LAS VEGAS MARKET TOUR: PEOPLE & PRODUCTS, PART 1
 |
LAS VEGAS -- While the traffic ebbed and flowed at the recent Las Vegas Market, held from July 30-Aug. 3, plenty of VIP shoppers showed up to take a look at the latest offerings from their favorite area rug vendors.
Not only were designers stopping in to scope out the latest trends, online e-tailers such as AllModern, Amazon, Birch Lane and Gilt Home braved the heat as well. In addition, RugNews.com spied plenty of brick and mortar buyers on the prowl for fresh looks to update their stores. Attendees included small boutiques such as Rips Roost, regionals like Colder's and Hagopian, nationwide department stores such as the Macy's Fine Rug Gallery team, and large chains including the camera-shy At Home, Home Goods and Target.
Dottie and David Mink Sr. toured Las Vegas Market with the Kenneth L. Mink & Sons team that manages Macy's Fine Rug Galleries, posing here in front of a Serapi Heritage rug at the HRI showroom.
In this exclusive Las Vegas Market review, RugNews.com tours two dozen area rug showrooms in World Market Center to find out who shopped the show and what looks and weaves proved to be the blockbusters of summer market.
Below is Part 1 from Amer to Kas of our two-part People and Products series. Don't miss
Part 2, where we continue the tour with companies from Loloi to United Weavers.
AMER
From left, Teri Whittaker of RC Willey Home Furnishings, Salt Lake City, Utah, Amer's Joe Barkley and Amer reps Gary and daughter Kelsey Moretti of GSM Marketing Group take time out in Vegas for RugNews.com.
Amer had plenty of hot products across various constructions. Crafted of fine raw, hand-spun New Zealand wool, Kohinoor KOH-1 in ice blue rocked the hand-knotted category. The Wilton-woven Cambridge CAM-6, a debut at Vegas, topped the machine-made category. And Serendipity in platinum (SND-31) was Amer's best seller in the hand-tufted category, while Joy 7 in teal was the lead-selling rug overall.
Amer's best-seller in the machine-made category was its new Cambridge collection design CAM-6 in light gray made of polyester.
COMPANY C
Susan Cunningham of Simply Klassic Interiors in Queen Creek, Arizona, browses fabrics and rug samples with Company C's Christine Chapin (center) and Mary Sherwood of Norwalk Furniture.
Company C, which shares a space with Norwalk Furniture, debuted Company C for Norwalk Furniture with lively fabric designs last fall and added new styles in Vegas. "When you look at what we have here [in a living room vignette], our rugs are so colorful and vibrant," said Christine Chapin, Company C co-founder. "It really helps designers and retailers figure out how to put it all together. It gives them choices, especially with retail. Company C has been about color for our entire existence. We haven't changed. What I love about the frames is that they're classics with a bit of a twist. Depending on the fabrics you put on them, it really looks cool when you bring it all together."
Topping the list of hot sellers are Company C's new Old Glory area rug and a new fabric called Pie Town.
The fashion-driven Company C's market hit was its new Old Glory rug, dressed up with a Boho-chic vibe, and part of the Fall 2017 collection.
COURISTAN
Dan Ross from Couristan and Birch Lane buyer Kristina Gish in front of a design from the Easton collection, one of the rug maker's best-sellers.
Couristan had a good showing at Las Vegas Market with shoppers looking for color and texture in the $299-$599 price range. The company's latest color combinations pairing ivories and grays or blues for the Calinda collection were well received by buyers shopping the summer edition of the semi-annual show.
Also catching the eyes of attendees were the high-low, one-million point Monarch collection rugs, crafted of polypropylene
in Belgium, in yellow and grey colorways.
Couristan area rugs pairing ivories with blues or grays, such as this Sultan Treasures design, a face to face Wilton weave made of 100 percent heat-set Courtron polypropylene, were hits with summer shoppers.
DALYN
Dalyn's shaggy Arturo collection in denim and paprika was a hit for its thick-thin yarn construction.
Dalyn's super soft, shaggy Arturo in denim combinations was stopping show attendees seeking inviting abstract designs. Crafted of polypropylene and polyester, these shags feature a thick-thin construction made in Egypt. Buyers were also busy checking out the latest designs in the indoor-outdoor St. Croix collection of UV stabilized rugs.
DYNAMIC RUGS
From left, Lauren Delucia, with Wayfair's AllModern, Dynamic Rugs' Anoosha Rouhanian and Joan Bolick, AllModern, pose in front of a popular Chalet collection rug.
Dynamic Rugs' hottest new products that sold well in Vegas included Aurora (polyester, machine-made in Turkey), Chalet (machine made of space-dyed polyester) and Fresco (shrink polyester, heat set, machine-made in Belgium). Also topping the list were a series of menswear-inspired, plaid designs for a range of budgets from the handmade wool Royal collection to Bali's machine made plaids of soft polypropylene.
A Vegas market hit for Dynamic Rugs was the Chalet collection, machine made of space-dyed polyester, for subtlety variations of color striking motifs.
FEIZY
Lance Robbins and Cary Vogel, right, of Vegas-based Interiors by Cary Vogel, flank Cameron Feizy while admiring the architectural Art Deco-inspired one of a kind design behind them.
Feizy showcased everything from its handmade one of a kind rugs, including a show stopping Art Deco design, to machine-made indoor-outdoor area rugs.
"We offer that Target-to-Tiffany scalability of price: we're getting attention in all those categories," noted Michael Ackelbein, senior vice president global sales, Feizy. "We are seeing every shape and size of customer here." Popular sellers from Feizy at recent shows include the richly textured tone-on-tone Branson collection, the machine-made Hammond range of traditional designs and the indoor Bermuda collection of jute rugs.
The texture trend is epitomized in Feizy's Branson collection of tone-on-tone high-low designs, a Vegas showstopper.
HAROUNIAN RUGS INTERNATIONAL (HRI)
HRI'S Lee Harounian and Greg Jordt pose with Stephen Silveira of Alpine Home in Tahoe City, California, in front of the new Melody collection.
"Melody was the absolute hit in Vegas," said Greg Jordt, executive vice president, sales and marketing, HRI, told RugNews.com. "The interest and order placement was unbelievable! Off the charts. The Bohemian trend is real." The Boho chic Melody range features classic design motifs in vibrant color palettes. Hand knotted in India of New Zealand wool and pure Sari silk, Melody's bright pops of color are all done in a pile of pure silk.
In addition, HRI used Vegas as a platform to introduce 19 new mach
ine-made collections (
read full story). "Our new machine-mades are a great addition," said Lee Harounian, with HRl. "We have had a great response
."
HRI's debuting Melody collection was the blockbuster of the summer with its Bohemian vibe and lively colors.
JAIPUR LIVING
Jaipur's Michael Callaghan, left, and Matt Peterson, flank Chrissy Hahs and designer Michael Rust, both with Rust and Martin, Cape Giradeau, Mo.
Trends big with Jaipur Living shoppers included bold and basic black and white designs from new Vegas collections such as the first indoor-outdoor Nikki Chu collection. Orange was a hit with buyers browsing the latest designs, especially the indoor-outdoor Desert collection rug DES-19 in burnt ochre-coral gold. They were also looking for jute, making the new Natural Tobago and Roland (made of a jute and PET blend) designs show favorites as well.
Buyers were loving the orange accents in Jaipur's indoor-outdoor Desert collection DES-19 in burnt ochre-coral gold.
KALATY
Ramin Kalaty with father Mirza and brother Farshad in front of Kalaty's popular contemporary abstract hand-knotted designs.
Taos, one of the company's summer market introductions, was a very good seller, said Ramin Kalaty. In addition to its busy showroom, Kalaty showcased a curated mix of its fashion-forward hand-knotted rugs from a variety of popular contemporary and modern collections in a display vignette in the World Market Center courtyard. Also at Vegas, Kalaty introduced its second collection of hand-knotted bespoke accent pillows adapted from designs, motifs and colors found within a number of the company's most successful rugs.
Sophisticated southwestern looks in Kalaty's fine, hand-knotted Taos collection were a hit with designers at Las Vegas Market.
KALEEN
From left, Kaleen's Bob Stone and Blake Dennard flank Dee Siegenthaler, Rachel Delaughter and Ronda Delaughter of Creative Concepts, Tulsa.
Tiziano, a summer market introduction marking Kaleen's foray into the indoor machine-made category was a hit in both Atlanta and Las Vegas, according to senior VP, Blake Dennard. A top seller because of its styling and price point, the line is machine woven in Egypt of polypropylene and retails at $159 in 5x8.
The Paracas collection, named after a city in Peru, was very popular, with buyers commenting on the chunky braided wool menswear designs, while Sartorrial, another menswear inspired hit, is tufted.
The updated traditional designs in the hand-knotted Herrera collection were also popular in grays and beiges in traditional styles, Dennard said.
Kaleen's debuting machine-made Tiziana range proved a popular choice among Vegas show shoppers, with 14 stylized traditional designs.
KARASTAN
From left, Barry and Laura Otts of Otts Furniture in Gainesville and Karastan's John Huff, territorial manager for Karastan, pose in front of the popular Spice Market collection's Alacantara design in sapphire.
Spice Market remained a hot seller in Vegas, especially with the addition of a 12x15 size to eight top designs. Karastan's new Kismet collection launched with archival patterns reinvented with new colors, finishes and a combination of wool and SmartStrand Silk. Plans are underway to grow the Patina Vie line in High Point and in January, said Brandon Culpepper, VP of specialty sales. "We are having a really good year sales-wise. We will be up about 20 percent across all our different constructions."
Karastan launched the Kismet collections in traditional designs punched up with erased weave looks and new fashion colors.
KAS
From Left Wendy Reiss and John McPherson of Kas Rugs, Teri Hayden-Kalis of Steinhafel of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Kas' Vee Curfman. in front of Kalis' favorite Artisan rug (2151).
At Kas Rugs, where the company has been putting in place new business strategies for multiple retail channels over the past several months, best-selling collections at market were its new Indulge 100 percent viscose hand loom abstracts, fresh contemporary designs in the company's popular Generations machine-woven shrink polyester and viscose collection, and its new super soft Luxe Shag, particularly in the steel blue color, said Wendy Reiss, Kas' vice president of sales and national accounts.
Kas Rugs' Generations collection was among the top sellers in the company's lineup at summer market and throughout the year.