The Thread
Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Marks shares news and views from around the home textiles marketplace.
Eat your carrots!
Talk about thinking big! USA Today has a story up about carrot producers banding together to launch a $25 million campaign to make carrots more appealing to kids.That includes packaging carrots to look like snack foods (specifically, like Cheetos), installing vending machines in schools, creating seasonal tie-ins (for Halloween, it's "scarrots"), television ads and a phone app "powe... Read More
Comments (1)Big Whoop
File this one under the heading: "Did they really need to do a poll on that?"The National Retail Federation - which does a lot of good consumer research - just released a survey showing 64% of consumers say they will reduce their spending if the United States adopts a value-added tax. According to the survey, areas where consumers would cut back the most if a "federal sales tax"... Read More
Comments (0)Keeping Up with the Kardashians
It has finally happened. The celebu-brand trend has run headlong into Reality TV with today's announcement that the Kardashian sisters will launch a branded line of apparel, home and accessories. They are partnering with Aussie designer Bruno Schiavi, who is no stranger to the celebrity branding game. His collection of athletic apparel inspired by the reality weigh loss show "The Biggest Lose... Read More
Comments (1)Spring’s Von Furstenberg launch: The Audacity of Scope
Springs Global unveiled its inaugural collection of DVF Home last week, the Diane Von Furstenberg collection targeting top-tier department stores in the U.S. and abroad. It is hands down the most ambitious debut collection I've ever seen. I can't even begin to compute how much money Springs Global must have invested in developing DVF Home. The results are eye-popping. Consider the scope: • Some 1... Read More
Comments (0)Market recap
The New York Home Fashions Market winds down today, with a few suppliers reporting an appointment or two tomorrow. A few bullet points from my notebook: “Positive.” The word of the week. Nearly every supplier I spoke with had a healthy slate of appointments. Not one complained of an account failing to show. With retail inventories running low and many 4Q retail financials exceeding expectations,... Read More
Comments (0)Finally getting it?
The time: Six months ago, during the September market in New York. The characters: Your extremely sporatic blogger, a colleague and our 23-year-old, male photographer. The setting: Hitting the sidewalk following a showroom walk-through, one of many. DIALOGUE: Photog: It’s weird. Extremely sporatic blogger (ESB): What? Photog: It’s, people keep showing you this stuff that’s supposed to be for... Read More
Comments (0)A World Away
Opening day of Heimtextil 2010 is just a week away. There are expected to be fewer exhibitors. Buyers? That depends up who you’re looking for. The size of individual U.S. buying groups has declined as major accounts - retailers and suppliers - secured alliances post-2005. For many exhibitors, the show has more to do these days with find extra-U.S. markets to tap. Indian home textiles giant Welspu... Read More
Comments (0)And now, for something completely different…
Financial news reports on Wednesday were dominated by the U.S. Commerce Department’s morning announcement that retail sales fell back a bit — 0.4% — last month. The National Retail Federation –which extracts sales of autos, gas and restaurants from the equation and adjusts for the shift of Easter from March last year to April this year — also put the drop-off of ‘pure’ retail sales at 0.4%. The... Read More
Comments (0)A good time was had by all
Sears/Kmart was the major sponsor of opening night for the 5th annual Design on a Dime benefit this evening in Manhattan. The charity benefiting is Housing Works, which provides services to homeless and low-income New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS. Big turnout. Nicely done event. Check out the photo gallery. The bait for this correspondent: an early look at fall 2010 home lines for Country Living (m... Read More
Comments (0)The New Consumerism
Atlantic Monthly correspondent Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, has posted a meditation on evolving consumer habits. The emergence of new consumption patterns takes time. The Great Depression began in 1929, and it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that the new suburban lifestyle burst onto the scene fully formed. My dad was an eight-year-old in 1929; my mother just five a... Read More
Comments (0)Sinking the boart vs. Missing the boat
The New Yorker this week has an interesting piece on its Financial Page about the fate of companies that invest in R&D, marketing and acquisitions during a recession vs. those that whack costs and hunker down. Only about a page long. Worth a read.... Read More
Comments (0)Sinking the boat vs. Missing the boat
The New Yorker this week has an interesting piece on its Financial Page about the fate of companies that invest in R&D, marketing and acquisitions during a recession vs. those that whack costs and hunker down. Only about a page long. Worth a read.... Read More
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