Thursday, October 25, 2012

GRAND RE-OPENING SOIREE

This month, we hosted a Grand Re-Opening Soiree for our brand new and expanded retail space. Located just 15 minutes north of San Francisco, the event included light hors d’oeuvres and champagne to celebrate cutting the tape on the colorful showroom. Boasting high ceilings, luscious tones and irresistible textures—Bella Notte is the perfect place for bay area families to build their dream beds.

Kathleen McCoy, designer and founder was eager to open the space, “We are excited that we now have the venue and expert advisers to help with custom ordering—in addition to getting wonderful linens at outlet prices.”

The new retail space offers a generous selection of first quality products from the current line in addition to factory seconds, samples and discontinued items. In the glamorous showroom visitors can get inspired and place a custom order to complement any palette. With the most irresistibly soft fabrics in satin, velvet, and linens in the most harmonious colors available, Bella Notte is modern with a vintage edgeWe hope you enjoy the photos!




BEING ECO-FRIENDLY: ACT LOCAL THINK GLOBAL

At Bella Notte we pride ourselves on being eco-conscious and resourceful. We take measures in each step of the manufacturing process to reduce our environmental impact—doing our part as a local business in the beautiful California Bay Area, and helping our customers to feel even better about our products.

  • Low-impact fabrics. We do our best to use textiles that have a minimal impact on the environment over their entire life cycle—including raw material selection, production, usage and disposal. For example, Organic Cotton (a textile used in our line) is grown using a production system that replenishes and maintains soil fertility, reduces the use of toxic pesticides and defoliants, and builds biologically diverse agriculture.  And by far, the crop with the most potential for eco-friendly textile use is hemp, which comprises a large percentage of our Celeste fabric. Hemp plants grow very quickly and densely making it difficult for weeds to take hold, eliminating the need for herbicides and artificial fertilizers.
  • Garment dyeing. We only dye ready-made garments (reducing the dying of scraps). Using low-impact non-toxic dyes provides us with a diverse palette of vibrant colors, yet creates less waste, and uses less heat, energy and water. And our Dye Guy is right around the corner keeping the process local, which reduces both transportation and the use of shipping containers.
  • Local labor & production. From the beginning, we have used sewing contractors in San Francisco, less than 30 miles from our operation. Local production and long lasting relationships are extremely important to us and help us to keep an eye on quality.
  • Shipping. Our 6-8 week ship times gives us the opportunity to ship whole orders together in one box instead of multiple packages. We also provide customers the option to bag items separately in smaller bags or all together in one large bag to reduce waste.
  • Patchwork. Two of our most popular collections, Gwen and Sophia, utilize our end cuts to enhance the patchwork patterns. They are often comprised of fabrications that are no longer in our current line but work beautifully in the patchwork medley, thus up-cycling discontinued fabrics into the current collection.
  • Charity. We do our part to give back to our local community whether it’s monetary gifts to food banks and community clinics or product donations to senior centers, animal shelters, or youth clubs.
  • E-vironment. Unlike other visual and or tactile businesses, the majority of our communication is achieved online from emails to forms, reducing traditional mailings and throwaways.
      Shipping
  Patchwork    Patchwork
What all of this adds up to is the finest, locally manufactured textiles delivered with the least environmental impact. When you buy items from Bella, you are supporting all of our eco-conscious efforts.

WHAT IS GARMENT-DYED BEDDING?

If you’re a fan of Bella, have visited the website or own some of our linens, you’ve probably heard us boast about being the pioneers of garment-dyed bedding. But what does garment-dyed mean?

While it’s only one part of a multifaceted manufacturing process, garment dyeing helps us to create couture pieces with the aesthetic and luxurious feel that is signature Bella.


Garment Dyeing: a dyeing process performed on finished products, as opposed to yarn dyeing which takes place prior to weaving the yarn into fabric. Garment dyed products are pre-shrunk in the dyeing process and tend to have a softer hand.
We design and create all of our lines in a ‘prepared for dye’ state out of the finest fabrics—and custom dye them locally with our Dye Guy, Mark!
“The idea that this process, from the beginning to the end, happens here locally it’s a very good thing. And we’re lucky to be around because a lot of the manufacturing in this area disappeared 5 or 6 years ago. The line is couture, not everything is factory made, every piece is individual. There is some nostalgia and an old fashioned quality to the line.”
The Dye Guy, Mark
Prepared For Dye
lady      Final Color
When a customer places an order, all of the items are processed together keeping them in the same harmonic tone. Each batch is garment-dyed and ever so slightly unique making it couture in nature and adding to the soft, lived-in quality of our brand. And by dyeing the completed garments instead of full yards of fabric, we reduce dyeing waste.
The results of garment dyeing: soft, pre-shrunk fabrics in a range of tones, from slightly antiqued to perfectly vibrant, giving an approachable look and feel to your dream bed.
Dream Bed      Dream Accessories

WELCOME TO BELLA BLOG!

Thanks for finding Bella Notte Linens on Blogger! We’ve started a blog to give our stores, customers and fans the inside scoop on who we are as a local business with global distribution. 
A lot goes into designing and manufacturing our bedding and apparel—from inspiration, creation, and color, to set styling and photography. Here we’ll share about the business, the people who make our lines come to life, behind the scenes peeks into our photo shoots, as well as inspiring articles, arts, and designs that keep us innovative and fresh.
Follow us and share in the everyday comfort and pure luxury of Bella Notte Linens.
-Taylor Gunnell, Visual Media Director & Design Assistant