Tassels have a long history of adorning fashion and furnishings, reflecting wealth and status, as well as the rank of the wearer in the military, church, and academia. This month, we introduced an entirely new comforter, the cosi corners®, made with angled bottom corners that can be held together by your choice of tie to create a perfectly finished square corner on your bed. Along with it, we introduced our one-of-a-kind cosi corners® tassels designed to add a unique finish to your bed or a final touch to anything you want to make your own.
Where can you use tassels in your home? Everywhere
Tassels began by serving the mundane task of tying loose ends of yarn together. However, their use as fashionable adornments dates back thousands of years. They have been specially knotted as part of the ritual ornaments worn by Jews during prayer services since ancient times, and they have been unearthed in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. In Europe, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the art of passementerie, the craft of creating tassels and other adornments, required an apprenticeship of seven years. Elaborate tassels were made of fine silk or gold and silver thread, and wealthy royals could spend large portions of their budgets on these status symbols. Tassels have been employed to reflect the status or rank of the wearer in academia, the church, and the military, as well. The popularity of tassels has waxed and waned, depending upon the tastes and fashion of the times. We believe there can never be too many tassels, and the use of tassels is limited only by the imagination.
Tassels complete the dressing of your bed
Your bed is the star of your bedroom and should be properly attired for the role. That’s why we created cosi corners®, our luxury hospitality down comforter with a delightful twist—angled bottom corners that can be closed to create a beautifully finished look for your bed. The cosi corners comforter comes assembled in a perfectly fitted cosi corners duvet cover in your choice of queen or king size. You can close the corners of the covered comforter through the sewn-in buttonholes with your choice of one of the three enclosed ribbons, something from your jewelry box (we’ve used strings of beautiful beads collected on our travels), or one of our four unique jewel-like tassel sets.
When it came time to create the touch to finish our cosi corners, we knew one of the options had to be tassels. Our designer Tammy began by selecting a base from the amazing variety of tassels available, including those created in the studio of Samuel & Sons, specialists in passementerie. Interior designers rely upon Samuel & Sons’ exclusive collections, showcased in their stunning showrooms, for homes and hospitality, including some of the most breathtaking hotels to which we’ve supplied our bedding.
Tammy relied upon her interior design experience, as well as her love of jewelry, to choose tassels that reflected a variety of sensorial experiences from the blooms of “jardin” to the shades of “moonlight,” from the crisply bright “mandarin” pictured on the bed above) to the darkly seductive “boysenberry.” She then added her unique touch with a different bead for each set to extend her vision. The final touch of the carabiner allows the tassel to be clipped through the cosi corners comforter or attached as an accessory in a myriad of ways.
Tassels add a finishing touch to your home
When you walk into a finely decorated room or a glamorous party, whether it’s someone’s home or a hotel ballroom, you may not notice each detail for the overall feeling of the surroundings, but we can almost guarantee there will be tassels incorporated into the design. Tassels are used to create depth, color, and movement as the finishing touch to the look and feel of the room.
- Window treatments can be accented with tassel tiebacks.
- Chairbacks can be ornamented with tassels hung from the top of each stile.
- Drawers or cabinet doors gain depth with tassels meant to be touched.
- Doorknobs no longer recede into the background.
- Shades with tassel pulls go beyond the utilitarian.
- Light fixtures trimmed with tassels can create beautiful patterns of light.
- Headboards and bed frames can be dressed to accent the bedding.
- Tables can be decorated with tasseled place setting and name cards.
- Decorative pillows trimmed with tassels or tassel fringe offer an invitation to sit for a while.
Tassels personalize your keys, handbag, and carry-on
With the easy click of the carabiner, you can add a swishy touch of color to your handbag or carry-on luggage. Add a tassel to your keychain to make it easy to find in your handbag and lovely to hold in your hand.
Tassels deck the halls at holiday time
Tassels are the perfect “grown up” ornament for the holiday tree. They can add to the rest of your holiday decorations throughout the house, as well.
If you'd like to see more examples of passementerie, or you’re wondering whether tassels are of the moment, we recommend starting with the article, “What Designers Think About Tassels.”
When in doubt, tassel it.
-The Team at down etc
