Park B. Smith pushes café curtains

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 9/7/2001 5:04:00 PM

New York — Café curtains are no longer just "frilly" visors used to obstruct the morning sun through the kitchen window, according to multi-category home textiles importer Park B. Smith Ltd.

"People want them for more rooms of the house besides the kitchen, and they don't want them to be the usual frilly print," said Valborg Linn, director of design and merchandising. "It's a new lifestyle look for the smaller windows of the house in homes and apartments. And we want to provide that for our customers."

Linn said that Park B. Smith's new Café curtain collection is "one of our biggest pushes" for the upcoming New York Home Textile Show in October.

The collection, all of which is imported from India, will be two-fold. Part of it will fall under the Eco-ordinates line of vegetable-dyed 100 percent cotton goods, and the other part will fall under Park B. Smith's signature brand under the expanding kitchen textile category.

Under the Eco-ordinates collection, the café curtains will be available in eight patterns, each of which will come in up to five colors. Linn explained that while many of the café curtains for Eco-ordinates will coordinate with existing draperies in the collection, some others will be sold as free-standing offerings.

Under Park B. Smith's signature brand, construction includes: prints in cherry and floral designs; embroideries in florals and fruits; tufted accents on a woven fabric; stone-washed denim; terrycloth; and applique.

Of these, two coordinate with the new prints and tapestry kitchen textile collections. The rest are stand-alone café curtains.

All café curtains come in pairs and are offered in three sizes — 24 inches, 36 inches and valances. Price points are estimated at $10 to $15 for 24", $15 to $20 for 36" and $10 to $12.50 for valances.

The collection targets specialty and department stores and catalogs.

"This is a further expansion of window for us, taking Park B. Smith to all sizes for window," Linn said. "We consider soft window treatments an important category for us because more and more people are spending time within their homes and they enjoy the sunlight coming through their windows but they also want their privacy and they want beautiful options in soft window decor that is both elegant and casual. Our offerings meet all their needs."