Problem Solving

5. With the menswear look comes paisley, as seen in Sutherland Paisley from the Ce Soir collection by Springs (212-556-6000). The panel print resembles a silk scarf.

LOTS OF STYLISH SOLUTIONS WERE PRESENTED TO RETAILERS BY HOME FASHION RESOURCES.

For some the April 2002 market in New York City was problematic. "We have a problem," admitted Dale Talbert of Veratex, "which beds to produce since all but one got interest."

Such a problem. Talbert wasn't the only one to report an enthusiastic response to market introductions. "Phenomenal," enthused Mary Shafer of Oxford Home. It was up, positive, exciting." Avi Cohen, founder of Veratex, declared it the best one of his company's 10 years while Steve Lewis stated superlatively, "It's been the best market Aussino has ever had." Bay Linens' Dianne Morris "saw more people than ever before. Buyers came with bigger groups, and there were fresh faces." Lonnie Scheps of Hudson Industries estimated that a quarter of the buyers who stopped at Hudson's booth at the New York Home Textiles Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center were new faces.

But you didn't need to be a veteran to be happy. John Emrani, managing director of newcomer Melrose Home Collections, reported having 35 appointments to see the line that includes table, window treatments, decorative pillows, and furniture covers.

Retailers' only problem was choosing from the array of home fashion products presented at the Javits Center and in the showrooms around the city. They could easily escape to a tropical paradise with the plethora of styles on offer. They ranged from the fun and funky take of Revman Industries' new licensor Nicole Miller's Bamboo Tropics and Blue Safari bedding ensembles to the upmarket Tommy Bahama Fine Island Linens introduced by Sferra Bros. Ltd. Joyce Post, designer at Thomasville Home Furnishings, saw a Tahitian Sunset, a printed cotton duck bed ensemble with a printed basketweave-patterned bedskirt and alligator- and ostrich-skin-printed chenille decorative pillows. Dakotah designer Richard Tamblyn offered Island in the Stream, a cotton quilt with a plaid silk dust ruffle and decorative pillows touched with faux fur. Other destinations included Hawaii, a coordinated bed and bath collection by JOY&JAKE from J.R. United (see page 100); Parrot Island, a vinyl shower curtain by Famous Home Fashions; and Bali Hai from the Peri line of bedding by CHF Industries. Pillowtex got in on the island action, offering Royal Velvet Tropicale, Fieldcrest Palm Beach, and Charisma Caplan, which featured large-scale tobacco leaves and exotic red blooms on a jacquard-woven chenille pieced to a grass cloth texture. CHF presented a fun interpretation of a Hawaiian t-shirt called Paradise Island in On My Own, a new brand geared toward "first-nesters." Croscill Home took a subtler approach in Bengal Road, an Indian-inspired chenille for the master bedroom in understated neutral tones. Mohawk Home played up the British Colonial influence with exotic wildlife, animal prints, and faux furs showing up in decorative pillows and throws.

For those who prefer a more domesticated retreat to nature, they could take it in the garden. Roses were in bloom everywhere but often they seemed to come straight from the English countryside, notably Steven Drew's English Garden, a 300-thread-count cotton sateen print. Traditions by Pamela Kline used a French document for the more formal Rose Pendant jacquard bedding ensemble. Waverly's newest additions to the American Rose Garden Collection celebrate the popularity of the flower. Rosabelle, Ambridge Rose, Romantica, and Garden Beauty are four statement patterns inspired by documents and coordinate with Tea Rose, Kerry, Arbor Rose, and Swan Lake. In Court of Versailles at Pillowtex Promenade featured a rose print on velvet. Fallani and Cohn put Cabbage Rose on the table. Rosettes, new to the Wamsutta Artistique collection, displays ribbon embroidered rosebuds while Carolina Rose in the Quiltensembles line is an antique-looking rose pattern framed by pleated calicos. The motif was subdued in Columbine Cody's Cabbage Rose matelassé as well as Homestead's White Roses, a cotton/polyester jacquard duvet with organdy overlay. Roses also showed up on napkin rings by Deborah Rhodes and covering purses by Orb. There were even Retro Roses by Nicole Miller for Revman.

Other sections of the garden provided good pickings for designers. Lilly Pulitzer has its Garden Hibiscus bed pattern, Peking Handicraft its Pansy Field quilt, and Dakotah its Orchid Garden bedding ensemble,
There was also a more masculine interpretation of nature and the outdoor life. Ashford Court, ensconced in new and larger digs in 295 Fifth Avenue, had the British Classic collection with Shoemaker, Jockey, Snow Drift, and Soar. Similar themes were found in Dakotah's Club Room collection of decorative pillows. Bess Manufacturing had camel-colored pony-skin pillows in its Joseph Abboud-licensed line. Louisville Bedding presented "the Western story" in a grouping of decorative pillows called Tahoe and combined the hunt with toile in Ballymeade, an unexpected table linen assortment.

Louisville Bedding also introduced the Gentlemen's Quarterly decorative pillow line, using tartan plaids and houndstooth, reflective of the growing influence of menswear in home fashion. Croscill debuted three beds with a distinctly masculine appeal. Boulevard, deemed by designer Jerry Mobley the best-selling number of the new introductions, is an urban patchwork of jacquard and chenille squares, combining matte and shiny effects. Windemere has an equestrian feel, mixing a twill sateen with leather accents and trim, with a patchwork quilt also available. Downtown is a faux leather duvet shown with faux fur pillows in a black-brown-gray combination.

Suede was in evidence, mostly in the form of Ultrasuede for better pricing and easy care. Luxury Suede is the newest fabric introduction at slipcover-resource SureFit, offered in sand, red, saddle, and soft green with 17" box pillows. Eyelet Microsuede-a solid-color style in earth tones with an eyelet border on the duvet and shams-debuted at American Pacific. Aussino's Patch Faux Suede comes in an amazing 24 solid colors and pairs nicely with the Pinwheel velvet quilts. CHF's Notting Hill combines two hot trends: paisley and suede.

Revman offered Vittorio in the upscale POSH line. The gold-and-terracotta paisley gives the orange story a masculine twist and goes well with leather, according to Diane Piemonte. Baltic Linen also featured paisley in Landry, a dobby available in five colors. Springs' Craftique quilt line introductions included two beds by menswear designer Andrew Fezza-Executive Suite and Bond Street, inspired by men's shirting-while the upscale Ce Soir line included Bentley by Bill Blass, with wools, plaids, and herringbones in camel and charcoal with blue accents. Pinstripes look good on the bed as seen in Columbine Cody's Oslo.

Call it modern or contemporary or urban style, resources were serving it up for the delectation of buyers. Columbine Cody gave the traditional matelassé an updated look with three new designs: Indiana, Pinwheel, and Diamanté. At Ex-Cell Home Fashions, David North tapped the Modern Leaf bath collection as the hit of the market. It is a simple allover leaf pattern used for a vinyl shower curtain and accessories in white or clear. Pillowtex presented the geometric design Kinetic, a jacquard woven paired with printed sheets and the glittery new pillow slips- polyester decorative fabric that goes over the pillowcase. The standout Calvin Klein bed offering is Graphic Lines, an engineered yarn-dyed cotton featuring bands of vibrant red-purple tones (berry and campari) with varying lines intersecting in bright orange. The Earl Grey quilt from Keeco features a texturized print on cotton sateen overlaid with metallic-yarn embroidered squares in an urban black-white-gray color story.

New resources showing at the Javits Center also took the modern route. Daniela besso from the U.K. brought a collection of bedding, decorative pillows, throws, and loungewear in luxury fibers including cashmere, goat suede, and alpaca that was inspired by the metropolises of the world.
Commonwealth introduced its 'Loft Living' concept, canopies for the bed that coordinate with selected window fashion styles and are available up to 120" in length.

CHF Industries, which has become a powerhouse in the juvenile category in addition to window treatments, has refocused the Australian-based Peri line to appeal to the American market.
The Williamsburg license was extended to quilts, sheets, and a crewel coverlet adapted from documents in the archives by Pine Cone Hill and the floor with woven rugs and table with placemats, tablecloth, napkins, runners, and kitchen towels by India Overseas Traders. Karen Neuburger found a new home for both her basic and fashion bedding with Hollander Home Fashions. The Martha Stewart Signature label has gone to the floor with Shaw Industries, with a complete program that includes wood, tile, stone, area rugs, and broadloom carpet.

Calvin Klein table linens, manufactured by W-C Designs, launched with Satin Band and Linen Pure, solid-color collections. A seasonal grouping simply called Holiday Linen shimmered with Silver Lines, Copper Cross Dye, Shimmer Taffeta, and Iridescent Grid Overlay. The alternative Placemat Collection uses non-traditional materials like straw, reed, bamboo, abaca, felt, and resin.

Bullzye has licensed Mélange Home for a juvenile bedding line--the first license for both parties. Tufted wool accent rugs are a new category for Bullzye, as are gift sets, which include a throw, pillowcase, and autograph pillow with gel pen-perfect for the 'tween. This summer should be a blockbuster one for Mohawk Home. The company is emphasizing its many timely licenses, including Spiderman, Scooby Doo, Power Puff Girls, Dora the Explorer, and Bob the Builder with throws, pillows, and rugs.
Barth & Dreyfuss debuted kitchen textiles from Sesame Street personality Sonia Manzano. The line of cotton towels, potholders, and oven mitts is targeted toward the growing Hispanic market. Three patterns--Plaza Tiles, Flores, and Me Gusta Mucho- are hand-painted in bright colors and offer a new look for Barth & Dreyfuss.

Town & Country Living launched a juvenile bath line called H20 Trends for Kids. Products include sponges, puppet mitts, hooded towels, rugs, shower curtains with mesh pockets as well as bath towels and accessories featuring one of four colorful animal characters. Therapeutic basic bedding is now available for kids, thanks to United Feather & Down. The Remmy Kids' Sleep Collection is named after a licensed character from Remmy and the Brain Train, a New York Times best-selling kid's book about the importance of sleep by Dr. James Maas. The collection features pillows, comforters, blankets, and mattress pads covered in a chambray fabric available in pink, blue, or yellow and filled with hypoallergenic down or down-alternative. The pillow includes a storage pouch for kids to store their pajamas or other secret treasures. Springs introduced the Camp Wamsutta juvenile bedding collection. Sheets and pillowcases are 220-thread-count cotton and comforters, bedskirts, shams, and decorator pillows come in a cotton/polyester blend. Four patterns are included in the initial introduction. Springs also debuted the At Home With Warren Kimble collection of three designs for bed and bath, all featuring the artist's signature American folk style.

Pacific Coast Feather has the exclusive license to use PLA, a fiber made from corn by Cargill-Dow, for home products. It outperforms polyester and is being used for pillows, mattresses, and comforters.

SDH, Enterprises has expanded its wood fiber Legna solid-color sheeting program last summer, to include a jacquard-woven leaf pattern. DEA from Italy offers Mirage, a new wood fiber piqué in five colors.

Sleep Innovations has developed the Bed Huggy (patent pending) for the underserved air mattress market. The elasticized fitted sheet is oversized to cover the pump and wires and is sewn to the top sheet so it can't be kicked off-apparently a common problem among Aero Bed users. A pillowcase has been engineered as part of the sheet, which comes in a wrinkle-free, micro-denier fabrication in 13 solid colors and four ginghams. The Naam Group, exhibiting at the Home Textiles Show and known by its marketing name in the states as Basics at Home, introduced beach bags that convert into towels, and vice versa.

There were advances in printing. DEA is using a process called indanthren in which the substrate is impregnated with pigment, which permanently fixes the color. Arliktex has developed a technique to overprint on an ombré ground, creating a multi-layered effect.

WestPoint Stevens is looking to offer consumers solutions with the Xstatic Precious Sleep sheet. The sheet is 2.5% pure silver, making it anti-odor, anti-bacteria, anti-static, and temperature regulating. For decorating convenience WestPoint has developed the Completer's Set, a pre-packaged set including two panels, a valence, and a decorative pillow to complement the patterns in its Answer Bed program.
W.C. Redmon introduced the Bongo Bag, a storage item that pops up when needed. It solves a problem for the space challenged. The April market in New York City solved lots of problems for vendors and retailers alike.

1. The effect of beading, although woven into the fabric, was effectively used by several
bedding resources including Dan River (800-964-0823) in the Lafayette bedding ensemble.

2. For those beginning to tire of the tropics, the next destination may be the Southwest. Bay Linens Inc. (212-725-2002) is a trail blazer with the chenille Beaver Creek bedding ensemble.

3. The sporting life called Thomasville (800-841-1315), which answered with Dylan, a woven plaid, and
a tapestry sham with a polo scene.

4. The razzle-dazzle effect had its supporters including newcomer Banyan Tree (714-832-7019) with its beaded silk Perlita duvet and decorative pillow.

6. Texture and shine combine in Citrine, a 100% silk ensemble by Veda New York (917-362-6200).

7. Cashmere throws in trend-right browns, pale blues, and mossy greens are made by Italian designer Rani Arabella for River Traders (212-207-6659).

8. Sheila Rothman is the author of The Bestseller Collection from Biederlack of America (800-521-6270). It includes a Book Worm lap pillow, Author! Author! throws, Book Jacket, and NovelTy
decorative pillows in the 85% acrylic/15% polyester Aurora fabric.

9. Flowing from the folklore trend in apparel DKNY lends a Bohemian flair to its Urban Gypsy bed with
embroidery and appliqué on a contemporary black ground, offset with with melon accents.

10. Maison du Linge (212-988-9282) brings a more colorful interpretation of the still popular toile to the table with Récamier, 100% cotton.

Modern Modes

13. With Strada, fabric shower curtain with accompanying resin bath accessories, Croscill Home (212-689-7222) brings modern art into the bathroom.

With the turn of the century-to the 21st-the modern looks of the 20th are being revived in a way that is nostalgic about the futuristic. The looks of the '50s, often called mid-century modern, have given way to revivals of styles of the later decades. Even what looks contemporary now owes a debt to the high-tech attitude and the pared-down minimalism of the '70s. Designs told this modern tale with explosive color as well as sedate neutrals. Groovy prints were balanced by sensual textures. And luxury was expressed through rich fabrics and impeccable detailing.

11. The Morgan Collection (718-418-2269) is under the spell of the '70s with the merino wool Dance bed covering and the sheared alpaca Lace decorative pillows.

12. Quattro from Baltic Linen (800-422-5842) features layers of squares in a pastel palette.

14. In April Pfaltzgraff introduced Sphere both in dinnerware and in 100% cotton table linens, by Ex-Cell Home Fashions (212-213-8000)

15. The 100% cotton Floss bedding ensemble from Homestead Fabrics pairs fashion-forward olive and aqua with a restrained use of embroidery.

Color Correct

The color of the moment continues to be the entire range of the purple family. It goes from the most delicate lilac to the deepest aubergine, perhaps the newest looking shade in the clan. The mauves, lavenders, plums, eggplants worked for traditional elegance, lighthearted whimsy, fun-loving funk, and
contemporary cool. There was definitely a purple haze in the atmosphere.

16. LaMont's (319-753-5131) multi-textured Cappuccino resin bath accessories sway to a mellow beat.

17. The Marquis collection of woven comforter sets from Dan River (212-459-0899) includes Schyler, which shimmers.

18. Lavender seems to be a perennial favorite with 'tweens. Bullzye (888-543-0555) offers Daisy
Bubble for the fashionable and fun little miss.

19. Town & Country Living (732-364-2000) showed a delicate toile pattern for the table in a range of colors, including lavender, with solid coordinates.

20. American Pacific (415-782-1250) featured a new style, Bamboo Brocade, in the amethyst colorway. The silk dupioni duvet is shown with a combination of matte velvet and shiny silk decorative pillows and shams.

In the Garden

22. Himalaya is Peacock Alley's (800-810-0708) key spring introduction and features a vintage floral motif and color palette on quilted 100% Egyptian cotton. Shown with the Monaco boudoir sham.

Everything's coming up roses except when it's tulips or pansies or birds of paradise. In a word, florals abound in the marketplace. They are interpreted in the most traditional of ways-chintz is back-but also stylized for a more modern look. They were ditzy and demure or blowsy and bombastic. Whatever they were, they were fresh.

21. Duccio, a 1,050 Egyptian cotton sateen jacquard by La Signoria di Firenze (305-231-9197) scatters blossoms with elegance.

24. Beauville (011 33 38 97 37 47 4; www.beauville.com) is a French-based manufacturer of table linens, tea towels, and paper napkins. All its printed linens, including the pink floral Pivoines, are silk-screened, 100% cotton.

23. Di Lewis's interpretation of the botanical shows up in In Bloom, a bedding ensemble with comforter, from Dan River (800-964-0823).

25. Georgia Tufters, LLC (706-629-4516) showed spring's favored flower in Scattered Roses, a printed nylon substrate, hand-carved area rug.

Island Time

The tropics again seduced designers who shared their passion with retailers. There were styles suitable for decorating all the rooms of a private island hideaway but also the room of a beach-obsessed teenager. Palm trees swayed on everything from table linens to tufted rugs. Exotic blooms were cultivated for window treatments and bedding ensembles. The island breezes whispered in subtle palettes and the ocean roiled with hurricane-force hues. Whatever it was, it was definitely fantasy island not survivor.

26. Exotic flowers blossom on a fabric shower curtain and palm leaves accent metal bath accessories in the Cabana grouping, from The Flo Baron Collection (818-896-3575).

27. Revman Industries (212-278-0300) added island spice to the Echo line with Tropical Palm. The bold print is accented with sheeting printed to resemble woven raffia and with decorative pillows edged with beaded trims as well as plaid taffeta pillows.

28. Susan Unger (212-721-5688) took retailers to Havana with her hand-silk-screened dupioni bedding ensemble with organza shams and linen with raffia-trimmed decorative pillows. She calls it "relaxed elegance."

29. Tommy Bahama Fine Island Linens was launched by Sferra Bros. Ltd. (732-290-2230) with sophisticated looks like Jungle Fever, a 600-thread-count Egyptian cotton jacquard.

30. Bonjour of Switzerland (877-BON-SWIT) transported New York Home Textile Show-goers to Paradis, a brightly-colored print on a crisp white ground of 300-thread-count sateen.