Cecile's Creel

January 6, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I just wrapped up my piece of what is probably one of the most heavily read – and most involved – special reports HTT compiles annually: the Top 15 Suppliers and Top 5 supplier lists. (To be featured in our issue on Monday)

 

And I’ve got to say, I’m slightly encouraged with the overall results – at least from the companies and product categories I cover, which includes rugs, bath coordinate pieces, dec pillows, kitchen textiles and table linens.

 

The project has many moving components, requiring me to gather data from many different sources. So I always begin ...Read More

May 27, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

My eco-obsessed husband and brother were hoping to take on a challenge that  several others have attempted but few have achieved - a week without plastic.

"It can be done! We can do it," Oscar, my husband, optimistically said to me over dinner the other night.

"Well," I said, pensively, "I don't know. I'm not so sure it is as easy as it seems."

Not one bit.

Consider the food we -- and our pets -- eat. Much of it comes in plastic or has plastic components on the packaging. Our yogurt, the cold cuts, the bread, milk jugs, dog food, cookies, even the veggies, are boxed, or sealed in or with plastic. Don't forget Ziplocks, which I use for my girls' school sandwiches. They, too, are PLASTIC.

"We'd have to leave the kids out of this," I told Oscar. "Practically eve...Read More

March 23, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

 

 

Struggling retailers out there might feel the pressure to compete in price and merchandise with Wal-Mart in like markets.

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March 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

I just wrapped up my coverage of New York Home Fashions Market last week, and much like HTT editor-in-chief Jennifer Marks noted in her blog, I saw that Anthropologie-esque looks abounded as the new fashion statement – and it was so refreshing. I loved to see this trend emerging.

But that design direction was the exception, not the rule. For as many estate-sale, vintage type looks of mix-and-match Bohemia-inspired patterns I saw, by far and large the push was "value" offerings in ho-hum looks and basic constructions that can sell at promotional price points.

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February 25, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Listened to Target’s fourth quarter call yesterday and was not surprised to hear
its home business was down, again.

With home performance lackluster for several quarters now, the chain is planning
to edit its home skus and consolidate the category's brand offerings this year,
while at the same time ramping up consumables and pharmacy-related assortments.

Disappointing. To me, Target is just homogenizing home, giving its millions of
shoppers fewer decorating choices and limited levels of quality and price
points. 

Instead, it’s feeding me more food products and more medicines and more makeup.

Why? I already have several pharmacies where I can not only buy Tylenol, diapers
and my lipstick but milk, bread and even...Read More