NEW YORK–Rug companies setting up shop at the New York International Gift Fair next month are looking forward to the mix of product and buyers the show offers.
Repeat customers said the attention to the accessories part of the home furnishings business, as well as an appreciation among attendees of handmade goods, has made it a good choice for their respective companies.
“Some of the other markets we attend have a little more of a focus on furniture,” said Kristi Lefebvre, marketing manager for Company C. “Our home furnishings dealers need to display accessories, too. And the NYIGF is a great show for accessories. We love the variety of unique/one-of-a-kind products.”
The companies here are no strangers to the trade show circuit, participating in myriad other gift shows across the country, as well as furniture and rug markets, but they have noted the New York show brings a very specific customer they would otherwise never see and pointed to the show’s “one-stop shopping” for attending buyers as the key to its overall success and their success as exhibitors as well.
The majority of the rug companies exhibiting here have found their home in the At Home segment of the show, noting its product mix feels most appropriate.
“It fits well with our home furnishings product offering of rugs, textiles and decorative pillows,” Lefebvre said.
Even the show’s organizers, GLM, said the positioning of rug companies in the At Home section is ideal due to the complementary nature of the furniture and decorative accessories also presented at the Piers.
J & S International is an exception to that rule, finding a better fit for its product in the Hand Made section of the show. Jay Sethi, president of J & S, said the company’s line of handmade crewel stitch area rugs and coordinated pillows “blends well with the other handmade products and thereby facilitates J & S to attract the appropriate customer base.”
Due to the variety of buyers and other products at the show itself, the range of styles coming from the rug companies is vast as well. Company C will show new wool rugs, in both tufted and hooked constructions, with many patterns following the company’s stylized interpretation of natural themes; J & S has new floral designs, as well as multicolored geometrics; exhibitor Dolma focuses on Himalayan wool that is spun, dyed and carded by hand for its product line; French Market Collection focuses on products inspired by 18th- and 19th-century France; and Dash and Albert Rug Co. crafts rugs in a variety of materials and constructions, including cotton-hooked and -braided, wool-hooked and -tufted and polypropylene. — Jennifer Quail