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Dynamic Las Vegas Market Caps Off Successful January for IMC

A strong winter Las Vegas Market, fueled by robust traffic and order writing gains as well as excitement surrounding two IMC initiatives – the soon-to-be-completed Expo at World Market Center and the recently announced launch of a new digital platform for the industry – opened the furniture industry’s first market of the new decade and ended the gift and home industry’s busy January schedule on a high note.

“Las Vegas Market has hit its stride,” said Bob Maricich, IMC’s Chief Executive Officer. “The excitement and buoyancy felt throughout the week cemented our position as the premier market venue for the West. The gift, home décor and furniture industries rely on Las Vegas Market for discovery of new products and innovations to build their businesses. News of IMC’s continued investment in our physical and digital markets created excitement that will carry throughout the year.”

Positive Reactions from Buyers and Suppliers

Las Vegas Market leaders across the gift, home décor and furniture spectrum experienced successful – and in some cases record-breaking – markets, citing traffic and buying gains as well as added product interest.

“We’re Las Vegas loyalists and have been here since day one. We were one of the first showrooms that opened in Building C, and have never left,” said Garry Schermann, Senior Vice President of Sales at gift exhibitor Creative Co-Op. “We’ve never had a better show than we had this Market. The buyers have come out in force. It’s not just our loyal customers, but so many new buyers – especially international – that have come to the market.” Schermann reported orders placed by buyers from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania at market.

Steady foot traffic was also evident in the home décor showrooms. Four Hands reported that in the first two days of Market, it scanned badges of more than 4,200 buyers who were a mix of existing customers and new prospects. “We have been at Las Vegas Market from the beginning and being a part of the Market has been great for Four Hands, not just as a brand but as a destination and designer resource. I think our success has a lot has to do with the popularity of Las Vegas Market but also speaks to how on-point our brand is with the current trends,” said Nicole Petropoulos, Las Vegas Market Showroom Manager.

A seven-percent increase in designer attendance made a significant impact in the home categories. In furniture, exhibitors reported increased interest from West Coast designers. “This Market gives face-to-face exposure with designers who wouldn’t typically shop our product,” said John Pigg, Vice President of Sales for the North Carolina-based furniture brand Vanguard Furniture, which saw exponential year-over-year growth in buyers.

“Market has been great and there has been a lot of energy. Our existing customers are ordering new lines and ordering heavier,” said Joanne Rackow, Founder of gift agency Joanne & Company. “Now that we have only one showroom, we are able to do more marketing. Our designer stepped-up our merchandising with new lifestyle vignettes, which created more of an experience for retailers. We also spent more on props and furniture and posted on Instagram. We hosted a party and had giveaways, which created a fun buzz. We support shop small and want retailers to have a boutique experience when they come into our showroom.”

Buyers also reported a great Market, noting an increase in product introductions and an overall positive shopping experience.

“This was the best-ever Las Vegas Market!” said Elaine Haskey, Upholstery Buyer for Steinhafels Furniture of Waukesha, Wisconsin. “Sometimes, the products are a repeat of High Point Market introductions, but this time there was so much newness throughout, and we ended up committing to lots!”

“Las Vegas Market continues to amaze us,” said Greg Greeson, Owner and Furniture and Home Décor Buyer for Collectic Home of Austin, Texas. “The superlatives here include the ease of getting to and from the World Market Center, the variety of accommodations available in Las Vegas, the dining and entertainment possibilities, and of course, the convenience of cross-category shopping at one Market and visiting all of our vendor showrooms in such close proximity to one another. We set a record this Market by visiting 75 showrooms in just two-and-half days. I have more than 500 photos on my iPhone as proof!”

“My mind is blown,” said Chrystal DeCoster, Gift Buyer for Western Stars Gallery of Lyons, Colorado. “We are making great connections, considering some investments, and taking things to the next level!”

Preview of What is to Come Felt Across the Market

The nearly completed Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas greeted attendees as a visible signal of forthcoming updates to the physical Las Vegas Market experience.

The Pavilions at Las Vegas Market, which have contained the gift and home temporaries for the last 15 years, will be torn down in February as The Expo takes shape as the new home for those exhibits beginning in July 2020. Long-time Pavilions exhibitors are looking forward to The Expo with the conviction that it will enhance their businesses moving forward.

“I think the new facility will pull traffic from all three buildings and bring more buyers to our booth,” said Kristina Tressler, Director of Operations for South Bend Chocolate. “We’ve been in the Pavilions for 11 shows and believe that the flow between The Expo and the rest of campus will help bring buyers who otherwise wouldn’t see our products.”

“I believe The Expo will do wonders for my business,” said Carlos Arias, Founder and CEO of Inspired Peru. “I imagine we’ll have much better exposure from buyers who only shop in the showrooms due to the time it takes to shop the Pavilions. We’re very excited and expect an amazing experience next summer.”

Against the background of the under-construction Expo, IMC presented its commitment to digital innovation and showcased its new standalone digital division, IMC_di, to its Western customer base. Hundreds gathered in the Grand Plaza Courtyard for the Market kick-off party, which included performances by Cirque du Soleil and previewed plans for a new e-commerce platform, which will connect buyers and sellers digitally year-round as an extension of IMC’s physical markets. For more information about IMC_di, visit www.imcenters.com/IMCdi.

Market-Exclusive Programming Highlights Winter Market

Winter Market also featured a slate of Las Vegas-only events, educational seminars, industry celebrations and networking receptions. Highlights included 15th annual Las Vegas Market Design Icon Award, which recognized award-winning interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard; Oprah’s Favorite Finds – Live!; the Business of Design™ Conference Jan. 2020; the “Learn and Earn” Buyer Breakfast Roundtables in collaboration with various professional associations; the Mid Mod Mix Up Bus Tour; and Stars in the Kitchen featuring Kelly Hansen, Lead Singer of Foreigner.

Las Vegas Market is the leading home furnishings and gift market in the western U.S., presenting 4,300+ furniture, home décor and gift resources in an unrivaled market destination. Las Vegas Market features thousands of furniture, home décor and gift lines, allowing for cross-category commerce among these industries. Summer 2020 Las Vegas Market runs July 26 – July 30, 2020, at World Market Center Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.lasvegasmarket.com.

See Serving Pieces Featuring Folk Art at Atlanta Market

By Mary Kuder

Doug Gitter, Founder of Gitter Gallery in Metairie, Louisiana, began learning about and collecting American southern folk art in the 1980s; it soon became his passion. In those days, the days before cell phones and global positioning satellites, Gitter would get in his car, head to nearby towns, find the local church, and ask townspeople where to find local artists. He would get directions, and then drive to meet these artists, usually in their own homes. It was in that way that he discovered the art of Clementine Hunter.

Already a collector of the work of other American folk artists, Gitter was moved by the work of this self-taught memory artist; her work was full of bold colors and depicted people engaged in the activities of everyday life on a plantation after the turn of the century. He began collecting some of her original works, thought to number between 5,000 and 10,000 pieces. Initially, he displayed these pieces in his Metairie home near New Orleans. However, in 2005, when flood damage from Hurricane Katrina caused the loss of several pieces from his personal collection, he decided he wanted to find a way to share this once-affordable art with as many people as possible – to make it affordable again.

Gitter explained that Hunter’s artwork “resonates with end-users because Hunter’s passion flows through her artwork to the end-user: it’s from the heart, it’s emotional, it speaks to you.” Gitter decided that Hunter’s artwork “is an important part of American history and needs to be shared.” Thus, he founded Gitter Gallery in 2006, and then spent the next six years developing and designing the Clementine Hunter Collection. This collection includes tabletop ceramic service platters and bowls, dinnerware (10-inch plates), and 14-ounce mugs. Each piece of this collection is individually hand-molded and hand-painted so that it is a unique work of art that can be displayed on a wall or shelf, used as a tabletop centerpiece or used as serving pieces for any occasion.

Gitter Gallery houses and displays hundreds of pieces of Hunter’s work, and a significant portion of Gitter’s profits go to renovating, restoring, interpreting, and maintaining the house Hunter lived in within Melrose Plantation so that it looks just as it did before she died in 1988.

So, just who was Clementine Hunter to garner all this attention?

“Clementine Hunter is to Southern contemporary folk art what Mickey Mouse is to Disney,” Gitter said. Born into a Creole family just two decades after the Civil War ended, and before the Second Industrial Revolution spread to Louisiana and the rest of the American South, Hunter spent her entire life working on either a farm or a plantation. She experienced the local economy move from a rural, agriculture-based economy with no mechanization, no electricity and no running water to an economy based on the growth of industries, and the expansion of electricity, petroleum and steel. “Her whole way of life changed over her lifetime,” Gitter said.

Hunter began working as a farm laborer while still a child and had little formal education, never learning to read or write; she learned to speak English only after her family moved from the farm to Melrose Plantation when she was a teenager and after she began working in the main house, cleaning and cooking.

Melrose Plantation housed on its grounds not only the plantation workers, but also several artists under the directive to produce or leave. When she was in her 50s, Hunter discovered some old paints and brushes left behind by one of these artists and began painting. She used bright, bold colors to depict people in the community involved in the activities of everyday life on a plantation: baptisms in the Cane River, weddings, funerals, washing day, horse-drawn wagons hauling cotton to the gin and tending the flower garden – featured are zinnias, Hunter’s favorite flower.

In the early years, Hunter allowed people to come into her home at Melrose Plantation and view her artwork for 5 cents; she sold some of her early work for 25 cents. However, by the 1940s, Hunter was becoming more well-known and was selling her artwork for $5 to $10 per painting. She was a prolific painter, creating more than 5,000 pieces of art between the 1930s and her death on January 1, 1988. She worked on the plantation by day and, according to The Shreveport Times, which published an article about her on September 27, 2018, painted at night while “perched on a low wooden stool, beside a quaint pot-bellied stove, as she held a homemade plywood palette in one hand and a brush [in the other] to create her paintings in oil.” She continued to work on Melrose Plantation right up until her death at the age of 101.

By the time of her death, Hunter’s artwork had been (and continues to be) displayed in museums and galleries around the world, including the Louvre in France, the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the American Folk Art Museum in New York. At the time of her death, original pieces of her artwork were selling for tens of thousands of dollars.

In spite of her success, however, Hunter was quite humble. To illustrate, Gitter tells a story about the time that then-President Jimmy Carter invited her to be his and Rosalynn’s guest during the time her work was on display in Washington D.C. Hunter thought about it for a while, and then responded, “If he wants to sees me, he knows where I lives.” In spite of her fame, during her lifetime Hunter never traveled outside her native state of Louisiana.

Hunter is now considered a pioneer among American southern contemporary folk artists and is Louisiana’s most famous artist. Through the efforts of Doug Gitter and others, her home on Melrose Plantation is now a museum and displays some of her artwork, including several murals housed on the second floor of the house. Hunter’s home, a four-room cabin, is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Gitter notes that it is the only African-American residence to be so listed.

Gitter Gallery continues to honor Hunter with its Clementine Hunter line of ceramics and, as of November 2019, a new line of mango wood serving pieces. As with the ceramic pieces, each is handcrafted: each piece has a unique surface, with the interior lined with food-grade enamel. They also, like the ceramic pieces, are individually hand-painted by an artist who recreates and brings alive the bold colors and passionate scenes of everyday life on Melrose Plantation.

Gitter will be bringing pieces from the entire Clementine Hunter collection (both ceramic and mango wood, as well as some textile pieces) to The Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market, where they can be seen January 15-19 on the second floor of Building 2, adjacent to the escalators. For more information, email doug@gittergallery.com or doug@gittergallery.com or visit www.gittergallery.com.

Temporary Resources Expanding in Pavilions at Las Vegas Market

Las Vegas Market will bring a total of 120+ new and returning exhibitors to the Market’s 450+ gift and home resources in the Pavilions for Winter 2020 Las Vegas Market, running January 26 through January 30, 2020.

“The Pavilions at Las Vegas Market offer retailers and designers an easy-to-navigate one-stop-shopping showcase for gift and home products,” said Jo Ann Miller Marshall, President of Tradeshow Leasing for International Market Centers. “This winter’s final staging of the temporaries in the Pavilions will be a must-see for market-goers seeking on-trend resources from both notable newcomers and returning favorites.”

This winter, the Pavilions will feature five core destinations: GIFT, HANDMADE, DESIGN (DESIGN LIFESTYLE, DESIGN HOME), HOME and DISCOVERIES: The Antique Vintage Marketplace in one dynamic and easy-to-navigate floor plan.

GIFT features some 200 exhibitors showing a full range of giftware categories, including tabletop, housewares, gourmet foods, jewelry, apparel, personal care, baby and kids, stationery and lifestyle products. The most recent new-to-Market GIFT resources include: Blue Mountain Arts; Da Bomb; Joseph K & Company; Moon Valley Organics; Pillowie; Pink Pony Industries; Pitkin Sterns International; The Encore Fashion Group; Trollbeads United States; and Untamed Roots. Notable returning exhibitors include: Banded; Bed Stu; Bunnies by The Bay; Culver Industries; Melissa & Doug; Oliver The Ornament; Perfect Holiday; Preciado Mexican Imports; Sanpiper Distribution; Socksmith Design; Spinfinity Designs; Teresa’s Room; True Brands; and Wildthings Sales & Marketing.

HANDMADE will present nearly 100 artisans, makers and local-made designers, emphasizing artistry and originalities in all product categories. The latest new and returning exhibitors include: Blue Orange Pottery; Bramble Market; Letra; Likha; and Lilly Barrack Ltd.

Marketgoers can find a combined design-driven gift and home experience in DESIGN, a Las Vegas Market destination which showcases 50+ DESIGN LIFESTYLE and DESIGN HOME exhibitors.

DESIGN LIFESTYLE will showcase emerging designers and forward-focused products and DESIGN HOME will showcase design-driven home décor, furniture, and textiles collections. Recently announced new and notable DESIGN lines include: Atlantic Folk; EM Brands; ORTC; and Zoe Bios Creative.

HOME features 50+ suppliers of accent decor, furniture, textiles, linens, and decorative accessories. The latest new and returning exhibitors include: Adora Furniture and Fiore Stone, Inc.

The Pavilions also include immediate delivery resources, which includes the sold-out DISCOVERIES: The Antique Vintage Marketplace destination as well as a robust assortment of cash and carry lines. The most recently confirmed new and notable among these companies are: 22 Tote; Evolution CBD; Jess Imports; and RFALV Services.

Additionally, the Pavilions will present specialized hand-crafted and artisan-inspired resources with two popular showcases: Aid to Artisans and Artisanal LA. The fifth appearance of the Aid to Artisans’ TEAM (Training for Entrepreneurs in Artisan Markets) showcase of first-time exhibitors will present a variety of curated, maker-produced goods from international artisans. The Artisanal LA pop-up showcase presents 20 Los Angeles-based unique-to-Market makers and artisan products in categories that include edibles, stationery, jewelry, home goods, garden and kids.

Beyond products, the Pavilions will include daily Buyer’s Morning Grab & Go starting at 8:30 a.m.; and The Pavilions Afternoon Bars, from 4 to 6:00 p.m. Additionally, the popular Cash & Carry Late Night Shopping Event, a combined order writing/cash and carry late-night event with shopping and complimentary cocktails, returns to DISCOVERIES from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, January 27.

The Pavilions at Las Vegas Market are open Sunday, January 26 through Wednesday, January 29, 2020. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Sunday through Tuesday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday. A continuous, free shuttle connects the Pavilions with permanent showrooms in Buildings A, B and C.

Pampa Bay Presents Love is in the Air Collection

High-fired porcelain is covered or accented in gold-tone titanium resulting in beautiful small bowls for serving whatever your heart desires. And like all Pampa Bay items, they won’t tarnish or stain and resist scratching. Versatile, beautiful, dishwasher-safe, oven-safe to 350 degrees and freezer safe. They’re so affordable that there’s no need to keep these items close to your heart — suggested retail prices range from $9.50 to $18.75.

See them in the Martin & Associates showroom at the Dallas market, the Werner Frank showroom at AmericasMart, the Next Step Reps showroom at the winter Las Vegas Market and in Pampa Bay’s booth at NY NOW. If you miss them at the markets, email nfo@PampaBay.com for more information.

Pretty and Practical Tea Towels from KC

By Lorrie Baumann

Green Bee Tea Towels is a maker of hand-printed cotton tea towels owned by Rena Krouse. From her studio in Kansas City, Missouri, she and the four other members of her team have been putting out a line of functional, decorative cotton towels with a vintage feel for the past four and a half years. This year, she’s expanding the business with an aggressive sales strategy and a new showroom at the Dallas Trade Center.

“I like the idea of having practical decorations,” Krouse said. “I’m not big on knickknacks or things just lying around.”

Practicality for her products means that the tea towels are made of 100 percent cotton that Krouse imports from India and screen-prints in Kansas City with nontoxic, water-soluble inks. “They won’t peel or fade or crack,” she said. “They require no care at all. You can stain-treat, bleach or wash them however you would like.”

The company offers more than 100 designs in multiple color variations, all on a white background. Many of the designs have a vintage feel to them. “You can use them every day,” Krouse said. “They’re not a product that goes out of style, and they work as bathroom hand towels as well.”

With exponential growth in the past year, Green Bee Tea Towels now has distribution available throughout the U.S., and she’s hired several sales representatives and opened a showroom at the Dallas Trade Center where visitors to the Dallas markets can see and touch the towels for themselves. “I’m looking for showrooms and reps for the rest of the U.S.,” she said. “We’re growing as fast as we possibly can. The biggest challenge has been hanging on for the ride, keeping up with the demand and learning how to scale the business. It’s been eye-opening. There are so many things we thought we knew how to do, but this year’s increase in production has taken the business to a whole other level.”