. Streisand’s homes. But they would like to extend a formal invitation for the diva herself to come visit their headquarters anytime—including when she’s in town for her August 20 concert at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center. Naturally, Sammie is invited, too.

Langhorne Carpet Cares: Supporting Baltimore’s Magnificent Carroll Mansion Makeover

Our latest ‘Carpets of Caring’ philanthropic partnership is with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization Made: In America (www.madeinamerica-usa.org) and Baltimore-area university architecture and design students. They collaborated to transform Maryland’s esteemed Carroll Mansion, a gem of Federalist architecture that belonged to the last-surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Carroll Mansion is one of Baltimore’s most beloved historic homes. Langhorne was honored to play a role, along with other fine American artisans, the structure’s magnificent makeover into an “All American House,” the result of a student competition to transform the manse into a home befitting a seamelss modern lifestyle. The students’ challenge: Outfit the home in only American-made furnishings, coverings and accessories—and create a look that suits both the home’s Federalist bones and more contemporary styles.

We provided two Jacquard Wilton woven wool 9-by-16 carpets: one in custom brown and gray from our Moiré line, and the other in similar colorways in Willow, a pattern that just so happened to be created by a textile design student at Philadelphia University as part of the Morrow Design Competition in Philadelphia. We think our donated carpets look spectacular serving as a baseline for pieces by more than a dozen other American manufacturers.

How did Made: In America, which promotes American manufacturing and competitiveness, find us? We’ll let CEO James DeLorbe tell you. “We were searching for a high-end U.S. manufacturer making the likes of what would be found in Carroll Mansion,” he said, “To our great pleasure, we learned that not only was Langhorne based in the U.S., but in nearby Pennsylvania—and making heirloom quality carpets of the type Charles Carroll himself would have specified for his Baltimore mansion.”

“Student designers in the design competition to create the All American House specified two beautiful carpets, one for the Family Room, and one that would be the focus point of a special exhibition room containing rare and unique home furnishings made in America. We were especially impressed by the Morrow family’s over 80-year commitment to manufacturing in the U.S., to their employees and to their community. It truly represents the essence of the American spirit of hard work—what an inspiring story.”

As you may know, we’ve been weaving museum-quality Jacquard Wilton wool carpets over the decades as historic reproductions. Philadelphia’s Congress Hall, Wilmington’s Winterthur Country Estate, Blair House in Washington, D.C., the Old Boston State House and many more historically significant American homes and buildings all feature Langhorne carpets. Every one woven in America.

Note: The exhibit, located at 800 E. Lombard St.,  will be on display until July 10. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Good News for Designers! Langhorne Lowers Minimum Custom Order

Big News for Small Orders: Langhorne Carpet Company Lowers Minimums for Custom Goods. Designers can now customize carpets from 15 feet. Excellent news for interior designers seeking out the perfect custom stair runner, hallway carpet, small rug or one-of- a-kind border: After 80-some years in business, Langhorne Carpet is offering our customers the option to place smaller orders of 27-inch- width and 36-inch- width custom wool carpets. Formerly, Langhorne’s minimum custom order was 60 feet (20 linear yards). Today, it’s 15 feet, only 5 linear yards. 


“Lowering our minimums gives designers a lot of flexibility, because they can now order smaller quantities of custom work,” said Langhorne co-owner Bill Morrow, whose family has owned and operated the Bucks County Wilton Jacquard mill, hand-working and inspecting each piece, for nearly a century.

Despite the American mill’s history and heritage, the company itself continues to innovate by offering services that other mills can’t—or won’t. “We’re expanding our efforts to make our custom carpets as accessible as possible,” said Morrow, adding that the new option to place smaller orders is, “an entirely unique opportunity.”

Pictured here: Langhorne’s broadloom carpet Antelope (http://www.langhornecarpets.com/carpets/category/broadloom/antelope/) in cocoa, white and brown, used as a stair runner.

Shadow Flower Blooms at our Bucks County Mill

Here in the Northeastern United States, flowers—first daffodils, tulips and crocuses, soon lilacs and irises—are popping up in gardens, pots and parks this time of year. It’s cherry blossom season, too. Blossoms have also popped up at Langhorne Carpets.

Just in time for spring’s apex, the Bucks County heritage carpet mill introduces Shadow Flower, a new looped pile broadloom botanical from the design team at Langhorne. The running line comes in six timeless color ways.

Wispy blooms of white and yellow, white and dark green and white and coral repeat on three pale green backgrounds. Pale green and white flowers repeat on a backdrop of sky blue. Gently contemporary, black-and-white flowers appear on both gray and white backgrounds.

Interior designers will find Shadow Flower an organic fit for bedrooms, garden rooms, solariums, living rooms, even dining rooms. Although the pattern has serendipitously appeared in season, Shadow Flower has year-round longevity.

Alexander Stadler and Langhorne's Collaborative Carpet

Spring has sprung at Langhorne Carpet Company, and the vibrant colors of a

new release by author, illustrator, artist, shop owner and designer Alexander

Stadler have gone “on loom.” The debut carpet is a brilliant marriage of heritages

for Langhorne, a historic Bucks County Wilton Jacquard mill established in 1930,

and Stadler, who has designed textiles for Donghia, Jack Lenor Larsen, babyGap

and Comme des Garçons.

Stadler and Langhorne’s collaborative carpet features a Mexican-inspired
geometric pattern “Josephine.” Josephine is comprised of varying-width stripes
interlocking in a motif that pairs gorgeously with slender stairways and hallways
of city spaces, naturally designates uses in open-plan lofts, and feels right at
home in both Arts & Crafts and contemporary interiors, from “doormat to
ballroom,” says Stadler.

Speaking of doormats, smaller rugs will soon be available for individual sale at stadler-Kahn, Alexander Stadler’s renowned Rittenhouse Square shelter boutique in Center City, Philadelphia. Currently, the shop is showing bright and more neutral samples of the pattern for custom orders.

Stadler named the Langhorne-woven carpet design “Josephine” after the late Josephine Albarelli, an art collector and longtime Philadelphia Museum of Art docent. Albarelli compiled a deep variety of vintage striped Mexican textiles when she lived in Mexico City in the mid 20th Century.

Many of these Latin American creations shared a structural weaving system with Jacquard Wilton looms – based on 19th Century models guided by a deck of hand-punched Jacquards (the forerunner of computer punch cards) – that Langhorne workers used to weave carpets for nearly a century. The design is an homage to one of
Philadelphia’s most beloved arts patrons.

Langhorne Carpet Historic Reproduction for Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church Remembered

On the 200th anniversary of its founding, Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and the United States Postal Service unveiled the Richard Allen Forever Stamp, memorializing the church’s eminent and heroic founder and bishop, activist and civic leader. The Black Heritage stamp’s unveiling ceremony took place in early February, during Black History Month, in the historic church at the corner of 6th and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia.

Langhorne Carpets was proud to be underfoot at that moment — and other special moments at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Two decades ago, Mother Bethel engaged the heritage Bucks County carpet mill to design and create a custom reproduction for the circa 1888 sanctuary floor. That carpet, a geometric repeat in six colors, including a rich red background, remains there today.

Mill co-owner Bill Morrow joyfully remembers when he and his team were tasked with creating a carpet to befit the worship hall of one of America’s religious jewels. “It was the mid-1990s,” he recalls, “The church was undergoing restoration. We came in, looked beneath the pews, and pulled up layer upon layer upon layer of carpet until we got to the bottom.” A half dozen layers down, the Langhorne team discovered a textile that, estimates Morrow, dates back to the 19th Century.

Such historic reproduction work is always special for Langhorne — but it’s not unusual for the circa 1930 Wilton Jacquard mill. The family owned-and-operated business has long of working on historic preservationists projects, painstakingly recreating century-plus-old floor coverings. Among the sites where you’ll find Langhorne’s custom reproductions: Philadelphia’s Congress Hall, the Martin Van Buren House in Kinderhook, NY, Winterthur Country Estate in Wilmington, DE, the Blair House in Washington, D.C. and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Old Boston State House, to name a few.

Bill Cunningham Shares Langhorne's Love for Leopard

Langhorne Carpet Company, a heritage Jacquard Wilton mill established in 1930 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, has something in common with legendary New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. Both love leopard, and other cat-like, spots.

For a recent Sunday Styles feature, Cunningham aimed his camera’s lens at New Yorkers in classic brown-tone leopard print coats — and then focused in on other style mavens who mixed up the pattern, wearing spots of black and gray, or adding pops of pink or aqua to the wild cat tradition. Online, the photog referred to leopard spots as “certainly one of the fashion world’s favorite patterns.”

Langhorne Carpet has been designing rugs with cat-like spots for years. The heritage Wilton mill offers broadloom lines of traditional leopard, in natural leopard browns. It, like those style-savvy New Yorkers, also offers gentle departures from the fashion tradition. “Safari” features wild feline spots in deep, watery blue tones. “Galaxy” offers up smaller spots in pale green, navy blue, pale blue, and natural, along with a higher-pile version in dramatic yet classic black and white. “Cosmos” reverse the pattern of Galaxy, in white on gray, pale green, pale blue, natural, navy blue or black.

“Leopard print pattern is ageless,” says Langhorne co-owner Bill Morrow. “And we designed Galaxy and Cosmos to be the same way, in order to fit in with all manner of décor.”

Bill Cunningham’s column, “Spotted” appeared in the Sunday, January 22 edition of the New York Times. Langhorne Carpet Company, is one of two Jacquard Wilton carpet mills remaining in the United States, serves residential, commercial and history preservation-institutional customers worldwide. The family-run business is owned and operated by two great-grandchildren of the mill’s founder, Winnifred and Bill Morrow.