Croscill Makes Broad Line Debuts

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 3/23/2009 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Croscill Home debuted two innovations in window earlier this month at the New York market.

Cotillion, a patent-pending panel, features an attached valance that can be draped in multiple ways. The panels will be sold in pairs, with an insert accordion fold-up piece suggesting a few of the varieties in which the valance can be hung. Pricing will be determined by the materials retailers choose for the panel and valance.

Also new is Arch-i-texture, a flexible draw-down shade for arched windows. The panel attaches to the underside of the window arch with Velcro and is available in sizes that conform to the three most common arch dimensions: 47-inch, 59-inch and 71-inch.

Croscill showed Arch-I-texture in several constructions, including faux linen, canvas, faux slub satin, prints on faux linen, and sheers.

The company's fashion bedding division showed a variety of design directions: traditional, naturals, contemporaries and regional looks.

Among the new designs in traditional, Silver Lining is a 300-count, all-cotton printed Damask on sateen. Tiger Eye is a vertical stripe on an embossed top of bed paired with animal skin accents. Harvest Moon is a Jacobean design paired with velvet coordinates.

Within the traditional area, Croscill is layering in coverlets as well as pleated dec pillows in a variety of colors. "We're presenting it as the third pillow," said Michelle LaRovere, vp of sales. In addition, she said, "You'll see a lot of beautiful novelty pillows on our beds because our customers have asked for this."

What was introduced two markets ago as Croscill Cotton has evolved into Croscill Naturals. "This year we've incorporated more color, embroidered, design and different fabrications," said LaRovere.

Within Naturals, Croscill showed a collection of silk bedding under the umbrella Excess Luxury. They include Arbor, an engineered embroidery; Manor, a silk blend with an embroidered motif on one mitered corner; Tropical Bliss, a bamboo/linen with a chain stitch embroidery on the break of the comforter face; and Secret Garden, a combination of linen, cotton and light-weight burlap.

Croscill this market also bowed a number of fashion beds in chenille — a construction in which it excelled during the heyday of chenille earlier this decade. "We were previewed a lot of chenille by our vendors and thought maybe it's time to come back with chenille — and what better time than fall?" said LaRovere.

The company unveiled a range of top of bed — available in either duvets or comforters — in a contemporary aesthetic for young adults. These include prints, wovens and Ari, a linen blend with a dense chain-stitching that resembles crewel in neutral tones.

Regional bedding — primarily lodge and tropical looks — has a number of new designs. Though not growing in terms of doors, regional is a solid niche, said LaRovere.

Croscill also produced freestanding quilts in designs ranging from traditional to transitional to contemporary with $129 retails. "It's definitely a growing business," said LaRovere. "I call it a cheap thrill."

Stand-outs in Croscill's broad bath division include Pizca, which employs resign and techno-hued teal sequins in a deep brown shower curtain and accessories; and Fairfax, a set of ribbed geometric pieces that are softly twisted out of rigid four-corner configurations.

New to bath is a range of gauzy, feminine and contemporary shower curtains — some lightly sequined — that can retail at $29.99, about $10 lower than Croscill's regular shower curtain tag.