Live Love Laugh

What do Paris Hilton, Janet Jackson, American Idol, autism, cancer and Harry Potter have to do with home textiles?

Aside from the fact that all certainly own aplenty of them, these names are just 6 of the 20 top Google searches in 2005 and 2006 — and now a French artist has incorporated them onto a collection of high-end decorative pillows.

A clothing-and-home furnsihings boutique in Tribeca on Broome Street – Pastec – carries them for $130 a pop.

They caught my eye as I was leafing through the just-mailed November issue my gift subscription of domino magazine.

It was not the inflated price that drew me close.

Rather I got double deja vu.

First came a flashback one of my recent articles. For our October 29th issue I wrote a feature about the decorative pillow category. In that story, I quote Don Tweel, president of Tweel Home Furnishings, on his success with products emblazoned with messages like "Live. Love. Laugh." – "strong sellers," as he described them.

“The trick in this business is you’ve got to figure out your own niche. With the right approach this is still a good business,” he said. “We can’t sell the same old solid-colored pillow. We don’t do well with those. We are more gift-oriented, and Christmas is big for us. Novelty is our niche.”

The second deja vu came in the form of my work in progress. For HTT’s upcoming issue, publishing November 12, I’m working on a Rug Report about growing trends in oversized area rugs. The point of this article is how during our sore economic and housing markets this segment consistently hums along, allowing these shoppers to afford 10-by-12 an 12-by-15 oversized rugs for their mansions.

They can also afford $130 decortaive pillows with talking points for their sofas.

As for the rest of us, I guess we’ll have to "Live. Love. Laugh." And I’m OK with that.