Market Week Prep

Home Textiles Today Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/25/2010 2:13:46 AM

Jennifer MarksYOU MAY HAVE HEARD that New York is in a full-blown bed bug panic. They've been found in hotels, dorm rooms, office buildings and retail stores.
     My husband was in our local Bed Bath & Beyond in downtown Manhattan the other day and one of the associates there told him bedding designed to shield against bed bugs has been fl ying off the shelves at such a clip the store was sold out of queen-sized protectors.
     When London Luxury introduced its Allergy Luxe bed bug protection line a couple of years ago (if memory serves), the company had on hand University of California, Berkeley, entomologist and bed bug specialist Gail Getty. A good humored lady, she can tell you stories that will make your skin crawl.
     I asked her why the sudden resurgence. Her answer: DDT. The powerful pesticide, which was much in use in the 1950s and early 1960s, nearly wiped them out, she said, and it's taken them all this time to repopulate in noticeable numbers.
     Understandably, folks coming in from out of town for market may have some apprehensions about the critters. Professor Getty offered a simple tip for testing your room. Take a business card and slide it along the crevices of the head board as well as the around the edge of the mattress. This being New York, you're liking to come up with some dirt and grit, but if your card comes out rust-colored, it's probably bed bugs.
"Be sure to sharpen up your elbows before you plunge in. The place just opened and so far it's been packed."
     Pivoting from the gross to the glorious, the 5th Avenue showroom neighborhood has a new food emporium - Eataly, the brainchild of culinary bigs Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti.
     Located at 200 5th between 23rd and 24th Streets, Eataly is a wonderland of Italian food, with stations offering coffees, pastries, breads, cheese, pastas, olive oils, pizzas, seafood and produce as well as imported packaged food and cookware. It's Dean & Deluca meets Whole Food Market - Italian style. A must-stop for foodies.
     Be sure to sharpen up your elbows before you plunge in. The place just opened and so far it's been packed.
     Final though on the run-up to market. I'd been hearing for weeks how companies weren't expecting to get their products in until the very last minute. However, we've had more early preview appointments this year than we have in years. Go figure.
     See you next week!