Indeed they do. In five years hip Schmidt has become a design-world darling: Her wares have sold at Saks Fifth Avenue and Henri Bendel in New York City, as well as at galleries on both coasts. Eager customers—including ex-MTV anchor Tabitha Soren—lay down as much as $5,400 for a king-size specimen. "When I saw Denyse's work, I connected with it because of my grandmother," says Soren, who bought a Schmidt quilt last year for her master bedroom. "It was a modern twist on an old-fashioned idea and really original."
Pretty remarkable for a woman who says she "didn't have any experience" in the industry when she started her business. In 1994 Schmidt, a lifelong sewer working as a graphic designer for a children's book publisher, was making a quilt as a gift for a friend when "something clicked," she says. "You make a quilt and it lasts a lifetime—as opposed to a lot of graphic design, which is ephemeral."
So Schmidt took a two-week quilting course in Maine and checked out the competition in the marketplace. "There was something missing in the contemporary quilts I saw," she says. "I thought there was a place for combining the methods and the traditions of quilt-making with a more modern aesthetic."
One hundred percent cotton, Denyse Schmidt quilts are pieced together by Schmidt and an assistant; the quilting is hand done by a group of 40 Amish women in Rochester, Minn. (Schmidt also designs a line of quilts for the Garnet Hill catalog that sell for $170 to $260.) With that mix of high style and old-fashioned craftsmanship, her quilts "go with both traditional and contemporary homes," says Yoshiko Inoue, buyer for New York City store Takashimaya, which this fall held an exhibit of Schmidt quilts made from kimonos.
The West Boylston, Mass., native inherited her love of design from her parents. Schmidt's father, Alexander, 79, a retired engineering executive, once made furniture as a hobby; mother Claire, 78, a retired teacher, sewed most of the clothing for their four children. "We took it for granted that you could make what you needed and it could look great," says Schmidt. "Denyse always had a knack," says her brother Alex, 45, a construction entrepreneur. "I'd ask if she'd been in New York shopping [for clothes], and she'd say, 'Oh no, I made this.' "
Harnessing her talent was another matter. After graduating in 1983 with a theater degree from Long Island University, Schmidt bounced from job to job, at various times sewing costumes for the Boston Ballet and robes for a Spencer, Mass., monastery. In 1989 she collected a degree in graphics from the Rhode Island School of Design and turned to book publishing. It wasn't until this year that her business began grossing enough (estimated 2000 sales: $150,000) to allow her to quit graphic design altogether.
The unmarried Schmidt, who often works from her five-room apartment in Fairfield, Conn., is busy expanding her business to include linen coverlets, shower curtains and tissue cozies; she also sees napkins and table runners in her future. But quilts remain her passion. "When I look at some of the early Amish quilts from a century ago, they're still beautiful," says Schmidt softly. "Hopefully there's some kind of honesty about my designs that will make them still feel fresh and beautiful a century from now."
Sophfronia Scott
Debbie Seaman in Fairfield
- Contributors:
- Debbie Seaman.
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