Maga Sabao accessorizes at NY show

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/11/2002 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK —

Newly created Maga Sabao debuted its line of contemporary hard and soft home accessories at the Home Textiles show here last month.

Almudena de Toro, a former interior designer, and her sister, Maricarmen de Toro, were looking to start a business together and decided on textiles and ceramics since those are inherent strengths of their home country of Peru.

"We were both looking to do something else, and thought it would be nice to do something together," Almudena said of the new Lima, Peru-based company. "It was also nice to go from interior design to something as small as accessories."

Almudena handles the design, while Maricarmen manages the business operations.

The debut collection falls into three categories — lacquered trays, ceramics and textiles, which include decorative pillows, throws, lamps, bowls, tablemats and boxes.

Colored in chocolate brown, papaya orange and apple green, patterns remain simple, playing with such shapes as circles and squares. The formica tablemats (wholesaling at $8 each), for example, have cutouts of squares, lines or a circle. The simple patterns of the lamb's wool decorative pillows (a 17-inch square wholesales for $41, and a 21-inch square for $51) include big and small squares, circles within a circle, and a row of stem-like objects.

The pieces also combine design with practicality. The lacquered mahogany tray, for example, has movable compartments that can be used to serve appetizers or organize office supplies. The alpaca/ acrylic throws are available in natural, papaya, and cafe colors, wholesaling for $220.

"Everything is handmade," Maricarmen said. And though the designs are not Peruvian, the detailed, methodical way of making it is, she added. It took 20 days, for example, for one person to weave the rug used for Maga Sabao's booth at the show.

"One of the most rewarding aspects of this job is the chance to help artisans in my country whose work is disappearing as a consequence of the influx of inexpensive, mass-produced goods," said Almudena.

"They are artists," she said of the 40 people employed to manufacture the goods.

The company's unusual name was taken from the first letters of the names of the sisters' four cats and a dog: MArx, GAtucha, SAmo, BAbi and Octavio.

The de Toro's also have a petless partner, Stephanie Skirvin, based in Brooklyn.