By Andrea Lillo

Inspired by belly buttons and baby bottoms, Eva Zeisel, who passed away in December at the age of 105, left her iconic mark on the home furnishings industry.

By Allison Zisko

Linda Tabas, owner of The Pink Daisy in Yardley, Pa., has a lot of tabletop to offer in her 1,000 square-foot store. She carries what she calls “a cross between Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus” that includes brands like Vietri, Casafina and Juliska for everyday use and Vera Wang, Royal Crown Derby and Anna Weatherley for bridal customers. But there’s only so much merchandise you can carry in 1,000 square feet of space, and this is where Bridge comes in.

Housewares and tabletop giant Lifetime Brands is in global brand-building mode.

Last month the company acquired a 40 percent equity interest in GS Internacional, a Brazilian maker of dinnerware, glassware, home decor, kitchenware and barware. The move continues Lifetime’s strategy of growth through acquisition and partnership through local management teams.

As usual, next year’s six-month trade show calendar starts with a bang with a plethora of January events. Trade shows from Hong Kong to High Point, N.C., beckon members of the home furnishings industry through June. Here’s a partial list of trade show happenings. See the full calendar of events at hfnmag.com.

By Allison Zisko

Tucked into the rolling hills and breathtaking vistas of southeastern France are ateliers where French artisans make tabletop and other home furnishings the same way they have for generations—by hand, with integrity and a commitment to proven manufacturing techniques, yet with an eye on the modern market.

Replacements Acquires Huge Flora Danica Collection
Replacements, Ltd. has acquired an extensive collection of Royal Copenhagen’s Flora Danica pattern from private collector Richard Baron Cohen. This addition to the company’s current inventory creates one of the largest offerings of Flora Danica available for purchase in the world, according to Replacements.

Successful brand building goes hand-in-hand with great story telling.

So says Minda Gralnek, who spoke to tabletop executives at a breakfast seminar sponsored by Forty One Madison during the New York Tabletop Show last month. And as former vice president and creative director for Target, Gralnek knows a lot about story telling. Target carved out its niche as a fashion discount retailer by telling “an authentic brand story,” Gralnek said, and supported it with other strong brand stories, like those of Liberty of London, Missoni, Michael Graves and Isaac Mizrahi.

By Allison Zisko

Though the year has not been without its challenges, the frame business has remained steady, held up by the home decor end of the business and, ironically, by the same shift in consumer photo practices that seemed to threaten it not that long ago.

“The fundamentals of the frame business are good,” said Richard Feldstein, president of Prinz. “The frame business continues to be a good business.”

This year’s edition of Maison & Objet, held in Paris last month, was bursting with color—single colors especially. As reported by WGSN-HomeBuildlife, the online trend forecasting and product design resource.

Lime

• Zesty lime, apple and chartreuse tones were seen across each product category.
• The color is used as a solid section on product design, upholstered furniture, ceramics and decorative accessories.

Yellow

By Allison Zisko
Mug sales are up and the category, once an ancillary business, is now helping to drive sales in a tight economy.

By Allison Zisko

There’s money to be made by selling beverageware in bulk upstairs.

Despite a decline in overall beverageware sales last year, pack sales—meaning multiple pieces of the same shape packaged in a box—were up 4 percent, and they were led by a sales increase in the upper end segment, according to statistics from The NPD Group. Fine pack sales of crystal barware and stemware were up 5 percent, while casual sales were up 3 percent in the 12-month period between June 2010 and May 2011.

A hale and hearty Santa Claus, age 80, graces one of Gibson’s newest holiday assortments.  The company has expanded its licensed Coca-Cola collection to include an open stock assortment of dinnerware and serveware featuring illustrations of Santa Claus that first appeared in Coca-Cola advertising 80 years ago. The collection includes melacore plates, serving bowls and platters, as well as double-wall plastic and glass tumblers, porcelain mugs, and various accessories, many of which feature the famous Haddon Sundblom illustrations that gave rise to the modern interpretation of St.

Attendees to Tendence, scheduled for Aug. 26 to 30, 2011, in Frankfurt, Germany, will not only see worldwide trends and products in home furnishings, but also new show features, such as the debut of a new Home&Trend Award, as well as special focuses on Austria and Africa. More than a month before the show opened, show organizer Messe Frankfurt announced that Tendence was already fully booked up, with 2,100 international exhibitors registered for the show.

Retailers in search of tabletop gifts will have plenty to choose from in expanded and enhanced venues in New York this month.

The Tabletop division of the New York International Gift Fair has been refined and reorganized to include a purer concentration of specialty tabletop resources, a new layout of the exhibit hall and an influx of new and returning suppliers to the marketplace, according to GLM, which owns and operates the show.

By Allison Zisko

Does the tabletop industry need another whiteware player?

It does, according to Steve Baram, if the company is Maxwell & Williams. Baram, the chief executive officer of Fitz and Floyd, said he has been “chasing” the Australian brand for the past five or six years and is so confident in its potential in the United States that he brought 500 SKUs to the Tabletop Show in New York last month.

By Allison Zisko

The planned acquisition of candle and gift company Midwest-CBK later this month promises good things for the company from a brand and marketing standpoint, according to the president of Midwest-CBK.

Burnes of Boston is introducing an assortment of home decor from some of the country’s most talented and best-known interior designers.

The new line, known as Burnes Interiors, includes photo frames, mirrors, candleholders and other decorative accessories created by a “dream team” of celebrity interior designers known for their many television shows and appearances:  Candice Olson, Vern Yip, Paige Hemmis, Kenneth Brown and Genevieve Gorder.

By Allison Zisko
Tabletop maker Rosenthal will celebrate 50 years of its Studio-Line division with a special 50-vase retrospective at the New York Tabletop Show this month.

Studio-Line is known for its avant-garde designs, and over the past five decades many artists have interpreted their own ideas about sophisticated and functional design into Rosenthal collections, the company said.

By Allison Zisko

It promises to be a season of newness in tabletop.

New products will take center stage during the spring tabletop market this month, but several new companies, new brands and new businesses will also vie for buyers’ attention, a sign, perhaps, of a revitalized industry.

Consumers are focusing on their outdoor spaces with the same attention that they have been giving to their indoor rooms. Indeed, with many new decor products available specifically for the outdoors—or, in some cases, intended for either indoors or outdoors—the outdoor “room” has become just as important in terms of decor as the living room, bedroom and dining room.

By Allison Zisko
Rogaska crystal is already in many American households, yet it is not a household name. The director of the 345-year-old crystal company wants to change that, and is embarking on an ambitious branding campaign in the U.S. market.

By Allison Zisko

Reduced retail shelf space, coupled with the still-lagging economy, made the picture frame business in 2010 more challenging, but it also made manufacturers more resilient. The key to success in the frame business, they said, is to offer unique, value-added products that inspire consumers to buy. It is a fashion business that is only as good as its last best-seller.

“Every product needs to have a story,” said Richard Feldstein, president of Prinz. “Being ordinary is not enough.”

Waterford Crystal recently celebrated the official opening of the House of Waterford Crystal in Waterford, Ireland.

The new facility comprises a manufacturing facility, visitor center and retail outlet and is the result of an agreement between WWRD Holdings Limited, which owns and operates the Waterford Crystal, Wedgwood and Royal Doulton brands, and Waterford City Council.

Avanti Linens

Part of Avanti Linens’ licensed line with Spode, which it acquired last year, is the Spode Christmas Tree pattern, a design that is both traditional for the holidays in both look and colors. This grouping comes in six tablecloth sizes, napkins, placemats, runners, kitchen towels, oven mitts, potholders and aprons, and will be available by the beginning of the fourth quarter. avantilinens.com

New View

The Accent on Tabletop will expand at next month’s New York International Gift Fair, scheduled for Aug. 15-19.

Other tabletop-related summer 2010 highlights at the show include an entrance in the Tabletop & Housewares division featuring industry and design leaders, the return of key suppliers to the New York market, and first-time participation by several established tabletop companies.

Colonial Candle

These new metallic candles will add holiday design, style and sparkle to any table. The collection features different formats including 12-inch handipt tapers, pillars in 3-by-4 and 4-by-6 inches, and 1.5 and 2.8 inch ball candles. Festive colors include silver, gold, red, green and platinum. The new metallic candles are made in Colonial Candle’s facility in Elkin, N.C., recognized for it’s green manufacturing, using the same high quality materials as Colonial’s fragrance collection. colonialcandle.co

Very few brands in the home business get a chance for a second act. Once they have been compromised, dumbed down or even ignored, it’s very hard to bring back a great name, no matter how venerable it was.

That’s why what is happening at Dansk these days is pretty remarkable. Largely relegated to a corner—both literally and figuratively—by a series of previous managements at its corporate owner, Lenox, the brand is being rejuvenated under both a new Lenox president, Lester Gribetz, and Glenn De Stefano, who was brought in to run Dansk.

With the economy still on the bumpy ride that began a year and a half ago, vendors of outdoor home furnishings are intensifying their focus on the strengths that they bring to this increasingly important segment.