Soft hand, vibrant colors drive sales
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 23, 2003
High Point — This was the year of microfiber suede. Although chenille remained the top-selling upholstery cover for most manufacturers in 2003, fabric buyers continued to look for alternatives, and microfiber suede was the alternative of choice for many.
Solid-color suede fabric holds the top slot at manufacturers such as Norwalk and PeopLoungers and will probably move into that position for more producers in the next year.
D'Oro suede in taupe, an imported microfiber suede distributed by Dorell Fabrics, is the No. 1-selling cover at Norwalk Furniture, according to Debbie McKirahan, director of corporate merchandising. "Formosa Olive is No. 2," McKirahan said. "It's interesting that our No. 2-selling cover is a pattern," McKirahan said.
Formosa, which is supplied by the Ametex division of the Robert Allen Group, is an imported chenille paisley.
Microfibers in demand
"Microfibers have been featured and advertised in shelter magazines for some time," said Machiko Penny, merchandise manager at Walter E. Smithe Furniture, Chicago. "And consumers are very savvy in picking up on the features-and- benefits story of this wonderful fabric."
Walter E. Smithe currently features D'Oro microfiber on the Brubeck style from Norwalk, Penny said. "The entire color palette that it is offered in sells well. It has all the features and benefits that consumers have picked up on from shelter magazines, and it has the look of suede, without the price of suede."
Microfiber suede is a major category for Lane Home Furnishings, according to Greg Roy, vice president and general merchandise manager.
"Microsuedes really were big for us this year and they just continue to grow," Roy said. "I think the new trends in suedes with some surface effects will also retail."
Chenilles still strong
Chenilles continue to sell in both promotional price points and in step-up frames as well, Roy added. "Emerging trends are the new Joan velvets with surface interest, like Chunkee and Kaboodle — velvets that look like soft chenilles. We have also been pleased with the updated and fresh contemporary pillow covers from Quaker and Culp that really make the earth-tone body cloths pop at retail."
Lexington Upholstery had good sales of a beige-tone chenille from Quaker in 2003, said Nadine Andrews, fabric merchandiser. "We use it with a coordinating large frame pattern for the back pillows."
Lexington also does very well with a faux suede from Bartson, Andrews said.
An imported chenille from Morgan Fabrics was among Flexsteel's top-selling covers in 2003, according to Keith Feuerhaken, vice president of sales.
"Como, which we use in a scroll pattern for the body cloth as well as a diamond and a stripe for pillows, is a dramatic burnt sienna color called copper and we were kind of nervous when we first did it," Feuerhaken said. "But it has proven to be very well accepted at retail and is an enormous success at our Gallery stores around the country."
Flexsteel, which has about 400 Gallery stores around the country, also does big business with the Como patterns in a softer, taupe shade.
Chenille also still rules at promotional upholstery producer Rose Hill, according to Hunter Bigham, vice president of sales. "Our single top-selling fabric is a chenille," Bigham said. "It's on our No. 1 sectional and stationary groups."
Bigham added, however, that Rose Hill just added microfibers at midyear, so "our make-up will probably look different this time next year."
Tanya Comer, director of marketing at upscale producer Taylor King, said her company's top cover in 2003 was a "multi-color green chenille. Chenilles are still most of our top 30 fabrics — mostly in greens, golds and reds — ranging from multi-color to tone-on-tone patterns."
Alternatives also important
Comer added, however, that she continues to look for chenille alternatives, such as a bouclé from Valdese that she said had a strong showing at the October market. "I think we'll see more of that, but they need to keep that soft hand."
Mark Templeton, president of Claude Gable, reported that chenille is still one of the strongest categories, but nylon velvets, microfiber suedes and twills are coming on strong.
"It seems retailers are looking for styles that appeal to the younger customers so the soft hand and vibrant colors make the nylon velvets and microsuedes a hot look in the market," he said.
Templeton also said twill fabrics are gaining in popularity thanks to the consumer's appetite for relaxed and colorful slipcover applications, which "again is something the younger generation is looking for."
The imported upholstery program at Kathy Ireland Home by Standard does huge numbers with microfiber suede fabrics. Ireland likes the microfiber cleaning story, she said, because "it fits perfectly with our mission of finding solutions for families.
"Life is messy, but instead of being afraid of the mess we should embrace it. When I was little, people always wanted kids kept out of certain rooms. I want kids to feel welcome everywhere. A lot of hurt feelings can be eliminated because even bad spills are easy to clean up on microfiber."
At Alexvale, the top-selling fabrics in 2003 "have proven to be a good mixture of things," according to Jennifer McGuire, director of merchandising. "The top two-thirds of sales belong to the plain cloth category with twills, chinos, denims and microfibers being the leaders."
"We are definitely seeing a decreased interest in chenille but we do have a couple that remain in the top. Our other strengths have been in chenille alternatives — textures and velvets."
In addition, Alexvale has seen a resurgence of interest in cotton prints, "as the past two fabric markets have produced the best selection seen in quite some time," said McGuire.
"We have not realized prints as top sellers thus far but look for them to find their way into our list in the coming year or so."
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Soft hand, vibrant colors
Nov 24, 2002
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