Blanket Coverage

The humble (or not!) blanket has become fashion's newest canvas.

- Emma Elwick-Bates.

Once, not so many luxury moons ago, reassuringly hefty blankets in a subtle Nancy Meyers palette of cream, ecru, slate, or even espresso sat neatly atop our crisp white bedsheets (or were artfully thrown over the latest arrival from the 1stDibs seating department). But aren’t we all looking for something a bit more substantial lately—something laden with feeling, or meaning, whether in our lives or our fashion and decor choices? Colorful, well-designed blankets may be an investment that lasts, but recently they’ve been proving to be both a fascinating vehicle for cross-cultural collaborations and a cozy comfort that can add to the social fabric of our homes.

“A blanket’s just a rectangle, right? So how do you create something special with a rectangle?” asks Greg Chait, who crafts hand-spun Technicolor blankets for his label, The Elder Statesman. “For me, it was about cashmere all the way—but finding a really unique way of doing the yarn.”

It was one particularly amazing blanket that inspired Chait—the winner of the CFDA/