The Best Thing that happened in High Point....

For the past couple of years I have been visiting Market Week in High Point. Earlier on in my years as a furniture buyer for my showroom, I would not consider High Point as it was such an uninspiring environment compared to Maisons et Objets in Paris, or the Milan shows. Lately, I have been really impressed by the quality of merchandising and presentation. However, being familiar and aware of the other side of High Point, bankruptcies, factories closing, houses being foreclosed, I will not buy from companies that manufacture overseas, meaning in particular China. You may have read some of my previous posts on the subject. Add a great dose of knock offs (found my newest lighting collection totally copied to the smallest detail for a fraction a my cost)...I am going to put my lawyer husband to work on this one... and you have High Point. However, I have found and spoken to wonderful people who believe in the integrity of their designs, quality, manufacture locally or in other US States, or work with artisans from other parts of the world. These companies are involved in partnership with the artisans. I actually placed orders for a new bamboo made line of furniture hand made in South America.

Julian Chichester Showroom

I did not find much newness but as we all know it is rather difficult to reinvent oneself every 6 months and the lean budgets do not allow for new productions.

The highlight of the show...displays, attention to details, Hickory Chair showroom and meeting my dear college friend at their party after not seeing her for 30 years!! I was chatting away when someone called out my name, I turned and here stood Rosemarie. The weird thing is that she had found me through my blog and flying to High Point from South America where she lives, she kept telling her husband about us as students at Babson College.... there I was.

Halo Showroom drenched in light

Saried Showroom ...very Axel Vervoordt inspired

But the best thing that happened in High Point is an almost instant bonding friendship with Liz of Dovecote blog. I had reached out to Liz during the Spring High Point market. We met, had dinner and I saw Liz again during a party at my New York Showroom. Liz lives in a dreamy, beautiful french style house in Salem, with courtyard and a secret garden.Liz and her two beautiful daughters (her third girl being in Paris) opened their home to Greg (Interieurs furniture designer) and I ... I felt transported to a  5 star Relais et Chateaux". I slept in the most beautiful dreamy bedroom. Liz is a fabulous guide in High Point. She knows the market inside out. We went to book signing, parties and spent the evenings talking about books, children, life...in her beautiful  and warm living room.  This was the Highlight of High Point... my newly found friend whom, I feel, I have known for ever. I am convinced we were friends in a previous life.

Oly canopy bed

Tara Shaw

Just introduced a mirror collection, all handcrafed at Interieurs, and have been looking closely at mirrors. really liked these by Made Goods

Am not a Lily Pulitzer fan, but these beds are so perfect for young girls

Of course, a little touch of France.

A Bientot,

Francine

Design Purgatory...Knock offs

I returned last week from a couple of days spent at High Point market in North Carolina.
The highlight of the trip was meeting the charismatic, energetic resourceful and wonderful Liz of Dovecote Decor. She introduced me to the rural beauty of Salem, where she resides and wrote the most detailed review of this spring market, highlighting some great resources. http://dovecotedecor.blogspot.com/

I even purchased a fairly large whimsical and utterly impractical antique Dovecote...slight problem, in my excitement, I handed my credit card but have no recollection as to the name of the seller...my dovecote is sitting in High Point, waiting to be shipped to its occasionally ditsy owner.

This is not the one I purchased, mine is far larger and can house an extended family of doves

image:http://www.amyperryantiques.co.uk/?p=531

Onto the real topic of this post...

Please allow me to VENT !! One downer about trade show is the usual lack of creativity and the knock offs staring at you. I cannot tell you how tired I am of these manufacturers who do not come up with one single original thought nor design, go around showrooms and stores that invest in creative talent and shameless as they are, just steal their design. to me this is theft, theft of creativity, originality, endless hours and efforts put into creating an original pieces.

I have been on the receiving  end of this type of highway larceny. A few years ago, my showroom and brand name Interieurs made front page of the Design section of the New York Times, its title: where do Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and the likes go shopping?...at Interieurs

Most copies are made overseas which takes labor away from talented american craftmen. One day, I may go into details of what I have seen in China, and cried in Vietnam at the sight of young children taking batteries apart in dark, humid airless rooms

The most copied lighting piece from our Jose Esteves collection:

image:Interieurs Design Magazine

Brocante chandelier whose knock off I have seen at the Gift Show in New York and numerous catalogs.
 

I just purchased this pieces at BDDW in New York, one of my favorite showroom

Looked what I saw at High Point! Shame on you NUEVO LIVING!

One of the worst offenders are the likes of  Design Within Reach  who have in previous years blatantly produced mid-century pieces and other modern furniture without a licence.
read article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/garden/31dwr.html

I will pass on the list of culprits. Just the other day, a designer made our relentless efforts to be creative so worthwhile. As  her client commented on having seen the proposed desk and chandelier in Restoration hardware, the designer looked at her (without noticing that I was within earshot) and exclaimed...absolutely not, I would never settle for anything else but the original.

Please, help keep design, originality, alive, do not settle for cheap copies. I do understand budgets, but if you cannot stretch for the real things, go to a different source, shop around and have fun in the process. There is a lot of fresh original designs and talents at  reasonably prices out there, all they need is an audience!