270 Route 22 West
Green Brook, NJ
908-755-4700
Metropolitan Window Fashions at Fabricland
Celebrates 90th Anniversary–Win a $2500 Reupholstery Project
How many companies are in business for 90 years and are still owned by the same family? Philip Heyman opened Chain Decorators in Plainfield in 1934, eventually opening stores in Westfield and Somerville. When his son, Jay, joined the firm, they relocated to North Plainfield in 1961 and changed the name to Fabricland to represent their change in product mix from home décor to apparel fabrics. Jay’s wife, Gertrude, joined the business and together they operated the largest fabric store in NJ for many years.
When Philip’s grandson, Bruce Heyman, joined the firm in 1990, the writing was on the wall. Home sewing was no longer a necessity. Changes needed to be made to survive in the ‘Big Box’ retail era. The decision was made to go back to basics – where the business started – focusing on custom window fashions and re-upholstery.
Bruce Heyman expanded the business with the purchase of Nassaus Window Fashions in Paramus in 1999 and opened a third store in Manhattan in 2004. At that time, a rebranding was necessary. The beautiful jewel of a store on the Upper West Side would not be called Fabricland, so Metropolitan Window Fashions was born.
Currently, Metropolitan has locations in Green Brook, Paramus, Livingston, Lebanon, and Branchville. (The Manhattan location was sold in 2020 during the pandemic.) Metropolitan specializes in custom draperies, motorized shades, blinds, shutters and re-upholstery. Their FREE in-home decorating service is very popular and extremely practical. Heyman believes that his decorators can provide a better experience if they can see the customers’ décor and the technical challenges that each window presents.
Heyman moved the flagship location from North Plainfield to Green Brook in 2018. It is the only one of his stores that still stocks fabrics – apparel, quilting, drapery, and upholstery. The Green Brook location also stocks sewing notions and offers sewing classes for adults and children. All other locations have books containing over 50,000 samples. Heyman recently purchased The Fabric Yard in Basking Ridge and moved their extensive inventory of high-end decorative fabrics over to the new flagship in Green Brook.
To celebrate their 90th anniversary, Metropolitan is having a contest for a free chair reupholstery called, “Every Chair Has a Story”. Customers submit a photo of a chair they want to be reupholstered along with a story about the chair and why it has special meaning. Details are at windowfashions.com under ‘promotions’.
So what is the secret to running a successful 90-year family business? We asked Heyman for his comments about this and his reply was simple. “The measure of our success is customer satisfaction. To achieve that, we are always going to do the right thing – by our customers, by our associates, and by the community”.
For a FREE in-home consultation call 877-722-1100 or visit windowfashions.com.