Brunschwig & Fils | Ispahan

Ispahan is a cotton and linen blend, and the fibre mix tells you most of what you need to know. It has the dry, natural hand of linen with the softness of cotton, and the viscose adds a faint lustre that stops the cloth looking flat. The pattern sits on a mid-sized repeat, large enough to read as a design across a room, small enough to work on a single chair or a pair of cushions. It feels like a daytime cloth, relaxed and light.

The composition is 47% cotton, 31% linen, 20% viscose and 2% polyester. The width is 53.94 in (137.01 cm). The vertical repeat is 15.75 in (40.01 cm) and the horizontal repeat is 26.38 in (67.01 cm), a half-drop-friendly scale that spreads the design wide across the cloth. We have no Martindale rating or place of manufacture to quote, so we would treat it as a soft furnishing cloth first and a hard-wearing seating cloth second.

We would use it for curtains and blinds in a bedroom or sitting room, where it filters daylight nicely, and for lightly used upholstery such as an occasional chair, a headboard or a window seat. It also makes good cushions to lift a plain sofa. We would pair it with a plain linen in a close tone and a bolder stripe or check in the same colour family, keeping the palette narrow and letting the pattern do the work.

Linen blends relax and can shift slightly with humidity, so ask the workroom to allow for this in the hem and finish. With a 15.75 in vertical repeat, curtains need cutting so that the pattern matches across each width, which adds to the quantity. Lining helps the cloth hang well and protects it from sun. For upholstery, we would add a backing or choose the chair carefully, given the likely lighter wear.