Welcome to Mr. Thread, thanks for being here! Every week, I bring you the interior design news and industry intel that actually matters to your business. This journal will help you stay informed, grow your business, and uncover your next opportunity. Please reply directly to this email and let us know what you think. We read every message.
Issue #00016: February 26th, 2026
Hello readers,
The Supreme Court just ruled Trump’s IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional in a 6–3 decision. This was a shock result, but keep the champagne on ice for now. The administration has other tools, and new tariffs are already being drawn up. Section 232 duties of 25% on furniture remain intact, rising to 50% in 2027. For the interior design business, the chaos continues.
Here’s the view from where I sit. We’ve lawyered up and we’re filing a lawsuit to recover what we’ve paid over the last year plus. For a small textiles business, we’ve spent a fortune in additional tariff costs that were, in the words of the court, “unconstitutional.” Our rates tripled—from an average of 5% to 16%. We implemented a tariff surcharge, and surprisingly, the response from customers has been zero pushback. Every business owner I know in this industry has passed the majority of these costs on to their clients. And none of us are happy about it.
I’m actually all for the spirit behind bringing manufacturing back to America. We used to have a brilliant textile and furniture industry in this country. Policy changes in the early '80s gutted towns from Fall River, Massachusetts, to High Point, North Carolina. The factory closures decimated entire communities.
I know this firsthand: my family runs a factory in an ancient city and hires skilled local workers. Keeping it open isn’t always the best move for our bottom line, but we stay because we believe our business is more than numbers on a spreadsheet. I recently met Jacob Long, an entrepreneur who bought a shuttering textile mill from Loro Piana in Connecticut. His mission is to make artisanal manufacturing cool again: You know, carpentry, cutting, sewing, the kind of deep, purpose-filled work that built the USA. The spirit behind tariff reform is dear to my heart. The execution is another story.
Managing against uncertainty is what business owners get paid to do. This week, I’ll be on the phone with colleagues across the supply chain, polling my sales team, and modeling out scenarios across the tariff spectrum. Now, the craziness is a known quantity. We know the maximums and the minimums. There’s no excuse not to be managing our businesses, our customers’ expectations, and our supply chains accordingly. So we file our papers, plan for the worst, and keep building. None of this dampens my optimism about the year ahead.
Finally, the read of the week. The Culture Explorer published a piece that articulates something I believe deeply: beauty is essential to how we live, think, and build. Worth your time.
See you next week.