Jérémie Chauvet of Drapilux

Thank you for speaking to us today! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Jérémie Chauvet, I am the Sales Manager Maritime from Drapilux. I have been working for Drapilux for one year and in the marine interior business since 2016. My job is to get an world wide overview about the cruise projects (new building and retrofits). I talk to ship owners and designers to introduce the Drapilux IMO collection. 

From my position, it is amazing to follow the ideas of the designers, the needs of the operators for a cruise. This is especially great in terms of maintenance – the trends to comply with the guest tastes all over the world. Textile helps to combine interior design with technical specifications linked to the ease of maintenance or to different certification. That’s why it is so interesting to work in this industry today and anticipate the future needs of the industry.

Can you tell us a little more about the company?

Sure! I work for the german company Schmitz Textiles GmbH + Co. KG, especially for its Drapilux brand. We are one of the leading manufacturers of fire-retardant curtains and decorative fabrics in the international market.

Drapilux has worked for a long time in the marine business and own one of the largest IMO collections. We give to our fabrics some properties which offer an added value to the guest such as Drapilux Air, to change the smell of the room, Drapilux Bioaktiv, to kill germs and bacteria on board and Drapilux Akustik, to offer a very high performance to reduces the dB in public areas or guest cabins.

As a manufacturer, we produce everything in Emsdetten in Germany and we manage the vertical line of production. From our suppliers of yarns to the finished product, everything is stocked in Germany, and we always keep around 80% of the standard collection which is available without minimum order quantity. This gives us a huge advantage. Firstly we can control the quality and secondly to better serve our customer, especially for urgent order during the dry dock. 

You say your new collection is your most sustainable yet – can you tell us what makes it so sustainable?

In our opinion, sustainability is a global process to handle. For textiles, it is a very simple step is to select and install quality fabrics which will be durable and easy to maintain. It will be cost saving for the future and for the daily maintenance. That’s why our fabrics are made exclusively in Polyester, which is a strong yarn. Everything is also washable 40 or 60 degree for easier maintenance. Lastly, for us, manufacturing polyester allows us to save a lot of water compared to the production process of acrylic. 

However, we wanted and still want to do better! So we researched for more sustainable materials with the same standard in quality and which must be flame-retardant. We worked together with our partner/supplier Trevira CS to find a yarn with the same level of quality, created using a recycling percentage of plastic bottles. Drapilux are now very proud to launch in our 2020 collection 3 beautiful new examples made from this recycled yarn. All of which have passed the IMO certification. We are the first on the market to launch this kind of product and we are looking forward to showing it to the ship owners who are more and more concerned about sustainability on board. 

What will you be bringing to Cruise Ship Interiors Expo America?

Since the first exhibition, Drapilux is present at CSEI under the Furniture Club Banner. The furniture club is a group of German Manufacturers. Under the same booth, we offer furniture, carpet and of course curtains with the IMO certification for the cruise industry. 

Additionally to our sustainable collection, which is the only one on the market with IMO certification, Drapilux offers one of the largest collections with the IMO certificate. With other intelligent properties like the function to reduce the bad smell of the cabins or acoustic function to reduce the noise, we offer specific items which are suitable for cruise interiors. 

Drapilux is the European leader in the healthcare market for the curtains used in the hospital with our bioaktiv property which kills and eliminates bacteria to avoid contamination. This way Drapilux Bioaktiv can be a valuable part of the hygienic chain, especially in the medical areas on the cruise. So to answer the question: We bring all of this expertise and intelligent textiles to Cruise Ship Interiors Expo America. We are happy to see you there.


Interested in meeting Drapilux face-to-face at their Booth? Then make sure you attend Cruise Ship Interiors Expo America, 8-9 June 2021 at the Miami Beach Convention Center!