Chair fashion steps up at Promosedia
Oak, bright colors among show's trends
By Ray Allegrezza -- Furniture Today, September 29, 2003
Udine, Italy — Promosedia once again lived up to its reputation as the premier showplace for chair designs.
The show, held here this month, drew more than 16,000 visitors from some 80 countries who came to shop the more than 6,000 seating introductions, primarily from the Friuli region of northeast Italy, known as the chair capital of the world.
This area of Italy, said to produce more than 80% of the country's chairs and more than 30% of the world's seating products, also has earned a reputation for consistently bringing fashion-forward designs to market.
That assessment was confirmed by Lora La Dew, a senior buyer for Crate and Barrel who was at the recent show.
"The Italians are great innovators and have a wonderful eye for design," she observed.
Trends she noticed at Promosedia included a preponderance of oak and oak veneers, the heavy integration of various chrome accents, and the "delightful colors and designs being used on many of the plastic chairs.
"It's an inspiring and inspirational show," she said.
Exhibitors, for their part, were inspired as well, encouraged by a retail climate that seems to be steadily improving. Even so, many of the Italian manufacturers exhibiting at the show said they are keeping a careful eye on Asian imports.
"Even though our business has been good, products from Asia present a problem," said Andrea Del Fabro, of Del Fabro, a manufacturer of kitchen and dining furniture. "Having a patent for your products is no assurance that someone in the Far East won't knock it off."
To help differentiate his products, Del Fabro, who supplies goods to such U.S. retailers as Costco, Pottery Barn, Hold Everything and others, seeks to separate itself in part through better materials. "Obviously, being an Italian producer, we use Italian Carerra marble on our products, which is hard for the Chinese to copy," he said.
In addition to a growing use of walnut, Del Fabro said that a number of light woods — including oak and ash — continue to gain favor with the American consumer.
Gabriella Dal Mas, a spokesperson at Calligaris, also mentioned Asian imports and said that like Del Fabro, her company uses high-quality materials to help distinguish its products from offshore competitors.
"The Chinese often offer a good solution at the low end. However, products made in Italy from fine materials really are in a class by themselves," she said.
To that point, one leather chair from Calligaris was recognized among the 10 best chairs at this fair.
Roberto Goretti, a director at Grup Sedia, said he has noticed an uptick in business, but described his outlook as cautiously optimistic based on activity and order-writing at earlier European shows where he exhibits.
"Until recently, the business has been tough for many of our European customers," he said. "The fairs at Paris and Cologne were slow. Milan was somewhat better, but was under the normal level of activity."
Even so, Goretti was encouraged by what he saw at Promosedia. "The first day was a bit slow, but typically that is the day many buyers visit the factories. The next day, traffic was much better," he said.
For the show, Grup Sedia had a number of introductions including folding chairs, a birch buffet and a host of dining tables and chairs.
Exhibitor Effezeta, meanwhile, used the show not only to show new product but to announce a design competition. Working in cooperation with the Assn. of Industrial Design, the company is asking design students age 35 and younger to submit their best design solutions for home office seating. A group of as yet unnamed design experts will judge the entries and award cash prizes to the top three winners of the 2004 Design Award.
In keeping with tradition, Promosedia also honored the Top Ten chairs at the show. This year's winning companies: Airnova, Beltraniai Weiano, Billiani, Calligaris, Gaber, ITF Design International, La Sodia, Meterc Riccardo, Sintesi and Sokoa.
