The Thread
Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Marks shares news and views from around the home textiles marketplace.
The E-Game
There was a lot of buzz about ecommerce during the New York Home Fashions Market two weeks ago - a significant, eyebrow-raising amount of talk.Ecommerce buyers I heard mentioned most often included Amazon, macys.com and Overstock. There was also a fair amount of chatter about the appearance of Groupon in New York showrooms during the week. Increasing numbers of suppliers are talking about their f... Read More
Comments (0)Pinch Me
Watch out. Something that feels strangely like optimism may be insinuating itself into the industry. There is a growing sense - one we first caught wind of in January at Heimtextil - that it just might be possible to make a little money this year. The sentiment has floated through successive first-quarter trade shows. In preview appointments for the New York Home Fashions Market over the past coup... Read More
Comments (5)The Little Things
Sometimes, it's the little things that capture your attention. Such was the case last week when Walmart said its home department had produced positive comps in the fourth quarter - the first uptick in home comps at America's largest retailer in 2 ½ years. The extent to which this is a positive signal for the country's home business generally links directly to whether one considers Walmart a bellwe... Read More
Comments (1)Gut Check
After JCPenney executives laid out their vision for transforming the store and before they held a special session for the financial community the following day, the company invited analysts to submit questions in advance.The most asked question: How far will sales volume have to fall before you scrap the streamlined pricing and go back to promotions and coupons?There was a reason analysts posed th... Read More
Comments (3)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 (4)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 (6)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 (3)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 (6)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
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