Milli Home flexes fashion finesse

BY Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 4/6/2007 9:37:00 AM

New York– Milli Home’s fall 2007 collection focuses on texture, detail, and opulence – but also price point.

Retail buyers for dec pillows are in a conservative mood right now, according to Pavan Uttam, executive vp and marketing director. For that reason, Milli Home is showing six solid dec pillow constructions – each with a lot of surface interest and each in six to seven solid colors. Retails range from $9.99 to $24.99.

“Retailers are being careful, but they’re also merchandising with fashion,” Uttam said. Milli Home has responded by offering two packs, combining either a pair of solids or a solid pillow with a coordinating fashion pillow. “They’re selling multiple skus that way,” he said. “Pillows are an impulse item. It’s all about the packaging. The consumer sees a nice ribbon around it, nice presentation, she picks it up.”

Under the luxury Alpha Workshops Collection by Milli Home – with retails ranging from $100 to $130 -- the company has introduced pieced suede, suede macramé, Japanese beads, and embroidered silk pieces. The Alpha collection is also showing gray colorways – taking a cue from ready-to-wear.

For fall, Milli Home also is showing a broader selection of throws – a category the design house tiptoed into with its spring collection. The assortment includes faux fur animal skins, faux cashmere at $12.99 and $14.99 retails, faux lambswool, and textured faux fur solids.