We pride ourselves on the fact that Presidio Classics is a business comprised of designers, artisans, and suppliers with decades of experience that delivers stylish window shades in an ecologically sound manner.
We use our knowledge and craft to produce a line of beautifully designed, affordable, handwoven window shades that will enhance your design projects. This section of our website is meant to demystify the how's and why's of our product. Not sure of how to get started or where you already are in the process? Just reach out, we are here to help!
The artistry of our product starts with the fibers employed in the weaving process. We employ farmers and villagers to harvest various sustainable plants into fiber ready for our weavers. Along the way, we ensure that fair wages are paid and no child labor is employed.
Our products are made from sustainable plant fibers produced by plants and are products of agriculture. Some of the fibers and plants that we use are:
- Flax: The plant that produces bast fiber that is made into linen.
- Bast fiber: Strong, with long fibers from the inner layer, found between the bark and the core of plants such as flax, hemp, ramie, and jute.
- Hemp: A fast-growing plant that comes from the core of the stalk. It is hand-washed and dried, resistant to mildew, and dyes well. As an environmentally friendly crop, it grows well in a variety of soil types and climates.
- Arrowroot: An abundant, sustainable, and renewable fiber that is considered to be an environmentally friendly material. These natural grasses grow near wetland areas, stream banks, and mountainous regions.
- Ramie: A cellulose bast fiber from a shrub belonging to the Nettle family. Naturally white with high luster and ranges from silky to coarse linen-like fibers. Often used for ropes and sails due to its strength, it is also mildew and stain-resistant. It's reported to be twice as strong as linen and has a smooth lustrous appearance.
- Jute: Extracted from the bark of the white jute plant. It flourishes in tropical lowland areas with humidity of 60 to 90%. Dubbed the "golden fiber", jute is long, soft, and shiny, with a length of 1 to 4 meters. It is one of nature's strongest plant fibers. Abaca is extracted from the leaf sheath around the trunk of the abaca plant, a close relative of the banana tree. The fiber is hand-washed and dried.
- Abaca: A leaf fiber, composed of long slim cells that form part of the leaf's supporting structure. Abaca is prized for its great mechanical strength, buoyancy, and long fiber length - up to 3 meters. Abaca is extracted from the leaf sheath around the trunk of the abaca plant, a close relative of the banana tree. The fiber is hand-washed and dried. The best grades of abaca are fine, lustrous, light beige in color and very strong.
- Banana plant: The banana plant is a tree-like perennial herb. What looks like a trunk is in fact a pseudo stem made from tightly packed leaf sheaths. The vast majority of producers of these materials are small production farmers.