Seeking more than 15 mins. of fame

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 3/31/2003 12:00:00 AM

AT THE NEW YORK MARKET —

AT THE NEW YORK MARKET The budding Andy Warhol Home collection, which currently comprises only porcelain china, is making its entry into the home textiles industry this spring market through licensing partnerships with Jay Franco & Sons for bedding, bath products and beach towels, along with Barth and Dreyfuss of California, for kitchen textiles and table linens.

"We are certainly looking to develop our textiles business," said Martin Cribbs, director of licensing, The Andy Warhol Foundation, based in New York. "It's an important part of the home collection."

Cribbs said in total there are six collections for the home textiles debut — three of which coordinate across the bedding, bath, kitchen textiles and table linens product categories. Separately, the five bedding collections directly coordinate with all the bath products, and the four kitchen textiles collections directly coordinate with the table linens.

All of the home textiles products are imported.

"This license embraces Warhol as a lifestyle," Cribbs said. "Some of the product is based on imagery, some of it based on themes, and some on his lifestyle and celebrity."

Burbank, CA-based Barth and Dreyfuss has created its product lines based on four collections that depict the pop artist's persona:

• American Supermarket, a retro yet modern black, white and red collection that depicts appliances, dollar signs, price tags and other consumerism symbols that Warhol used frequently in his work;

• Luxe, a large floral design that Warhol used often as a subject in his art;

• Julia, a butterfly- and insect-themed collection that is named after Warhol's mother, who played a strong inspirational role in his life;

• Sam, a feline-themed collection inspired by the artist's book, "25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy."

The kitchen textiles and table linen lines product offerings comprise kitchen towels, oven mitts, pot holders, napkins, napkin rings, aprons, place mats, tablecloths and chair pads.

Jay Franco & Sons' product lines include five collections of sheets, shams, pillow cases, bed skirts, duvet covers and decorative pillows for the bed and shower curtains, shower curtain hooks, accessories, towel ensembles and bath mats for the bath; and 12 free-standing oversized 34" x 64" fiber-reactive towels for the beach.

"We've embellished our bedding and added all the extras," said Joseph Franco, vp sales. "We're very excited about teaming up with such a great brand and renowned artist.

"The world is ready for Warhol and this kind of collection. A lot of retailers today use his kind of pop art notions for their advertising campaigns, so there is a definitely an interest."

The bedding and bath collections are also available in the Luxe and Julia collections; a variation of the American Supermarket collection, which Jay Franco & Sons culls for its line Supermarket; Famous, a retro hotel-like design featuring some of the artist's famous sayings, including "In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes"; and Shadow, a geometric stripe design.

Cribbs said the hope is to soon find more partners in the home textiles industry to expand the Andy Warhol Home collections offerings.

"There are certainly many product categories available, and we are working to build on them."