Paige Minear enjoys frills.
In the style blogger’s Atlanta home, a ruffled skirt with a green bow print adorns a bedroom vanity. A chintz ottoman is found in the family room with a ruffle on the bottom. The armchairs are adorned with ruffled throw pillows.
“I think ruffles just add that edge,” said Ms. Minear, 52. “That little bit of whimsy.”
You could call it a comeback: Ruffles and their close cousin chintz — the often bright floral fabric with a glossy finish — are returning, partly in rebellion to the minimalist aesthetic that has dominated interior design for so long.
Anna Marcum, an architectural historian and preservationist in Brooklyn, laments the recent “gray-washing” of interiors associated with modern minimalist décor. “There’s nothing about this sort of monochromatic gray that brings people joy, in a sense,” she said. “There’s a lot more joy and interest to be found in a more maximal interior.”
If you are looking for joy and excitement, then look no further than the Shabby chic ruffled pillows and Amuse La Bouche’s frilly linen napkins. Ditto the shower curtains at Perigold and duvet covers at Serena & Lily.
Where There’s a Ruffle, There’s Likely Chintz.
The sight of a chintz-covered room with ruffle trappings might evoke flashbacks to the excesses of the ’80s. Whether it was the high-end maximalist approach of designer Mario Buatta, also known as the “Prince of Chintz,” or the cozy cottage-style of Laura Ashley, ruffles played a starring role in the English country-inspired aesthetic of the time.
In the ’80s, “everything was trimmed, and the ruffle was a form of trimming,” said Susan Crater, the president of Sister Parish Design, a wallpaper and fabric company in New York. Ms. Parish, Ms. Crater’s grandmother, began decorating during the Depression and had high society clients in the 1970s and ’80s. She would take a rose-peony-patterned chintz fabric and make curtains and chair covers for the same room. Ruffles were often added to this mix.
Eliza Harris, the creative director of Sister Parish Design (and Ms. Parish’s great-granddaughter) said, “When you add a ruffle to a curtain panel or a ruffle to a bed skirt, you can pick apart the fabric and use what you want and apply it in a way that’s interesting.”
For Ms. Harris, chintz, which originated in India as a hand-painted fabric and became popular in England during the Victorian era when it became mass-produced, represents the “anti-trend.” “It’s something that’s just tried and true,” she said. Whenever she sees patterns from a traditional brand like Colefax and Fowler, “I feel instantly comfortable and at ease.”
How Ruffles Got to America
Ms. Marcum recalls the French Rococo period, which began in the early 1700s and ended in the late 1770s. Ruffles didn’t necessarily adorn the curtains and shams of the time, but the era was known for using natural elements like flowers and seashells in bright, ornamental ways and the dresses of the time put ruffles on display. (See: One Marie Antoinette).
The English-country style was influenced by French Rococo, said Ms. Marcum, and the English aesthetic has inspired much of the ruffly décor in the United States. “Something that I think that English countryside style does is sort of take it down to a more accessible, natural level,” Ms. Marcum said. “It makes it a lot more romantic.”
Ms. Marcum stated that ruffles were most popular in the United States in the Gilded Age and 1980s. The common thread between these periods is the increased wealth gap associated with both.
“It’s interesting to see how this excess spoke to them,” said Ms. Marcum, referring to upper-middle class American consumers. “But also, it was when excess was in some ways more readily accessible to the general population.” In the Victorian era, for example, people could order chenille and ruffle-trimmed drapery from catalogs.
‘Kind of a Shock’
Ruffles are even winning over those who were once hesitant to use them. Nina Long is an Atlanta-based interior designer. She grew up in a Laura Ashley bedroom. “I had the matching wallpaper and the curtains and the bed skirt had ruffles on it.” Like so many, she then eschewed those bed skirts for a while, but “now I love them again.”
Today, Ms. Long and her design partner, Don Easterling, have found that the 30-something-year-old children of their longstanding clients are requesting the traditional style that they grew up with.
“They want the ruffles. They want mahogany pieces with ruffles. They want the antique art,” Ms. Long said. “At one point that was kind of a shock for me, and now I’m just kind of used to it. I love the style myself, so it’s been fun to be able to do that for other people.”
While nostalgia is a factor for many people, others are more new fans of frill.
Keila Tirado-Leist, 37, didn’t grow up in a chintz-imbued household. Instead, her childhood was spent in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, where her home’s aesthetic reflected the setting.
Ms. Tirado Leist now lives in Milwaukee, on a five-acre farm. Her home is colonial-style, and its historic nature inspired Ms. Tirado-Leist, who owns a natural dyeing business, to lean into a traditional style of décor. Pandemic-related delays made sourcing new furniture difficult, which led Ms. Tirado Leist to estate sales or vintage shops.
“There was a lot of floral and chintz ottomans or couches and pillows, and I feel like it’s a fun way to add color and softness to a room,” Ms. Tirado-Leist said. The centerpiece of her home’s library is a chintzy ottoman with a pink, cream and green print replete with a ruffle along the bottom.
“I don’t see a lot of folks who look like me styling homes like this, because it’s kind of considered old Americana,” she said. She felt that it was important to incorporate her heritage into her décor by using cheery yellows, golds, and greens.
The popularity of ruffles has risen over the years, much like the style. For Andrea Bernstein, founder of Linen Salvage et Cie, Los Angeles, they are a constant fixture. Ms. Bernstein has always had a love for soft, romantic styles and designs products such as the silk velvet square pillow and silk silk ruffle throws.
“I think like any trend probably, eventually, it will go away,” Ms. Bernstein said. “And we will still be making bedding with ruffles.”
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