Once Upon A Time

…34 years ago on the 4th October at a trading estate far far away ‘The Fabric Warehouse Ltd’ was born.

A handsome young man called David dreamed of opening a fabric shop tucked away from the high street, he wanted it to be an Aladdin’s cave full of beautiful fabrics from floor to ceiling. He was a clever man with lots of knowledge as he had lots of experience in the fabric world.

He started his working life in 1960 with an apprenticeship at the John Lewis partnership, London.

In 1965 he travelled across the UK and Europe as a representative for ‘Bradford and Perrier’ whom supplied exquisite French fabrics to designers such as ‘Norman Hartnell and Mary Quant’.

In 1968, he worked for ‘Donerica’ a 60’s fashion house that supplied haute couture dresses & wedding dresses to elite stores such as ‘Harrods & Selfridges’.

In 1970 he became the dress fabric buyer for the Oxford St department store ‘Bourne and Hollingsworth’ finally progressing to group buyer for all fabrics. He was then head hunted by 'Quality Knitters’ to open a retail shop, which he did successfully.

Finally in 1982 after searching long and hard he found his Aladdin’s cave, it was tucked away secretly underground at the end of the Tomo estate, he used all his pennies and worked very very hard and he filled it from floor to ceiling with a rainbow of fabrics just like he had dreamed, he added some happy, friendly very lovely staff and ‘The Fabric Warehouse Ltd’ was created, the rest is history…

We had to leave our home of 31 years and we moved to the top of our estate and started to reinvent ourselves, with the recession and the internet against us we created work and craft rooms upstairs, in-house curtain making and design studio and our retail shop downstairs. We moved within 1 week! We joined forces with TheDesignSmith, for all our curtain fitting, Mdf pelmet, fabric panelled wall creations & bespoke bay pole solutions.

We start all our craft classes for big people and small, sewing and dressmaking lessons with “Dressy Bessy”. Knitting and Crochet and all things craft.

We relocate to High Wycombe offering a full bespoke interiors and soft furnishing service, consultations,and sampling service in the comfort of your home.