At two, Ellison moves into jacs
Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 3/31/2003
AT THE NEW YORK MARKET — Ellison marked its two-year anniversary by expanding beyond its core print bed-in-a-bag program into jacquard offerings and stepping up the construction of its coordinate accessories.
The finished product division of Alice Mills also bumped up the number of beds shown on the floor — 17 this market, compared to the usual dozen.
A supplier and manufacturer of value-priced offerings ranging from $179 to $199, Ellison's core business remains 250-count and 200-count blends, said president Kevin Finlay.
"We doing some cotton business for a department store group, but we're really about the value equation," he said.
The new jacquard collection includes:
- Avebury: a classic red and gold pattern, button-stitched and step-stitched comforter face, shams and dust ruffle, with a textured attached hem on the sheeting. The bed has also been struck in a royal blue colorway.
- King's Court: a paisley striped, black and gold pieced top of bed with mitering and a lined jacquard window coordinate.
- Buckingham: a moss green chenille jacquard.
In another new twist, Ellison is offering a clean white eyelet bed ensemble with ruffles and scalloped edges. In addition, decorative pillows across the breadth of offerings now feature piecing and step-up trims, a departure from the simple knife-edge constructions Ellison originally brought to market.
Ellison continues to pursue a strategy of adding a few customers annually, focusing particularly on retailers that large suppliers can't afford to tailor to, Finlay said.
"The mills are killing themselves over seven or eight customers – but there's a whole other group out there. We're focused on Middle America," he said.
Print patterns launching this market include:
- Fountainbleu: a printed jacquard scroll;
- Nordica: a geometric box pattern in olive, beige and burgundy;
- Sutton Place: a weathered red ground with tossed tulips paired with plaid shams and accents;
- Mandarin: An Asian-influenced sage floral;
- Angelique: an antique tossed floral on a simple burgundy ground;
- Mallory: an evolved tropical floral with a floral stripe sheet that steps above novelty and into master bedroom;
- Paradiso: a boxed tropical flower paisley on a textured print ground with a sheet of tossed florals and butterflies;
- Josette: a purple floral with a textured block background;
- Christina: a textured-looking patchwork with a striped floral;
- Elizabeth: a tossed floral on a black ground with a grand scale floral border.
"We've tended to do more contemporary designs, and we found we were lacking in florals," said designer Marla Stuchel. "We decided to address that this market.
