Bergdorf banks on luxe Century line
Major Hoppen collection on tap for April market
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, November 21, 2004
New York — With the launch of the Kelly Hoppen home furnishings collection, including a furniture group from Century, luxury specialty store Bergdorf Goodman here is moving into a more extensive furniture presentation.
The store has had a limited selection of furniture pieces — antiques and high-end reproductions — but its home furnishings offerings have focused primarily on tabletop, accessories and home textiles.
Hoppen, the British lifestyle interior designer who has branched out into product design and a London store, is noted for simple, informal luxury. She is launching furniture, rugs and home textiles under license to Century, Trans Ocean and Sferra, respectively.
At the April 2005 High Point market, Century is set to debut a major collection of case goods and upholstery under the Kelly Hoppen label. The full collection will be targeted to high-end furniture stores and Century's designer showrooms.
The 12-piece Century furniture program is a special collection created for Bergdorf and its sibling luxury specialty chain, Dallas-based Neiman Marcus.
Neiman's, which in recent years has backed away from home furnishings in its stores — except tabletop and accessories — has been an important retailer of high-end furniture and other home lines through its extensive Neiman Marcus and Horchow catalogs, and its Web site.
The Kelly Hoppen collection, including furniture, will be tested in several Neiman Marcus stores and on the Web.
The Hoppen shop at Bergdorf Goodman in New York occupies 570 square feet and brings what Century President Bob Maricich describes as "an international-European point of view to contemporary furniture. It's lighter scaled than American proportions, but she also realizes the need to design to our larger rooms. We see her as someone who can articulate how we're going to live versus how we have lived."
In the Bergdorf's setting, Hoppen mixes classic, luxurious, traditional furnishings with understated contemporary, in a neutral color palette centered around her signature taupe shadings. Many of the accessories in the Bergdorf Goodman shop are from Hoppen's European collections, including items from Wedgwood.
Allan Wagenheim, chairman of Trans Ocean calls her approach "conservative contemporary. She has a definite point of view — not way-out Italian, but very sophisticated."
Sferra's bedding textiles will be featured at Century in April.
Future Kelly Hoppen plans call for licenses in dinnerware, lighting, paint and window treatments.
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Bergdorf banks on luxe Century line
Nov 25, 2004
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