Freshened image for a Famous face

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 3/31/2003 12:00:00 AM

AT THE NEW YORK MARKET —

Famous Home Fashions is giving a facelift to its logo and packaging expecting to show off its new look during spring market.

"The new logo is more hip, more of the times," said Barry Samberg, president. "It's new, but old, with respect to today's fashion point of view and the way people are bringing back the '70s."

Famous Home Fashions' new look is part of a larger effort to enhance the company's image.

More than three years ago Royal International Corp., a Canadian home textiles and hardware supplier, acquired Famous Shower Curtain Company and created its current logo.

But over the same period, the parent company has made efforts to revamp the operation, along with its marketing and design perspective. In the past few months, the company has "gone from zero to a staff of three designers," Samberg said.

"We used to work only with converters, but now about 80 percent of our designs are our own," he added. "We are trying to give the company a fresh, new look that represents our growing in-house brands."

In conjunction with the introduction of its new logo and packaging, Famous Home Fashions is launching 16 new fully coordinated bath collections and about 30 new free-standing shower curtains that employ embroidery, textured constructions and other embellishments.

Samberg said that even with its new designs, the company is maintaining its target retail channels, which span from mass merchants through specialty and department stores.

Famous Home Fashions' bath products are both imported and manufactured domestically at the company's headquarters. It also owns and operates a distribution facility in Plattsburgh, NY.