JTex Taking Linen to the Extreme

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/6/2004 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Since the explosion of bed-in-a-bag, the market has seen table linens in a bag, bath sets in a bag and dorm sets in a bag.

Now, Extreme Linen has created room-in-a-box that goes beyond the standard comforter/sheet set ensemble to include coordinating picture frame, tissue box, window panel, flip valence and curtain rod.

Extreme Linen is the finished product offshoot of two-year-old fabric supplier JTex. The fledgling division is positioning itself as a customer-specific product-development resource for the television shopping, dot-com and nation retail-chain channels.

“We're going to market with an approach that creates product that is unique and individual to the customer,” said George Firrincieli, who recently joined that company as executive vice president of marketing, merchandising and public relations.

Firrincieli was most recently divisional merchandising manager for the merchandising division of the Home Shopping Network. Jonathan Joseph is the company's president. Yigal Barmucha is vice president of sales. Mesh Gelman is vice president of global sourcing.

The company has also put together a team of designers, each with expertise in a particular area of design — contemporary, casual, opulent, etc. The company's forte, said Firrincieli, is “mixing up unusual fabrics and patterns.”

Extreme Linen's headquarters and showroom are located in New York. The company is also opening a Tampa showroom to target retailers in the Sunbelt.

“We really looked at the way retail is evolving,” Firrincieli said. “We're doing specific projects that fill specific needs for specific customers.”