The Thread
Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Marks shares news and views from around the home textiles marketplace.
Fingers Crossed
To say the mood at Heimtextil earlier this month was upbeat would be stretching things, but it was definitely hopeful. Where the 2011 business mantra was: "A flat year will qualify as a good year," at the recent show I detected a sense that the coming 12 months might actually produce some growth, however modest. Several manufacturers are expanding capacity again - even as many acknowledg... Read More
Comments (1)Here We Go
Evites went out last week for JCPenney's annual presentation to analysts - the event at which new ceo Ron Johnson has promised to lay out his vision for the company.The minimalistic invitation itself signaled a break in style. It featured a powder blue sky dappled with a few cumulus clouds and the words: "in praise of fresh air ... click here."The click-through leads to the same image an... Read More
Comments (3)Crazy Train
No, that's not a reference to Kim Kardashians' marital merry-go-round. I'm talking about the axiom that defines "crazy" as pursuing the same action over and over again expecting to derive different results. That appears to loom ahead in the retail world as several players talk up a return to accelerated store openings.Surely the nation's rising online sales figures and the raft of hallow... Read More
Comments (2)Wonderland
I've heard people in the industry talk about Dior Rose sheets for years, but I'd never laid eyes on the pattern until we went looking for artwork for this issue's story about the top sheet patterns - or what I've been calling internally "The Best Sheets Evah."The mighty Google led me to Etsy.com, an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods. As with eBay, one has only to register... Read More
Comments (3)Did Midnight Matter?
The first set of numbers are in and the verdict on this year's extra early Black Friday store openings is ... mixed.JCPenney, which saw its November comps dip 2%, placed the blame squarely on its decision not to open stores until 4 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving, adding: "Sales remained soft in-store throughout the holiday weekend."A note to JCPenney store associates: Plan to eat you... Read More
Comments (1)Milling Around
Sometimes in the sweep of events it's difficult to remember exactly when things hit an inflection point. That is not the case for me. I joined HTT in the spring of 2000, when the industry titans were still large, American mills. Within a single year, several of them were in bankruptcy. By 2005, most of them were gone.Frankly, I am surprised not by how much production has disappeared from the Unite... Read More
Comments (1)I KNOW you've got an opinion on this
What were the most important sheet introductions in the industry's modern history - the game changers? It could be a construction that set a new standard or a classic pattern than ran forever and sold ba-zillions (or the home textiles equivalent thereof).I ask because HTT is working on a story on the subject. Admittedly, this is highly subjective, and we are talking to a lot of home textiles heav... Read More
Comments (5)Feed Your Head
Every now and then, you have a conversation that's just so full of good stuff you wish you had downloaded every word of it straight into the permanent databank of your mind.That's how I felt after a recent visit to Graj + Gustavsen. To call the place a brand strategy consultancy - the firm's official Google tag - is to vastly conflate the many nodes and nooks and crannies of the branding, marketin... Read More
Comments (1)Heads up, table linen types…
The New York Tabletop Show wrapped up Friday. Here's the 411 on the week from Traditional Home senior style editor Krissa Rossbund, who shared her thoughts during a presentation yesterday morning at tabletop showroom building 41 Madison:• Turquoise seen in porcelain and glassware. "We even saw blue flatware."• Purple endures. "It's not everybody's favorite color, but when they see i... Read More
Comments (1)Going Back to Basics
Some 15 years or so ago, McDonald's was doing some soul-searching and trying to class itself up, as it does from time to time. (This was well before McCafe came along.)An opinion piece in a trade newspaper covering the food industry offered the following advice: McDonald's key driver is cheap kiddie meals stocked with cheap toys, and McDonald's should focus on being the best provider of cheap kidd... Read More
Comments (1)JCP: The One to Watch
JCPenney delivered another not-so-hot monthly comp sales performance last week, one sufficiently discouraging that it announced it is now projecting a loss for the third quarter. But last week the retailer also announced another hiring coup: Target marketing ace Micahael Francis will join the company as president. This follows the July news that former Apple retail vp Ron Johnson will officially t... Read More
Comments (1)A Bit of ConText
HTT brushed off the moniker for its ConText conference series during market and held a mini-seminar on all things digital. It was probably the most enlightening three hours I've spent in some time.The following were my take-away notes from a program that did a great job of de-mystifying the rapidly burgeoning world of social media marketing:1. It's not necessary to plunge in to every kind of socia... Read More
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