Shabby Chic (brand)

Shabby Chic is the registered trademark for the home furnishings brand founded by the designer Rachel Ashwell in 1989 and now owned by Shabby Chic Brands, LLC.. The SHABBY CHIC brand is based on the aesthetics of beauty, comfort and function. It embraces and often replicates the beauty of time-worn objects and marries great design with CASUAL ease.

The term Shabby chic was originally coined by Ms. Mirabel Cecil, a journalist and writer to refer to a style. Ms. Cecil described Shabby chic as meaning "doing up your house in a lived-in fashion; nothing need be new, nothing need match."

Rachel Ashwell adopted the term to refer to her furniture, bedding, fabrics and other home furnishing designs, which are vintage items chosen for their age and signs of wear and tear or new items that achieve casual yet elegant look of her designs. The term has become associated with the retail stores opened by Ms. Ashwell for sale of these items, as well as the items themselves. Some lines of SHABBY CHIC goods are sold by larger retailers including the Target Corporation.

Description

The typical style of SHABBY CHIC furnishings is a soft, relaxed, romantic décor that looks comfortable and inviting. The design style is sometimes referred to as cottage or country house style, but the media and consumers have at times improperly used the trademark SHABBY CHIC to reference the style of furnishings for sale rather than the source of SHABBY CHIC furnishings. Shabby Chic Brands, LLC does not condone uses of its trademark to sell third party items of the same or similar style, and is particularly concerned with use of SHABBY CHIC to describe the style of items for sale because such use places the trademark in danger of being declared a generic word by the courts. The company is engaged in an ongoing campaign to educate the public that SHABBY CHIC should not be used as an adjective to describe third party goods.

To this end, the company has acted against merchants that have used SHABBY CHIC as an adjective to describe third party goods for sale. Shabby Chic Brands, LLC continues to protect its trademark diligently throughout the world.

SHABBY CHIC furniture is essentially vintage and antique, usually painted white or another soft color, with a distressed finish. The look is created by faux painting using glaze or by painting then rubbing and sanding away the top coat to show the wood or base coats.

SHABBY CHIC fabrics are mostly cottons and linens that have a soft, hand feel and drape. They are easy care and machine washable to give a comfortable look and feel. Whites, neutrals, and soft pastels make up the palette.

History

Rachel Ashwell founded the SHABBY CHIC brand in 1989 with a home furnishings store on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, CA. Born in England, the former movie set designer and single mother of two young children looked to open a small shop where she could sell “pretty things” without spending much time or distance away from her children.

The retail presence eventually grew to fifteen locations, and in 2004 Ms. Ashwell launched a partnership with Target to develop the SIMPLY SHABBY CHIC

line of decorative home furnishings. The program continues to thrive and has expanded to thirteen categories of home furnishings and décor product. 

Today, SHABBY CHIC is a trademark of the company Shabby Chic Brands, LLC, which obtained these rights after Rachel Ashwell Designs, Inc. entered into Chapter 11 proceedings in 2009.

New retail locations have opened under the RACHEL ASHWELL SHABBY CHIC COUTURE brand in London, U.K., Santa Monica, CA and the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.

Rachel Ashwell continues to educate and inspire fans through her blog and a series of books that include – Shabby Chic, The Shabby Chic Home, Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic Guide to Treasure Hunting and Decorating, Shabby Chic: Sumptuous Settings and most recently Rachel Ashwell: Shabby Chic Interiors. Ms. Ashwell has been featured in top national home and lifestyle publications and hosted the former “Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic” television show on the Style Network and E! for four years.