The statistics might say the numbers were down from the norm, but most of the vendors were very encouraged with all the orders they had received. In this new economy, the people who go to market go to buy—the people who used to come just to look are staying home. As a buyer, it certainly is nice to receive undivided attention and be able to move and walk around the showrooms.
And buy we did! It is customary to not receive your new product for about 6 months—almost market time again. Some of the vendors still have this schedule, but some of them took a big deep breath and said, ”Let’s have enough stock that when those buyers come to High Point in October, we will be able to ship right away”. So we are very pleased—we will have new product almost immediately—season does happen here in South Florida and season is pretty much now!
What is new? The colors are changing in subtle ways—the yellows are moving towards marigold and dijon; the oranges are moving towards copper; the purples are richer and deeper and the greens are moving into olive. Turquoise—really hot, shiny 1950’s turquoise was everywhere—on leather, on upholstery and on the walls of the various showrooms. Purple, last market’s star, is still everywhere and comes in all of the color ranges from a soft pinkish-purple to a very deep hue.
Mid-century modern has been evident for the past couple of markets but now it is really everywhere. The furniture is scaled down so the sofas work with the smaller bedroom and dining sets. When I say smaller, the dimensions are the same—the look is scaled down. Walnut has been popular in Europe and in some parts of Canada and the US for several years—for those not quite ready for the walnut, several of the vendors came up with a chocolate stain on walnut and a slate or smoke stain giving both brown and grey options to the end consumer.
Almost all of our vendors had a version or two of a slip covered chair or sofa—however, this is not the "shabby chic" from years ago—this is a sophisticated, brand new look that I know you will love! Watch for it on the site ---we will post the pictures as soon as we have them.
Glitter, which surfaced in Milan in ’08 and High Point in early ‘09, was everywhere again. Many vendors have expanded on their line of glitter ---buy stock in Swarovski crystals---almost all the stone, acrylic and glass companies with glitter have Swarovski crystals in their products.
Animal skins continue to be strong—many of the leathers have been embossed to look like crocodile or giraffe. Subtle shine and outright dazzle is on both leather and fabrics and the new fabrics are filled with texture and softness. With fabric mills closing at an unprecedented rate the last couple of years, many of the vendors only introduced a couple of frames and instead focused on rebuilding their fabric lines. Great news for all of our Designers—and you will be thrilled as well. American Leather alone introduced 76 new leathers with some of the best colors we have ever seen. Their total product line now comes available in all their fabric, leathers and Ultrasuedes®. If that wasn’t enough, they now will do COL and COM (furniture talk for when you use your own material and /or leather)
We are back and energized as is our Design Team—pop in and see us!
