Fashioning Furnishings
Cher, Ann-Margret and Barbie have all worn designer Bob Mackie's creations. Now he is focused on dressing up your home.
By Compiled from Times Wires
Published October 27, 2007
HIGH POINT, N.C. - Some of fashion designer Bob Mackie's youngest fans don't even know he designed exotic gowns for Cher and Ann-Margret, let alone furniture.
"They tell me, 'We thought you just did Barbie dolls,' " he said, holding his head in mock dismay.
Indeed, he designs furniture.
Mackie introduced his third signature collection for American Drew at the recent High Point Market, formerly the International Home Furnishings Market. The collection consists of 42 bedroom, dining and occasional pieces.
The look is more restrained than his earlier efforts - or as restrained as furniture can be, coming from someone who designed costumes for Las Vegas shows. Tables and cabinets feature a mix of rosewood, ebony, walnut burl, mahogany and cherry. They're adorned with subtle inlays instead of ornate carvings. The finish isn't glossy, but soft and elegant.
"I wanted to do something that had a more contemporary slant, mid-20th century, but not that kitschy retro thing," he said. "This could go into a contemporary home, or mix well with other furniture in a traditional home."
There's perhaps a bit more retro than he'd admit, but the new Bob Mackie Home collection will complement many other styles.
The centerpiece of the collection is a 60-inch round dining table that will sell for about $999. It features an inlaid pheasant feather design on the top, and a lazy susan of black granite. Like the feathers, Mackie borrowed other fashion touches: He used an inlaid ribbon motif around the edges of tables and cabinets, and filigree gilt castings inspired by embroidery from his fabric archive.
Mackie designed his first collection for American Drew, a La-Z-Boy company, in 1998. The company says that group has accounted for sales of $500-million. Mackie is proud that a few pieces - beds and dining tables - remain popular.
Seeing the future
The High Point Market draws up to 85,000 furniture manufacturers and wholesale buyers from around the world. The market is held twice a year, in the spring and fall. New collections typically reach retail showrooms in about six months.
The market offers a glimpse at coming styles and trends. In fabric, look for the gray palette to grow. Showrooms featured grays from light - call it a honey smoke - to dark charcoal. Many woods were weathered. "It's almost as if furniture was exposed to the elements, then brought back in," said Rupal Mamtani of importer Bluefish Home.
The fall market provided a chance to check out which celebrity is putting his or her name on which new line of sectionals and beds.
Former fashion model B. Smith, who owns three restaurants, introduced her second collection of furniture, inspired by her own houses on Central Park South in Manhattan and Sag Harbor on Long Island.
She nestled among the 11 gold-braided pillows on her new Glam sectional - all 172 inches of it - and discussed her latest deal with upholstery maker Clayton Marcus. "I started in home with bedding. I really loved doing it and wanted to go further," said Smith, who has a home collection for Bed Bath & Beyond.
Hooker Furniture, a Virginia company, introduced an innovative adjustable headboard. You can raise or lower it in 2-inch increments to complement mattress thickness, ceiling height and the scale of bedside tables and other furnishings.
The headboard will be available in four styles, two painted and two upholstered, and sell for $499 in queen size, Hooker spokeswoman Kim Shaver said.
Sam Moore, a company that Hooker recently bought, plans to offer headboards upholstered in 500 of the company's fabrics. Those headboards will be adjustable, too, and will sell for about $999.
Young America, which makes furniture for youths from infants to teens, introduced several pieces to corral gaming equipment, which is owned by 69 percent of households. The Hampton Pointe TV/Media Console ($699), which holds a 42-inch flat-screen TV, has a deep storage drawer on top and a flip-down bottom drawer to let kids sit on the floor and play an X-Men game.
The Hampton Pointe Entertainment Wall System ($2,556) includes a storage console, hutch and two bookcases with drawers and bins. The company made the cottage design in white and espresso finishes, so teens would not outgrow them. "We want kids to be able to eventually take this to their first apartment," product manager Curtis Wenke said.
Martha Stewart introduced a collection called Dunemere, the sixth in her partnership with Bernhardt.
With its Swedish influences and light, weathered finishes, you might call it Scandinavian beach cottage. Stewart says the white oak finish was inspired by bleached driftwood. The oak is combined with darker mahogany, maple and cherry, with accents of rattan and painted wicker.
The collection includes pieces for the home office, as well as bedroom and dining room.
Building on the green theme
Green - as in environmentally friendly - shapes more furniture styles and marketing.
Bernhardt introduced its first eco-friendly collection called Cascade. The company cut waste, used fewer volatile finishes and chose woods from sustainable sources. The 61-piece collection features rustic walnut veneers and such unusual touches as skeletal tree leaves under glass and river pebbles imbedded in table tops.
Vaughan-Bassett, a Virginia company that's the country's largest maker of adult bedroom furniture, announced a "141," or one-for-one reforestation program. The company will work with Virginia state forestry officials to plant 150,000 trees annually, the number it uses in its furniture each year.
Other companies - including Rowe, Vanguard and C.R. Laine - promoted their use of eco-friendly fabrics and soy-based foams instead of petroleum-based materials.
Spaldin, a Spanish bed frame and mattress maker, has created an all-natural mattress made of soybean oil and fiber. The Aircell Soy model ($1,995 for queen size), designed with eye-catching soy-green sides, could not help but attract attention at the furniture market. "The green color really gives it an identity," said Larry Craver, Spaldin's director of U.S. sales. Information: (336) 765-2617.
Lee Industries, a pioneer in environmentally friendly furniture, expanded a green upholstery offer it initiated a year ago. For $50 per sofa, consumers could buy an upgrade that included pillows made of recycled plastic bottles and frames bonded with soy-based resins.
Now Lee is making this standard on all sofas and chairs, and plans to add Eco-Lux, a new super-green upgrade: For about $450 more, consumers can buy a luxuriously softer cushion, stuffed with goose down filling and a fiber made of cornstarch.