What is frieze upholstery fabric? This subject comes up on the blog now and then. It’s a very desirable vintage upholstery fabric that was used widely back in the day. One example, from my hoard, is shown above. Frieze is a tightly-looped upholstery — probably a man-made fiber — has a plastic-like feel — will likely leave a pattern in your face if you sleep on it (!) — may be looped into a design, or not — generally has a sheen — rough to the touch — but durable as all heck.
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Above: Vintage sofas covered in frieze upholstery, contributed to the blog over the years.
Above: Another example from my hoard. I have quite a few yards of this. No design, per se. Just neverending gobstopper frieze.
Astro participates in all photo shoots!
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Inexpensive upholstery for midcentury and Danish Modern furniture 
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A store full of New Old Stock upholstery fabric — but what’s the most marketable? 
49 samples of orange upholstery for my new midcentury modern sectional — 7 finalists — which to choose? 
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Lola says
My sectional sofa has this fabric. It’s from the 50s in a gold color. I love it and was really excited when we got it. But last year we got a puppy as a wedding gift and he has since ate a hole on the one side of it. So I’d love to get it reupholstered but I can’t seem to find this fabric anywhere. Anyone have any ideas?
Lauren J says
Love, love, love frieze!!!!! I buy every inch in every color I can find. And I’ve actually used one piece in a spruce color to reupholster my dining room chairs. The rest is saved (read hoarded) for the perfect place to be used.
My main memory of frieze is being home from school in the 1960’s with my sister, both with chicken pocks, and both of us laying on my parents frieze covered couch. I was so stiff and rough we could actually scratch our chicken pocks by just wiggling around on the fabric. lol
Pam, still loving your blog after all these years!
Dannlh says
First off… that pink. Its an Eisenhower thing.
Now, why I mention that is I have a rocking/easy chair that has the same color as that couch! Similar pattern too. However, the leaf pattern on my chair is much smaller. It looks like small maple leafs (or similar) about the size of half dollars.
Anyone seen something like this in the vintage fabrics? Desperately looking! Thanks!
dan
Pam Kueber says
It’s a MAMIE Eisenhower thing: https://retrorenovation.com/search-results/?q=mamie%20eisenhower
For frieze, here are some proxies I found recently; there may be more out there: https://retrorenovation.com/2017/01/11/frieze-style-upholstery-fabrics-knoll-totem-mariner/
dan says
So glad I came back to this thread! I must have missed the notification of your reply.
Michelle S says
I’ve been looking for the name of this fabric forEVER. My folks had a blue/green sofa that my brother and I both recall playing on. It was so scratchy we’d skin our knees on it. But as you said, it was extremely durable and had a lovely sheen to it. My mom doesn’t remember that sofa. I would love to find out if there are any makers of this fabric. I’d love to have a footstool or even a chair covered in it. Thank you for your article!
Pam Kueber says
Hi Michelle, these are the closest that I have found: https://retrorenovation.com/2017/01/11/frieze-style-upholstery-fabrics-knoll-totem-mariner/
Cathie says
SMS Auto Fabrics in Oregon still produces frieze /frizzy fabrics. They are great about sending you samples. Just tell them the color you are looking for. I was so excited to find this place! There frieze fabrics are amazing and extensive!!
James Thompson says
When I was rooting around the USA for vintage fabrics for resale c. 1982 I discovered a hoard (400+ yds.) of frieze in El Paso, TX which I sold by the bolt over a couple of years to the vintage trade in Los Angeles. The El Paso store bought up going out of business upholstery shops. I had another similar source in Las Vegas. I always referred to it as “nylon” frieze.