Baranzelli Silk Surplus is family business that is now run by E. Ward Bitter Jr. Ward began his career in the Home Furnishings industry in 1978 with Scalamandre. He was the first of the third generation Scalamandre family members to enter the business and start learning the business from the “inside out”, meaning from their production mills to the sales, marketing and management of the company.

Ward started in the Scalamandre mills and “wove” his way through the dying, spinning, weaving and printing mills during his first 5 years on the job. After acquiring the necessary underlying knowledge about how products were produced, Ward then moved into the operations end of the business. After spending 5 years automating Scalamandre’s back end production systems he then delivered a state-of-the-art, computer system to service the needs of their deservedly, demanding clientele. In addition he took a small and somewhat unnoticed trimming division and nurtured it into an industry-leading source for the world’s most cherished trimming designs and colorways.

The original Baranzelli Silk Surplus store was founded in 1960 by Franco Scalamandre and Edwin Bitter, Sr. The use of the Baranzelli family name honors Ward’s grandmother, Flora Baranzelli, who was the wife and head stylist for Franco Scalamandre. The business was created as a way to close out mill overruns and discontinued patterns. Everything was priced to sell and their trade clients shopped the outlet store in LI City as one of the industry’s “best kept secrets”. The concept of providing outlet prices on high end fabrics and trimmings was an instant success however the store never really went much beyond offering the closeouts from the Scalamandre mills.

In 1990, Ward became Executive Vice President of Scalamandre Worldwide Sales and Marketing and was eventually elected President in 1993. After working with Scalamandre for more than 17 years, Ward decided it was time to take on another career path, so he began a career with Morgan Stanley in NY. Ward spent 3 years with Morgan Stanley and then co-founded the first of two Internet companies. In 2001 Ward then returned to Scalamandre with a goal to restructure their retail Baranzelli Silk Surplus store. Within four years he restructured Baranzelli, gained control of the company and opened two more stores; one in Boston and one in West Palm Beach. Since 2004, Ward and his wife Nancy made it their mission to grow the Baranzelli brand name of products and services while continuing to sell special closeouts and stock overruns from famous wholesalers such as Scalamandre. Today, Ward is proud to honor his grandmother, the namesake for the store, for all the wonderful talent she quietly provided behind the scenes at Scalamandre for more than 50 years.

The mission at Baranzelli, Silk Surplus is to find, develop and produce beautiful high-end fabrics, trimmings and upholstered furniture and offer them at more affordable prices direct to the trade and/or the public. Today all three Baranzelli stores offer discounted, outlet pricing on all products and services while they maintain a broad range of high end styles and colors under the Baranzelli brand name. Typically, products are priced from 20% to 80% less than normal list price. The stores all provide design expertise, color scheming, re-upholstery, drapery and over 5000 fabrics, trimmings and furniture as part of their solution. In addition, Baranzelli now offers a full range of traditional and contemporary furniture. The goal was to make shopping for “high end” home furnishings and services to be as painless and easy as possible. The stores present a “European style” of fabric stores to a US market that has lacked the concept at the high end of the business. In the past 4 years Baranzelli has also continued to expand their workroom capabilities by producing pillows, headboards, bed skirts as well as a full drapery workroom.

Although the stores have been in business for almost 50 years we believe we have only just begun to feel the results of our recent makeover. Baranzelli will continue to grow by responding to the immediate needs of their clients. This year with the introduction of the TriBeCa Furniture Collection, Baranzelli has added numerous frame designs to meet the growing needs contemporary and transitional design schemes. Similar to the Baranzelli Traditional Furniture Collection, the TriBeCa Furniture Collection guarantees shipment within 4-5 weeks of receipt of fabrics.

Baranzelli, Silk Surplus is more than just another fabric store. It is a way of life for one 4th generation family and a refreshing and commonly rare example of a growing family business. Ward and his wife, Nancy, run the flagship store in NYC, while his sister-in-law, Ginny Parker, and daughter, Kristen, run the West Palm Beach and Boston stores respectively. We invite you to visit one of our stores and experience hands on design and decorating with the world's most luxurious fabrics and furnishings.