Righter than white

Coloured tablecloths are quite common in the USA, while Continental restaurants often have cloths woven in their own choice of pattern and colour. Here in Britain, table linen is almost invariably white - but there are now signs of change.

One of the biggest boosts for coloured linen is the arrival of a new generation of polyester fabrics, notably those being introduced by Milliken and Hilden.

Polyester undoubtedly retains its colour well after repeated washing, but traditional polyester's lack of absorbency and rather harsh feel has put off a lot of restaurateurs. Instead, they opt for cotton because cotton tablecloths soak up spills and cotton napkins are softer to the touch. That said, the fact that cotton is generally much less colourfast has led to the predominance of white.

Best of both worlds

However, the new polyesters promise the best of both worlds. For 15 years, US-based Milliken has spearheaded the use of polyester with its Visa fabric, which is made into cloths and napkins by Richard Haworth. About a year ago, Milliken launched its Jacquard-weave Embassy and plain-weave Signature ranges, both of which are claimed to give the same "handle" as cotton.

Marketing manager Malcolm Tymn explains that Visa is woven with polyester filament used for both the warp and the weft. The company then developed a fabric made entirely from spun polyester. "It has a softer handle," he says, "but we didn't bring it to the UK because its stain-release properties are not as good."

Embassy and Signature use polyester filament for the warp, with spun polyester for the weft. Tymn says this technique makes the fabric feel like cotton, but it still has excellent stain-release properties. He adds that it is also better suited to going through high-speed laundry processes.

Hilden's new fabric, woven in the UK and launched about 18 months ago, is called Apollo Alpha. Available in rose, ivyleaf and plain weaves, the fabric is made entirely from spun polyester. Marketing manager Boyd Hargreaves says that not only does the fabric feel like cotton, it is also finished in the same way. The napkins have hemmed edges, unlike some polyester napkins which have an overlocked finish.

Colour can be practical for those who insist on cotton, providing they buy a quality product, says Robert Lancaster-Gaye, managing director of Textile Management Services, which distributes the Italian-made Frette products in the UK. "Frette cloths are woven from dyed yarn, which gives much better colour retention than piece-dyeing, which is more common in the UK," he explains, "and Frette products are made from Egyptian cotton, which has a longer staple and so makes a stronger, slightly lighter cloth. People often mistake weight for quality, but the two are not the same thing."

Frette linen, which is aimed at the upper end of the market, is available in solid colours, in half tones (with the weft coloured and the warp white), and as double colours (with the warp and weft in different colours).

Lancaster-Gaye says there is increasing interest in coloured cloths and napkins, but he adds: "People are ultraconservative. After the carpet, tablecloths are the biggest single flat area in a restaurant, but lots of people chicken out and go for white satin band."

He contrasts the situation in Britain with those in France and Italy, where it is more common for restaurants to have table fabric woven to their own specification, possibly with their logo incorporated in the pattern. The minimum run is 70 cloths or 500 napkins. The only drawback is that delivery takes three months for non-standard fabrics.

Lancaster-Gaye adds that one of the principal reasons why so many restaurants have the same white table linen is the way laundries operate. "At least 80% of restaurants have white cotton ivyleaf damask because all the big linen rental companies have it," he says. "They all compete, so they all have the same products."

Similarly, Hargreaves comments that laundries prefer to concentrate on white cotton. "Colours mean having to have more short runs, more stoppages and more hassle," he says.

And Tymn adds: "Obviously, the big rental boys are not keen to go into too many colours because it increases their inventory."

The Sunlight Service Group is probably the biggest linen rental company. Marketing manager Paul Swift says that a fairly wide range of colours is offered, but adds that when restaurants personalise their linen it inevitably pushes up laundering costs because it has to be separately monitored.

Swift estimates that around 75% of restaurants which use table linen use a hire service rather than buy their own cloths and napkins. Moreover, the majority opt for pool linen rather than their own dedicated stock. He says: "As a large linen renter, we're fairly efficient in our purchasing. In fact, it can be cheaper for a customer to rent from us than to buy their own and have it laundered."

Swift says that the majority of hotel and restaurant customers opt for cotton if they want white tableware, which most do. However, he adds: "Coloured polyester now has a share of the market which it didn't have 10 or 15 years ago, and I think it will retain its place."

Big in colours

Stalbridge Linen Services has always been big in colours, says operations director Alan Mulholland. As well as cotton, Stalbridge hires out US-made polyester tableware supplied in the UK by Mitre Furnishing. Again, this offers a cotton-like texture.

Mulholland also makes the point that it is often not cost-effective for restaurateurs to buy linen. "The cost of hiring from us is the same as having your own cloths laundered," he says. "If you're a small restaurant owner, you will pay top money for a relatively small amount of cloths."

Many hire companies will try to help customers who want a different colour for a themed function or a wedding, but the colour choice is likely to be fairly limited. However, Coloured Linen Hire specialises in function tableware, offering Milliken polyester in around 30 colours, plus ginghams and tartans. Most recently, it has commissioned special prints from supplier Richard Haworth in patterns such as leopardskin, zebra, snakeskin and wedding bells.

Established some seven years ago, the company uses courier delivery to provide a nationwide service. The cost of renting coloured cloths, slip covers and napkins for a function with 20 tables, each seating eight to 10, would be around £250.

Nick Higgin, managing director of Coloured Linen Hire, says most caterers currently use colours only for functions. But he adds: "As more and more people realise what's available, colour will become the norm and will break into every aspect of catering, rather than just special functions."

For Higgin, the key element to using coloured polyester successfully is sending it to a laundry which handles it correctly, so that it doesn't suffer from "thermal shock" (creasing caused by a too-hot wash with an insufficient cool-down cycle) or bad ironing. All his stock is laundered by Cotswold Linen Care.

Around 75% of Cotswold Linen's business is laundering polyester. Managing director Chris Fairer says that although polyester is quite easy to care for - in that it can be washed at a lower temperature, releases stains and dries quicker than cotton - many big laundries process it the same way as they do cotton, and so produce poor results.

"A big part of the problem is in the finishing," he says. "Many large laundries iron with very large calenders that have as many as four heated rollers. The cloths go through automatically at too high a temperature and at very strong pressure - the combination of starch and over-processing can make them come out like cardboard."

Cotswold Linen uses a single-roll calender and every item is fed through manually. Fairer concedes: "A lot of laundries would laugh at us because we're not fast enough." Then he adds: "But we believe it gives a better result and allows us to quality-check every piece thoroughly."