Decosit: A bazaar with little direction
Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, September 15, 2003
A rare thing happened at Decosit in Brussels, Belgium. Exhibitors at the fabric show were talking about something seldom seen in recent years at trade events — actual written orders.
And then there was the fabric bazaar offered at TIP/Pret, the shows held concurrently with Decosit, where a growing number of Third World fabric producers exhibited.
Both the number of countries and the total exhibitors at TIP increased this year. But more importantly, visitors were able to see a more diverse offering of product for the mass and middle markets.
Of late, assessments of trade shows typically have involved comments on the quality of buyers in attendance, the prevalence of sampling, and whether retailers had cut the number of buyers because of the economy, consolidation, the value of the dollar and a host of other excuses, including the weather.
Even more interesting in Brussels was the apparent strength of the upper end of the decorative fabric market. Some attribute this trend to the impact on the global marketplace of Third World countries producing cheap goods in large quantities.
Articulated more than a few times, and not just by U.S. fabric producers, was the theory that buyers were looking for niche product, high quality, reorderability and fast delivery, a dramatic move away from the commodity products driven by the Wal-Marts of the world and those Third World suppliers.
Along with these positive elements was the absence of new directions in color, design and construction. There were nuances of change — more silk, higher construction cottons, more color — but no real new directions. There also appeared to be an increase in prints.
How all of this will affect the U.S. home textiles market will be intriguing to watch. Will commodity-driven product dominate the scene? And what, if any, color and design directions will emerge?
