Coming Of Age
By Wanda Jankowski

Nancy Koltes operates stores in seven cities across the country. Linens manufactured by her company are complemented with tabletop and other goods produced by a variety of companies.

Insights from Nancy Koltes on how the luxury linens market has matured

Who better to turn to for perspective on how the luxury linen category has changed over the past two decades than Nancy Koltes, whose self-named brand specializes in combining Italian craftsmanship with American sensibilities? Koltes has been a pioneer in introducing luxury linens to the American market, establishing her design and production facilities in Italy in 1984 and opening retail stores beginning in 1993. 

In her view, the luxury linen category was first defined when Neiman Marcus produced a fine linens book. “In 1989, the luxury linens wholesale market launched,” she says. 

Since then, the idea of bed linens as an important design element has taken hold. “In the 1980s and early 1990s, the draperies, walls and floors were the focus of the room’s design,” Koltes says. “Heavy drapery designs wound up as the bedspread patterns.

“Today, the homeowner begins with a simpler bedroom environment and the bed becomes the accent or focus,” she says. “Some customers develop the whole room around the bed.”

Lifelong Exposure To Luxury

Koltes’ clientele is diverse. She notes differences, however, between the younger generation and her older customers. “For my younger customers, luxury linens are a part of their experience. They have a better understanding of the category because it started early in their lifetimes. They don’t ask, ‘What do we need this for?’, as some older customers ask who grew up unexposed to the concept,” she says.
“In the past 15 years, the luxury linens category has had a coming of age,” says Koltes. “People have come to understand that a good night’s sleep makes a difference.”

Color-rich luxury goods “pop” visually against the backdrops of white walls and floors and cream-colored display units in Nancy Koltes stores.

Quality issues have reached the consumer consciousness as the luxury linens category has matured. 
“The hands of linens weren’t important before the luxury category came to be,” she notes. “Then there is the high thread count issue. Luxury linens can be high thread count, but that issue is subject to marketing manipulation. It’s like the diet industry. Foods can be low fat, but what is it that is taken out to make foods low fat—how does that affect the quality?”

The place where linens are made still matters to her customers as one of the factors reflecting quality. “Some of my customers come into the store and want nothing made in China since the recent lapses in the quality of products made there have come to light,” she says. “The integrity of the company as well as the place in which the goods are made affects the overall quality of the piece. In home linens, you have the ability to make things in which you can see quality.”

Retailer As Focus Provider

As far as defining what luxury is when it comes to her retail stores, Koltes notes, “The store is ‘luxury’ for several reasons, including product selection and service. Service includes the staff’s product knowledge and the ability to customize and tailor selections to the customers’ needs. It’s not self-service.
“Especially because we are the retailer and the manufacturer, we have to keep an eye on service and personal attention that the customer can’t get in big-box stores,” she says.

“Today there is absolute accessibility that the customer didn’t have 15 years ago. Back then, a consumer could only get high-quality fabrics through an interior designer or decorator,” Koltes explains.

“In the 1980s, Conran’s was the first retailer to bring total home design concepts to the consumer,” she says. “Years ago, department stores such as Wanamaker’s used to include displays—room ensembles—in their home departments so customers could see how products are used.

“Then IKEA came along with the ‘build your own furnishings’ idea. IKEA showed products as they are to be used as well. It has made design accessible. Today, technology has produced a barrage of information from a variety of media,” she says. “But people don’t know how to focus it all.

The role of the specialty retailer, Koltes believes, is to provide the focus through personal service.
“Big box retailing is high volume with limited finishing,” she says. “The smaller retailer can customize by mixing and matching a variety of products and finishes in unique ways.”

Koltes operates two websites. One is tied to her retail stores (nancykoltesathome.com). The second is an informational wholesale site (nancykoltes.com).

“I tend to get sales through the retail website from customers who know the brand,” she says. “It’s a slow ramp-up for something tactile like luxury linens. The media play off each other. The Internet is an additional outlet, but not the only one—they all still work hand-in-hand.”

Whether it’s in-store or via a website the luxury bed linens category may have come of age, but it is far from reaching the end of prime time. There is much more luxury allure to come.

Resources

• Nancy Koltes, 212-219-2271, nancykoltes.com