Joe Ruggiero offers more choices
Cinde W. Ingram -- Home Accents Today, 5/1/2006
In his seventh year of licensing home furnishings, designer, author and HGTV host Joe Ruggiero continues to expand his lines with the goal of helping consumers make better choices.
Ruggiero introduced his 14th collection with Norwalk Furniture and his eighth collection with Sunbrella fabrics at the April High Point market. He also added to his lighting lines by Orbit and case goods by Caperton Furniture Works. Ruggiero recently signed a licensing agreement to design decorative trim collections for Phoenix Trim Works.
"What's so important about licensing is that no man is an island," Ruggiero said. "I just happen to have wonderful collaborators and wouldn't have it any other way. Whenever I go out on the road, I always speak of 'we,' and people raise their hands and say who are 'we'? They're my collaborators."
Building the sense of teamwork is crucial to successful licensing, he said. "If you're not having fun putting these things together, it's not worth it. You dread it and it becomes painful," Ruggiero said. "I anticipate the next collection and we're already well into it."
Giving an overview of what he sees happening with licensing, Ruggiero noted wide differences in approach. "I think there are real visionaries. What's wonderful about that is you're buying the designer's vision, which helps the consumer make a choice, a decision because it's so daunting out there. So they feel: I like his look or I like her look.
"Then you have those people who are just signing their names to a collection that has no vision to make a lot of money — and they're bringing it in like tonnage. I don't think that's right," Ruggiero said. "I think that's destroying the viable designers who are in this business, who are working hard to create these visions and if there's money or rewards, that's fine but it's not the real goal. The goal is to help the consumer realize their choices. That's why I applaud the designers who are doing that and doing it well."
At Norwalk, early concerns about showing Ruggiero's introductions within the same showroom as Candice Olson's collections led to efforts to keep the two separate. So the designers did not know what the other would be presenting. The two totally different looks created excitement and offered more choices for consumers.
Although Ruggiero spoke of no man being an island, those themes with English Colonial inspirations were woven throughout his new Island Home Collection of fabrics.
"We feel people will want to bring a little bit of the fantasy back to their home; maybe they went on a Caribbean vacation they want to recreate," Ruggiero said. "Even if you don't live in the islands, I believe we can all relate to the warm breezes, bright colors and relaxed lifestyle of island living."
In addition to Island Home, Ruggiero introduced four other fabric collections during the April market — Mountain View, Country Lites, Dorset Hall and Artist Studio.
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