Pattern, color add pizzazz to upholstery
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, April 19, 2004
HIGH POINT — Heeding complaints that retail floors are a sea of sameness, stationary upholstery makers are doing their best this market to brighten displays with what they hope is an exciting mix of color, fabric and styles.
The emphasis at seating sources is to provide a different approach to both contemporary and traditional styles. Traditional seems to have an edge on other styles because of the tidal wave of casual contemporary that has flooded retail from the past few markets.
Those adding contemporary will be looking for different twists. Rowe, for example, hopes "to redefine the contemporary and traditional categories with a fresh approach to categories that have been around for a long time," said Corey Keifetz, vice president of merchandising.
He said Rowe will go "full bore" into contemporary and traditional, and also introduce a major slipcover program with true and faux slipcovers in a large variety of fabrics and a washability story.
"We're trying to fill the needs from the retailer to the consumer side in terms of scale and proportion," Keifetz said. "You try to differentiate yourself. A sofa's a sofa. But (you have to think) what else can you do to make it more appealing to the dealer and the consumer?"
Refined scale and proportion are requests the manufacturer is getting, he said.
At Southern Furniture, President Ken Church sees some of the same needs.
"Many floors have gone pretty casual with all the leather and microfiber and other things that are out there," he said. "So people are looking for something to jazz up their floors."
Southern's big push last market was the Antiques Roadshow collection of opulent reproductions of vintage flea market finds. But Church said he is "surprised" at how many people "ventured into our contemporary category. We're getting really good commitments from people we didn't expect."
Southern, said Church, "is taking a different approach this market with our contemporary goods. We're trying to dress them up — not sleek but casual contemporary — and add those elements that people are tying to pull into the traditional area. We're not going to be as ornate but we have a number of wood treatments that we're going to be using."
With the proliferation of casual in the marketplace, upholstery buyers will be looking for traditional as a seating counterpoint.
"We're coming out with a new program called Return to Elegance that is pretty far-reaching," Church said. The program includes a number of base cloths that will work with eight decorative pillows with a lot of interesting elements and details. The program has debuted at a couple of major retail outlets and done well.
"It looks like everyone we showed it to is going to buy it," he said. "When you show it to 10 people and nine buy it, it's pretty decent."
Church said what worries him is that, even when the slots on the floor weren't filled with leather or microfiber, "they weren't generating the sales. What we've got to hope is that, with the twists and angles going into this market, we present an alternative to microfiber. We've got to make sure it appeals to the consumer and it allows them the same feeling they had when they were buying microfiber."
Ron Smith, vice president of sales and marketing for Alexvale by Kincaid, said his guess is that retailers will be looking for "something different in colors, textures and patterns. Everyone's floor has become a sea of microfiber solids, and they're going to be looking for some fresh colors and silhouettes."
Other key players are following the same formula in contemporary.
Norwalk, for instance, is returning to the 1950s and '60s for its Déjà Vu collection, designed to appeal to baby boomers with a taste for the nostalgic. Other producers are adding retro looks with post-war flair, straight-forward styles with little to no froufrou.
Traditional intros for this market will be all about details, with stepped-up chenilles, tapestries, toiles and fabric combinations of all kinds. Collage goes up and down the price spectrum this market, showing there still are salable variations to be found.
Some key collections this market include:
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Lexington's Liz Claiborne collection of case goods and 71 pieces of upholstery. This could be the most talked-about newcomer this market. The collection has everything in the way of looks, plus the Claiborne brand, which many prospective consumers already will be wearing.
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Pennsylvania House's Summer Retreat series. With its wicker looks, colorful performance fabrics and "I want to take a nap on the porch" feeling, this is another decidedly different introduction. The company's showroom is offering some fun sound effects and a brief movie introduction to get retailers in the mood.
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Universal's first upholstery collection. This should draw plenty of buyers eager to see what the big importer is doing in upholstery. Those who were at premarket said they were surprised by the detail and value of the offering.
