Newport's Scriptorium collection on ‘write' path for dec pillow business

Home Textiles Today Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 3/7/2012 11:32:40 AM

Belinda Ballash, design director

At the New York Market - Newport/Layton Home Fashions is seeing is decorative pillow shift unexpectedly in a more "scripted" direction.

While the company's heavier-fabric "great room" chenille styles have long dominated the company's category sales, its novelty "Scriptorium" line that launched last year is growing by unforeseen "leaps and bounds," said Belinda Ballash, design director.

Scriptorium pillows started out as black-and-cream vintage postcard, cityscape and botanical design themes interpreted on linen-like cotton fabrics.

But because of the avid response it has received from retailers and shoppers alike, Newport developed the collection's next generation for this market with added colors and fabrications.

"We've doubled the space for this line on our shelves," Ballash explained. "We originally thought it was just going to be a novelty. But it's quickly growing in importance and may soon become as big - or even overtake - our ‘great room' business."

The news Scriptorium pillows use "a lot more color" especially as accents in the patterns, and also come in new base cloths, such as burlap. One such example is the new "Rio" pillow, a parrot design painted in bright red over a map-like background on burlap.

Price points remain on par with the great-room pillows, falling within the $19.99 to $29.99 range.

But because of increases in fabric costs recently - now hitting a $7.95 to $10.95 per yard range versus the prior $5.95 to $7.95 per yard bracket - "we're being forced in some cases to raise prices on some pillows this market, depending on the fabrics they are made of," she warned.