Feizy's vice president of marketing, Josh Eason (center), proposes a champagne toast to the four Haute Trends designers. From left: Kerrie Kelly, John Feizy, Eason, Jackie Von Tobel, Michel Smith Boyd and Julia Buckingham.
The featured prototype designs are being edited and finalized for a summer debut at Las Vegas Market, where the final eight rugs will be formally presented and available for pre-order.
Founder John Feizy, above, introduces market attendees to the company's new high design collaboration.
"We started with 40 designs which we made samples of, and then we narrowed that down to three designs for each designer for this presentation," Erin Smidt, director of design and product development Feizy, told RugNews.com at the brunch. "But we will be doing full-blown presentation of the final designs at the upcoming Las Vegas Market."
"The whole experience has been eye-opening because it gave us a new perspective on how designers go about deciding what they like when choosing a rug," Smidt added.
Cameron Feizy, senior vice president, added that the program also provided valuable insights into nuances in taste in rugs in various regions of the country. "Each of our designers is from a different part of the U.S. -- the east, the west coast, the Midwest, and their preferences in color and design have been helpful for us in our work across all collections," he said.
Feizy hosted a competition last year to find the designers for the new assortment and introduced the winners during Vegas market earlier this year. The winner include Kerrie Kelly of Kerrie Kelly Design Lab of Sacramento, Calif.; Jackie Von Tobel of Jackie Von Tobel Design in Las Vegas; Julia Buckingham of Buckingham Interiors + Design and Michel Smith Boyd of Smith Boyd Interiors in Atlanta.
Following is a photo review of our walk through of the High Point event:
Smith Boyd Interiors in Atlanta