Direct from Market: Atlanta, Part 2
Caroline Kennedy, Bessie Nestoras, Meredith Schwartz -- Gifts and Dec, 7/20/2010 11:33:27 AM
Atlanta — The positive vibe of the Atlanta market continued as the weekend brought even more buyers into market. There was an audible buzz of business being conducted everywhere we went ... and no long faces! Traffic in the showrooms was a hair quieter on Friday morning when the temporary exhibits opened. But the flow between temporaries and showrooms evened out. And parties, signings and late night shopping kept the showrooms busy late in the days on Friday and Saturday.
Everywhere we went, from showroom to showroom, we received smiles and reports of good sales. And in the temporaries it was no different. Jonathan Neidlinger of Nora Fleming noted that this was his best show in five years. The company is on trend with serveware with interchangeable decorative elements that are appropriate for different occasions and create affordable add-on sales. Camy Hodges of Cool Cups, which was recently acquired by Design Design, remarked that sales were nearly back to '07 numbers.
Celebrating
Saturday evening's gala affair, the inaugural Icon Honors, assembled a vast crowd — more than 800 people — from all walks of the industry. This new industry awards program established by AmericasMart Atlanta recognizes innovation, creativity and contribution. A cocktail hour beforehand allowed attendees to relax and socialize before entering the elegantly appointed Atrium Ballroom at the Marriott Marquis. For full coverage of the evening's events, click here.
Also on Saturday evening, C.R. Gibson cut the cake to honor its 140th anniversary, which the company marks this year.
Friday evening saw The Southern Link's anniversary party at the Hard Rock Café, as well as Grace Management/Bridgewater Candles launch party for its expanded partnership with charity Rice Bowls,
Marching Abominable
which raises money to feed orphans in India, South Africa, Rwanda and Haiti. The new initiative, titled "Light a Candle, Feed a Child", means that each special edition candle purchased will feed one orphaned child for one week. In addition, the Everyday Program means than for any Bridgewater candle purchased, the company will make a donation to Rice Bowls. Restaurant chains Sonic and Chick-Fil-A donated refreshments for the festivities, which were sponsored by Country Business, and American Airlines donated two free tickets as a prize for retailers who blogged about the event from the event itself. The party also boasted a live musician (who doubles as a Grace employee), and Grace collected hand prints on fabric squares from attendees, to be stitched together into a quilt and shipped to the orphans.
And on Sunday afternoon, just when you thought that you might be reaching the doldrums, the Seed & Feed Marching Abominables came marching into the Building 3 temporaries to liven things up. This entertaining band is made up of musicians and twirlers dressed in crazy costumes — all in the name of fun.
Artist signings are always a popular draw. Among those artists making appearances were Mary Phillips, Lori Seibert and Lolita. Phillips was on hand at the Just Gotta Have It! showroom to sign copies of her newly released book for Andrews McMeel, Why Limit Happy to an Hour? Seibert made several appearances and Lolita drew a crowd at the C.R.Gibson showroom.
New and Notable
Imax showcased three new trend stories this market. Elements takes on an urban, industrial feel incorporating 
Imax
metals and rustic iron. Parisienne is a softer look highlighting magenta. The company describes it as "tres chic, lavish and sumptuous." Within this collection, objects created from recycled bangle bracelets were found. The company offered boxes, trays, mirrors, coasters and more made from the bracelets. Honeybee, the final collection, uses warm gold tones and features a structured look. The honeycomb pattern was used throughout the collection.
Lazy Susan moved into a new space. The company has doubled its showroom space and is now in a 2,200-square-foot showroom where it debuted three new collections: Autumn Harvest, Winter Wonderland and Stylish Splendor. Autumn Harvest featured burnt tones and leather accents; Winter Wonderland was all about white mixed with dark browns and Stylish Splendor took on a softer look with neutral tones and grays and black.
Mariposa is now representing Jars in the southeast.
Lifetime Brands is offering new Mikasa "Cheers" candles — fine crystal drinkware in small sizes filled with candlewax, which have a perceived value far higher than their affordable price point. Great for décor groupings or for bridal favors.
Another notable glass container candle line which combines green, shabby chic, and antique appeal is Waverly and Irving, which offers hand-poured candles in a variety of vintage and antique glassware, from 1900 through 1980.
Holiday: Spring Forward, Scary and Stylish
Halloween Chair
from One Hundred 80 Degrees
Many vendors are bringing more of their spring designs to market at the summer shows, even as many retailers are still buying Christmas. Some traditionally Christmas companies, such as Walpert/Silver Tree, are branching out into Easter merchandise for the first time, and seeing a strong response. And even those who have long brought a substantial Spring assortment to market this time, like Ganz, are rearranging their showrooms to give the goods more prominence. While Christmas isn't going anywhere, today's trend is to plan seasonal merchandise even further ahead.
Meanwhile Halloween not only continues to go more grownup and up-market, it's now taking on a distinctly fabulous twist. Standout offerings include Demdaco 's Silvestri division's Faboo collection, with it's blinged-out spider jewelry; One Hundred 80 Degrees' highly decorated Halloween chairs, and Furry Bones adorable collectible skeletons from YTC Summit Intl.
Change is Good
The craze for interchangeable fashion accents continues - in addition to the well-known SwitchFlops, new entries at this market include STAMPS interchangeable watches and Zazzerz blingtastic charms that fit in Crocs shoe ventilation holes. Charmin Changeable Charms, known for bottle cap charms, now adds Chipz poker chips as well; most popular among the Shains are the "metal-urges" lead-free pewter designs.
Do-it-yourself personalization also spreads onto the ubiquitous water bottle with Zippies bottle tags, and onto books, invites and anything paper with Changeables new design kits for stamping labels, recipes, wrapping paper and much more.
New Companies
Sweet Surrender Fudge
College senior Ashton Minto debuted her collection of jewelry at market. The pieces have a vintage feel and are made in brass and incorporate pearl, glass and other semi-precious stones. The designs range from dainty to bold.
Sweet Surrender Fudge made its debut at the International Gift & Home Furnishings Market. The company has individually packaged bars of fudge, as well as cleverly placed them in baking cups to look like cupcakes for Valentine's Day.
Also new to market is Lubin Fragrance, a French perfume company originally founded in 1798. The company "fell into obscurity" in the late 1900s, and has been recently revived: this is its reentry into the U.S. market.
Growing Up
Several companies have expanded into new categories this market. Vera Bradley is expanding into newer categories, including knit scarves and hats, watches that come in a coordinating gift box, boxed ornaments and a set of cocktail napkins, coasters and place cards called Happy Hour. The company has come out with four new patterns this market: Versailles, Twirly Bird in navy and pink, Baroque and Buttercup. Frill is a new collection geared for a younger market, ages 14–24, although the patterns were a hit with women of all ages according to a representative from Vera Bradley. The company also introduced an apron gift set. The apron is packaged in a tin box with a recipe on the inside lid. The box could then be used to hold recipe cards.
HomArt is focusing on entertaining. The company introduced several new entertaining pieces, including a tiered serving tray that comes apart where the trays can also be used separately as a chip and dip.
Simon Pearce introduced smaller gift items, including gift boxed sets of two tea light holders and icicle baubles in a set of three or single. And the company is now offering its copper collection to wholesale customers, which was originally available in the company's stores.
Tag
has introduced a new stationery collection of journals and pens. The journals all featured different patterns including floral, plain and more modern looks. In addition to stationery, the company has added another category to its extensive collection: flatware. The company has also added more shopping totes in various colors to the line. Summer Sizzle, Carnivale, Summer Sparkle and Citrus Kitchen are all new collections for this market.
Global Views recently introduced a gift catalog and buyers were at market checking out the new pieces. The company has decided to focus on the gift end to offer retailers pick-up items with many of the pieces at under $50 wholesale.
Lunares introduced a new baby collection. The line includes boxes, frames and piggy banks.
Trending Up
Ikat was spotted throughout the market. Port 68, Best Slipcover Company, Century Furniture, Bella and Ryan Studio all featured Ikat patterns in their collections.
Industrial looks were also spotted in many of the showrooms this season. Go Home, HomArt, Barreveld, Aidan Gray and Arteriors Home all featured accessories with an industrial feel.
While coffee cups aren't exactly a new category for the gift retailer, coffee to-go is definitely having a resurgence, following on from the water bottles seen everywhere at the winter markets. While water bottles are far from over — 
Karim Rashid
noted product designer Karim Rashid was even seen autographing his new offering, the Bobble filtering bottle, at the Atlanta show — the industry is turning its attention to the other beverage Americans like to carry everywhere they go, with a plethora of reusable offerings in materials from ceramic to melamine to plastic to fool-the-eye cups that mimic the throw-aways they're designed to replace, from mainstay brands and green startups alike. Enesco's Our Name is Mud, One Hundred 80 Degrees and Ganz were just a few of the many who had to-go cups ready to go.
Also new from Enesco, the debuting Odds ‘n' Ends collection brings a mixed media, folk art aesthetic to the table, one we increasingly heard referred to at market as the "Anthropologie" look. Easy to identify but hard to explain, it involves mixed media, soft fabrics, and a handmade flavor combined with a youthful, modern sensibility. We heard the name of this specialty retail chain a number of times at market: from the Icon Honors stage, where they received one of the inaugural awards, to happy vendors saying the retailer had bought from them, to an informal adjective to describe collections that may never see the inside of an actual Anthropologie shop, but would fit in well with their customers' homes.
Other offerings from Enesco, so new they weren't even shown at the Dallas market, include the debut of Disney garden fairies, complete with solar powered lights; Jim Shore Muppet Show figurines and Disney princesses, each with a microchip to elicit her own musical theme from the single base; clocks based on super-close up photos in the National Geographic collection.
For Kids
New to AmericasMart, the Sushiami collection features Brooke and Sydney, two plush Asian girls, and their favorite things, including an ottoman designed to look like a giant piece of sushi.
In High Design, 3 sprouts offers bright colored, eco-friendly kids items at an affordable price point, i
Fiesta
Toy
ncluding new wall organizers, art smocks, photo frames, hooded towels and storage bins.
Practical doesn't have to be boring. Flipper, the hygienic toothbrush holder, comes in many bright, fun animal shapes, while containing germs and keeping surfaces clear. Hello Kitty is the newest design.
Fiesta Toys showcased a brand new line just air-freighted in for the show that is currently being called Casual Attitude Toward Life. So new is the line that the company has not yet determined its permanent moniker. Nevertheless, the samples on view represented a delightful collection of imaginery critters made from socks.
And Aurora's new MiFe Mouse collection attracted buyer attention. The engaging small plush meadow mice come with Christian spiritual messages.
One of A Kind
Not everything can be a trend - sometimes the most fabulous market finds are the ones that are like nothing else. 
Uniformed Scrapbooks of America
One such that we stumbled upon at the show was Uniformed Scrapbooks of America — exhibiting for the first time at the Atlanta market, the company is an official licensee of several branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and features scrapbooks dressed in brand new, authentic uniforms of the Army, Marines, Coast Guard and Navy. Perfect for active service members, their families and veterans.
Also, so clever we can't believe it didn't already exist is the award winning 
Oirganimals
Urbano trash bin from Stewart/Stand. Made of recycled polypropylene, it both stores plastic shopping bags and reuses them as trash bags.
Last but not least are the Origanimals, an example of re-use in action from T. Lockman LLC. When some of Lockman's luxury throws arrived too damaged to use, she repurposed the scraps into appealing home décor pieces, combining the visual appeal of origami with the touchability of her fine fabrics for a very grownup take on the stuffed animal. For now, their pedigree makes them a pricey $300, but Lockman is looking for a cheaper source of fabric so more charmed customers can take them home.
We would love your feedback!
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