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Consumers Starting to Tighten Their Belts (especially if they're Coach)

(Fortune) -- It's not just the Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500) shopper who's feeling pinched.

Worried about the health of the economy, affluent shoppers are increasingly thinking twice before splurging on new handbags or designer clothing, analysts and industry executives say. Their hesitation is sending ripples of concern through the lower rungs of the luxury market once thought impervious to a slowdown.

 

Nordstrom (Charts, Fortune 500) and Coach (Charts) are among the upscale companies that have warned of weaker-than-expected sales in recent weeks, suggesting that the heady growth of recent years may finally be hitting a wall of consumer anxiety tied to a topsy-turvy stock market and a mortgage crisis that is threatening to engulf the middle class.

Pam Danziger, the founder of Unity Marketing who interviews 1,000 consumers every three months for her luxury tracking study, said that the "mass affluent," or those with household incomes $75,000 to $150,000, curtailed luxury purchases by 20 percent in the most recent quarter. "That's the biggest drop we've seen since we started collecting this data in 2004," Danziger said.

If the slowdown continues, luxury retailers could be hard hit. To appeal to a broader demographic, companies from Tiffany to Valentino have courted mass affluent shoppers with new lines at lower prices. The mass affluent account for 23 percent of households, compared to less than 2 percent for those with incomes upwards of $250,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

These households, with incomes of $75,000 to $150,000, make up 23 percent of the population, and it's "the marginally wealthy who are feeling a bit less well off," said Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a research group that studies behavioral habits of the rich.

Even the rosiest scenarios expect luxury sales, which now total $226 billion worldwide, to slow slightly from the torrid pace of recent years. Bain & Co. predicts nominal sales growth of 7 percent to 9 percent, slightly less than the 9 percent growth of 2006. At the same time, much of that growth is now coming from emerging markets in India and China, not from the United States.

"While it would be inaccurate to say there is a major slowdown, the luxury market has cooled a bit from the peak levels we had seen," said Stephen Sadove, chief executive of Saks (Charts).

Sadove pointed to a strong correlation between luxury shoppers and the stock market, particularly among men. "In early September, when there was turmoil in the markets, we saw slower sales in our men's business, though it has since bounced back," he said.


 

Coach spooked investors on Tuesday when it said it was seeing fewer than expected shoppers in stores in California, Florida and the Northeast. The company is a bellwether for the mass affluent, having helped create the category when it reinvented itself several years ago as a status brand minus the sticker shock.
After years of double-digit sales growth, Coach investors are beginning to worry about a slowdown. The stock is off 32 percent in the past six months. As of midday, the shares were trading at $36.88, near their 52-week low of $36.15.


Above: chart shows COACH stock price history for the past 6 months

Though still priced well below designer handbags, Coach has quietly gotten more expensive, a fact that may make it "less accessible to a certain demographic challenged by higher fuel costs and lower housing values," wrote Todd Slater of Lazard Capital Markets in a research note yesterday. Slater estimates that the average Coach bag has seen a price increase of 30 percent over the last few years, with $400 handbags now accounting for a quarter of the company's overall sales.

Another retailer that has courted the mass affluent shopper is Nordstrom. The company recently cut its third quarter earnings guidance after September sales came in below plan and inventory piled up on store shelves. Michael Boyd, a spokesman, said women's apparel was among the weaker areas, although sales of designer clothing and handbags remained strong. Nordstrom shares are also trading near their 52-week low of $37.80.


To be sure, not all luxury retailers are feeling the pain. As Danziger noted, the super rich continue to snap up $20,000 Louis Vuitton handbags and $200,000 Cartier watches. And Cartier's parent, Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont, which recently reported a 20 percent sales increase at its specialty watch division, said its biggest concern was not a softening economy, but its ability to keep up with demand.

Above: 2007 Louis Vuitton magazine ad with Scarlett Johanssen & handbag bearing their signature monogram

While there have been signs of softness at the lower end of the luxury spectrum, analysts disagree over how much of it is the result of tighter purse strings versus unusually warm weather, which keep shoppers away from malls.

"I don't see a big change in spending for households with income of $100,000 and above," said Michael Silverstein, a senior vice president with the Boston Consulting Group and co-author of "Trading Up: The New American Luxury," which chronicles how middle class buying habits have shifted to more upscale products.

Silverstein points out that, despite the recent market roller coaster, stocks are still buoyant, unemployment is low and corporate profits are at record levels. All three factors should keep the mass affluent spending, he says.
But other observers warn that those on the cusp of real wealth may not prove quite so resilient.

"To think that this customer is immune to the ups and downs of the economy is simply not correct," said Danziger, of Unity Marketing. "They may not be defaulting on their mortgages, but there's a good chance their homes are not worth as much as they were last year - and as a result they don't feel as rich." Top of page

article above By Suzanne Kapner, images and headline were added for your enjoyment

Yet Another reason to move to the UK:
Limited Edition Designers Sky HD boxes

The Sky HD TV Designer Box Collection

Sky HD, the high def digital TV service of the UK has come out with a series of limited edition designer boxes by five hot UK designers

Five different styles by five different designers, you can enter to win one, or buy one now.
Designs by Basso & Brooke, Giles Deacon, Preen, Gareth Pugh, and Jonathan Saunders

You can enter to win one or purchase one here.

To learn more about the designer boxes, click here.

What is Sky HD? Visit their site here.

Funky Find Of The Week:
Lovegrove & Repucci's New York Delft Dinnerware




Nicholas Lovegrove and Demian Repucci have come up with this fun and funky twist on traditional delft dinnerware.

In the classic blue and white, gritty new york imagery and graffiti pepper the porcelain plates, making a wonderfully modern version of classic Delft porcelain.


Above: detail

New York Delft Tableware

The classic tradition of Dutch Delft craftsmanship hits the streets of New York City. Presenting the ‘New York Delft’ Porcelain dinnerware collection. Each place setting is made of fine porcelain and has five pieces; a dinner plate, side plate, soup bowl, cup and saucer. Sold as a set. Or, cups and saucer sets at lovegrove repucci.com

Buy them here.

Product Pick Of The Week: The Stûv 21 Fireplace



Above: The Stûv 21 in rust

I love this fireplace because it's got storage, clean lines and a retractable door! And although it takes up space, it's not an eyesore.

And it comes with different claddings (the surround) so it can suit your interior.

Above: The Stûv in white

How it works


The Stûv 21 makes use of a simple law of physics : natural combustion : air circulates in a double wall (1) around the hearth, heats up and escapes through purpose-built vents (2). One can also route some of that hot air to an adjacent room. So there is no fan, no noise, no risk of a breakdown, no electrical connection. The glass door remains clear : the air required for combustion sweeps the inner face (3) and prevents soot from making it dirty.

Integration into a low volume

Partial raising of the glass door allows the Stûv 21 to be integrated into a low horizontal space.

Limiting the travel of the glass door means the hearth height can be reduced by 15 to 25 cm depending on the model, and the stove can then be inserted into a low horizontal volume and thus break away from the traditional vertical shape.
It can also be inserted into an old fireplace.


Go here for more information and to purchase.

Chiara Albertoni's Paintings. That's Right... Paintings.





A loyal reader of mine who has a great collection of art herself, Betsy Wills, brought this Italian photorealism painter to my attention. Given that initially the text was foreign, it actually took me a minute to realize these are paintings, not photographs.

Below are some of her latest works, now showing at Galerie Voss
Text by Maurizio Sciaccaluga


Above: O.T.,Oil on canvas / 2006 / 115 x 75 cm, Sold

Chiara Albertoni's painting is a warning glimpse.
On the one hand, it presents us with direct glimpses of nature, depicted and documented with professional detachment, where the spontaneous and violent transformation of the environment that surrounds us is interpreted as little as possible. On the other hand, it has the appearance and characteristics peculiar to a warning, an exhortation, or a threat.


Above: Il Custode, Oil on canvas / 2006 / 133 x 107 cm

Translated in an artistic form, they echo the fascinating and compact glimpses of naturalists, of those who are still able look, amazed, at the spectacle of snow, of an ancient tree, of a snail shell. Yet at the same time the artist has been able to stage a sort of memento mori, an invocation for help for a world, which right now is having an identity crisis and a crisis of future vision.


Above: HIGH HOPES, oil on canvas - cm 84 x 127

The pictures clearly depict the history of an extremely beautiful universe, yet one that by the very same evidence also appears fragile and in danger of falling apart at any moment. The young artist has personally taken on the commitment issuing a warning about the risks that man is running, making an attempt to give voice to those who have none, shouting out the fears and uneasiness of those who cannot speak or complain.


Above: o.T. (Tulipan Rainbow), Oil on canvas / 2006 / 92 x 133 cm, Sold

She has taken on the burden of the environmental drama in a quiet style, stubborn yet sedate, putting in front of spectators those simple, ordinary and common things, which we might lose at any moment: trees, clean and healthy air, the vibrant ecosystem of a river bed.

In these days of GMOs, stem cells, cloning, laboratory experiments, symbols of man's omnipotence, Albertoni has captured and told the story of the beauty and perfection of nature, ordinary yet always spectacular. It's right there, outside her house, just beyond the corner in a place which separates the city from an as yet uncontaminated countryside. A long line of larches covered to protect them from the winter snow, a cobweb suspended between two thin and distant branches, a blanket of frost which can freeze and immobilise the frenetic activity in the fields.


Above:Spider Falls, Oil on canvas / 2007 / 138 x 92 cm

More than her technical ability, her artistic touch and ability with colours, the work of this artist should be appreciated for her enthusiasm (although veiled by preoccupation). Refined astonishment, helping us to still look at the world and enjoy the small things of life jumps out at us. Amazement pervades every brush stroke, it impregnates every scene, and it saturates every horizon that is painted. It is genuine astonishment which gives us the capacity to observe and grasp the beauty in the things we take for granted, new things in those we have already seen, the macro in the micro, the long term in fleeting moments.


Above: LA STREGA, oil on canvas - cm 174 x 95

Some of the canvases, - depicting tree trunks, which are centuries old, majestic and enduring, or others showing the perfect geometrical forms of snail shells and snow flakes - capture a moment, a vision of time which runs on relentlessly. They suggest how a simple moment can symbolize and capture eternity (the movement of the hands on a clock seem suspended on a background of bright white stultifying snow, where the vision of time, if it moves, does so imperceptibly).

Other pieces grab and hold on to the poetry of the humdrum, the greatness of a small and humble nature which knows how to surprise us and renew itself, regenerating itself every day. The scenes depicting daily walks along the fields of the Vicentino area, which are brought to mind using worn landscapes and mute events visible just outside the house, remind us of poetry and the lessons taught by films such as The Blue Planet and The Microcosms.


Above: Phaleonopsis #2, Oil on canvas / 2005/06 / 114 x 107 cm

You don't need to go too far away to look for and talk about the miracle of life. The most extreme beauty is just a steps' distance away from our sight. All we need is knowledge of how is how to be amazed at still seeing it. The works of this young painter from Veneto cannot be considered a simple, updated renewal of hyperrealism, or merely an Italian application, familiar and intimate, of ideas and solutions already developed in the United States by Franz Gertsch or by Richard Estes. Rather they need to be considered and understood as though they are a worrying documentary, an honest and objective news report, yet one that is hard hitting - about life on earth.


Above: O.T.(Carnivovous), Oil on canvas / 2007 / 97 x 63 cm

Starting with the landscapes within arm's reach. In the works by the American masters, the present is superfluous. Whether the subject is a face or a city, the theme is created involuntarily by a vacuum hidden in something that is too full. These things are absent in Albertoni's work There is no show but only landscape. It is the silence that makes the noise. Only something that is too empty can show up something minuscule. Where there is absolute muteness, where not even a word can be heard, even a syllable can take on the significance of a speech, a song or a poem. The exaggerated white and pitch black cutaway views of hills, the detached and freezing monochrome rendition of trees and horizons, even close-ups, so close as to transform vividly coloured flowers into backgrounds worthy of abstract expressionism are used by the artist to create atmosphere, pathos and suspense.


Above: HUNDRED FOLDS, oil on canvas - cm 93 x 63

Whether this is because of a form that is easy to recognize immediately, or it is because of the absence of colour, or the eternal immobility of the form, all the paintings seem like the scenes from a thriller, frozen at a point where it seems like anything could happen at any time. Nothing actually happens nor will it, but everything is just too calm quiet and still to stay that way forever, and the spectator ends up expecting the unexpected event or arrival, the surprise. And that unexpected event or arrival, that surprise could be a gust of wind along the bare branches of the trees, a bee among the flower petals, a spider walking along the spokes of its architecturally perfect cobweb.


Above: Blackhole, Oil on canvas / 2006 / 84 x 126 cm, Sold

In other words, things which otherwise no one would take note of, no one would consider worthwhile of attention, become the grand and theatrical finale, the turning point, in a painting by Chiara Albertoni. These small things would otherwise slip out of our hands, but the artist wants us to wait for them and understand the final and complete significance of the show. Her paintings explain, once again, how and how often we can take a careful look at the world that awaits us just around the corner.

A little bit about the artist


Chiara Albertoni, above, was born in Padova, in 1979.

After achieving a certificate in Applied Arts at Modigliani Art School PADOVA,in 2004 she obtained the diploma in the Painting Section, at the Schoolof Fine Arts VENICE. She lives and works in Montegaldella - VICENZA.

View her website here.


24k Gold & Diamond Macbook Now Available


24kt gold 15 macbook pro



This is for real.
And for $8999. USD. (Gold version without diamonds sells for $5999.)

If you're a fan of gold plated stuff, better click here-more info about gold macs, etc!

specs:
What's in the box
* MacBook Pro
* 85W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord
* Lithium-polymer battery
* Apple Remote
* DVI to VGA adapter
* Install/restore DVDs
* Printed and electronic documentation

Configuration options-
* Memory up to 4GB
* Hard drive up to 250GB
* Antiglare or glossy display
* Display resolution up to 1920 by 1200 pixels
* Apple USB Modem
* MagSafe Airline Adapter
* More options
* Included Software
* Operating System

Applications
* iLife '08 suite for creating photo projects, making movies, designing DVDs, building websites, and composing music
* Front Row
* Photo Booth
* iWork '08 30-day trial
* Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 30-day Test Drive
* Aperture Trial

Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger- The world's most advanced operating system including the latest versions of these system applications:
* Address Book
* DVD Player
* iCal
* iChat AV
* Mail
* Preview
* Safari
* Xcode

Buy It Here.

And for the insane person who may actually purchase this, you must get a usb flash drive worthy.


Above: The White Lake gold and diamond USB stick is a 14k or 18k gold storage device, available with or without diamonds, designed by Dutch goldsmith Erwin de Vroome.
Inquire about it here.



Check out the real diamond flash drives from MiiSTOR here.


NYC Taxi Logo Redesign Submissions



As I reported before, everyone seems to be very disappointed in the New York Taxi Logo redesign, so the NY Times (and I) offered others a whack at their own re-design.
Well, either my readers are shy, or they really are hacks. No one sent me their attempt at a redesigned NYC taxi logo, but they did to the NY Times (Gee, I wonder why? You think they have more credibility and readership?).

Nevertheless, if you don't get around to reading the NY Times online, here are some of the submissions. Any of which are far superior, in my opinion, to the 'bungled' collaboration created by Wolff Olins and Smart Design.

What I found interesting is how many of the new designs came from readers outside the US (Germany, New Zealand and more). Just goes to show you you don't need to be a New Yawker, to "get" New York.


From Scott Schwebel:



From Alex Lloyd:


From Frank Schnaas:


From James Jardee:


From Karman Mir:


From Qui HU (age 13):


From Richard R.:


From Scott Lahod:


Way to go guys! Nice work.

See the original post on the design debacle here.


Apple. Experiencing a Power Surge.



Since Steve Jobs returned for a second stint at Apple 10 years ago, the company has come up with consumer hits such as the iPhone (above) and the iPod. However, there were a few duds too. Remember the Cube? and how about Apple tv?

Regardless, the stock has increased over the past year (see below).


Mr. Jobs, who returned for a second stint as chief executive in 1997 after being away for a dozen years, may announce that annual sales surpassed $20 billion for the first time in the company's 31-year history when he reports results for the year and fourth quarter on Oct. 22.

And if Steve Jobs instincts are correct, I say get out there and buy some Apple stock, if you weren't savvy enough to do so already.

Below is an article reprinted from today NY Times:
By JOHN MARKOFF
Publishedin the NY Times: October 22, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 21 — It may have dropped the word “computer” from its name, but Apple is certainly selling plenty of Macs.

Driven in part by what analysts call a halo effect from the iPod and the iPhone, the market share of the company’s personal computers is surging.

Two research firms that track the computer market said last week that Apple would move into third place in the United States behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell on Monday, when it reports product shipments in the fiscal fourth quarter as part of its earnings announcement.

“The Macintosh has a lot of momentum now,” said Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in a telephone interview last week. “It is outpacing the industry.”

On Friday, Apple will start selling the new Leopard version of its OS X operating system, which has a range of features that in some cases match those in Windows Vista and in others surpass them.

Mr. Jobs said that Leopard would anchor a schedule of product upgrades that could continue for as long as a decade.

Above: The apple site has a live count-down until the release of the anxiously-awaited Leopard Operating System

“I’m quite pleased with the pace of new operating systems every 12 to 18 months for the foreseeable future,” he said. “We’ve put out major releases on the average of one a year, and it’s given us the ability to polish and polish and improve and improve.”

That pace suggests that Apple will continue to move more quickly than Microsoft, which took almost seven years between the release of its Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.


Above: Vista, Microsoft's more visual interface and operating system that debuted last year.

Vista has had mixed reviews, and corporate sales have been slow so far. Mr. Jobs declined to comment on Microsoft’s troubles with Vista, beyond noting that he thought Leopard was a better value. While there are multiple editions of Vista with different features at different prices, the top being the Ultimate edition, Apple has set a single price of $129 for Leopard.

With Leopard, Mr. Jobs joked, “everybody gets the Ultimate edition and it sells for 129 bucks, and if you go on Amazon and look at the Ultimate edition of Vista, it sells for 250 bucks.”

Microsoft has said that it will release an update, or service pack, for Vista in the first quarter of 2008. But it has also said that it intends to offer a service pack for Windows XP in the first half of the year. That, analysts said, could further delay adoption of Vista as computer users wait to see how XP will be improved.

Microsoft has also hinted that its next operating system, code-named Windows 7, would not arrive until 2010. At Apple’s current pace, it will have introduced two new versions of its operating system by then.

Apple has not been flawless in its execution. Early this year, it delayed the introduction of Leopard for four months. Mr. Jobs attributed this at the time to the company’s need to move programming development resources to an iPhone version of the OS X operating system.

Several analysts said they thought that Leopard would have only an indirect effect on Macintosh sales.

As for Vista, it has clearly not pushed up demand for new PCs as much as computer makers hoped. Last week, the research firm Gartner said PC shipments in the United States grew only 4.7 percent in the third quarter, below its projection of 6.7 percent.

That contrasted sharply with Apple’s projected results for the quarter. Gartner forecast that Apple would grow more than 37 percent based on expected shipments of 1.3 million computers, for an 8.1 percent share of the domestic market.

Apple has outpaced its rivals in the United States, particularly in the shift to portable computers. While this is the first year that laptops have made up more than 50 percent of computer sales in this country, Mr. Jobs said that two-thirds of Apple machines sold in the United States are now laptops.

Apple has also outperformed rivals in terms of market share by revenue, because its machines are generally more expensive.

According to Charles Wolf, who tracks the personal computer market in his industry newsletter Wolf Bytes, Apple’s share of home PC revenue in the United States has jumped in the last four quarters. In the second quarter, for example, the Macintosh captured a 15.8 percent share, almost double its share of the number of units sold.

He added that Apple had a significant opportunity now in terms of visitors to its stores. Apple is now reporting 100 million annual visitors, and Mr. Wolf estimated that 60 million to 70 million of them were Windows users drawn by the iPod or the iPhone, who could potentially shift to Macs.


Above: A typical in-mall apple store

Although Apple may be able to grow briskly by taking Windows customers from Microsoft, the two companies face a similar problem: the industry is maturing and there have been no obvious radical innovations to jump-start growth.

Indeed, many of the new features in the Leopard operating system version are incremental improvements. But Mr. Jobs said he was struck by the success of the multitouch interface that is at the heart of the iPhone version of the OS X. This allows a user to touch the screen at more than one point to zoom in on a portion of a photo, for example.

“People don’t understand that we’ve invented a new class of interface,” he said.

He contrasted it with stylus interfaces, like the approach Microsoft took with its tablet computer. That interface is not so different from what most computers have been using since the mid-1980s.

In contrast, Mr. Jobs said that multitouch drastically simplified the process of controlling a computer.

Above: Apple's iphone

There are no “verbs” in the iPhone interface, he said, alluding to the way a standard mouse or stylus system works. In those systems, users select an object, like a photo, and then separately select an action, or “verb,” to do something to it.

The Apple development team worried constantly that the approach might fail during the years they were creating the iPhone, he said.

“We all had that Garry Trudeau cartoon that poked fun at the Newton in the back of our minds,” he said, citing Doonesbury comic strips that mocked an Apple handwriting-recognition system in 1993. “This thing had to work.”

Twisted Toile: Witty Wallpaper & Home Accessories With A Modern Toile.




Wallpaper has made a huge comeback as an interior decorating option in the past 2 years (not to mention wall decals, vinyls and stickers...but that's another article).

In addition to bringing back foil stamped retro-patterned papers, textured seagrass walls, contemporary florals and graphic repeating patterns, several designers have taken a humorous stab at Toile, the classic french wallpaper design. As a result, there's a fabulous collection of tongue in cheek, slightly macabre, satirically suburban and just plain goofy options to choose from.

Jessica Smith, a textile artist and designer in Philadelphia, has taken the Toile de Jouy form and made it modern, witty and political. Her hand-printed toile wallpapers offer lighthearted social commentary.

Specializing in the design of textiles, wallpaper, and china, Jessica Smith uses elements of domestic design to explore contradictions. Although her products seem innocuous enough at first glance, upon further study, they often contain highly ironic commentaries on contemporary life, remixed within well-known historic textile patterns.



Above: French Toile de Jouy in three different color examples.

“Eighteenth-century French toile depicted pastoral scenes with classical ruins, ladies in frilly dresses on swings,” Ms.Smith said. “I wanted to make my own pastoral countryside, and the countryside of American is the suburbs.”


Trash Day, (above), is a homage to the day when suburbanites put the trash on the street for collection. Also available in several color variations.


Spying on China, above, shows and American spy plan over a Chinese landscape, a reference to a collision between such a plane and a Chinese jet in 2001 off the coast of Hainan Island. Also available in several color variations.


Cars Go Beep 1, above, has delicately rendered Hummers on the New Jersey Turnpike. Also available in several color variations.


And Cars Go Beep 2, above, has a double vision version of its predecessor.



And above is Jessica Smith's South Beach Toile. Ms.Smith is just one artist revamping traditional wallpaper design.


Yee-Haw Toile (above) comes in subtle colors or contrasting colors.



What at first glance seems like traditional toile, but upon closer inspection is revealed to be oil wells and bucking broncos, is a fun western twist on the french pattern. Designed by Paul Loebech, this too is printed by Studio Printworks and can be purchased there.

Ms.Smiths & Paul Loebech's wallpapers are available at Studio Printworks, 650 Newark Street, Hoboken, NJ (212) 633 6727 or info@studioprintworks.com.

Another wonderful eerie and perhaps even grotesque take on Toile is by Timorous Beasties.


above: What at first looks like a damask-like toile is revealed to actually be a devil's face up close.



Above is one of my favorite all time wallpapers, Iguana and Insects, looks like formal flourishes until one looks closer (right) and sees birds, insects and iguanas.



Their London Toile looks an awful lot like the traditional Parisian toile until you see that people are being mugged and more.

And while the two below toile patterns from Timorous Beasties below (left; pineapple and right; pheasant) may not have any "twist' on them, they are nice options from traditional toile. And are available in two tone color variations and well as several single colors.



Shop Timorous beasties wallpaper here.


Timorous Beasties Twisted Toiles are also available as lace curtains:


Buy Timorous Beasties Devil and Thistle lace curtains here.


And their fabulous London Toile is also available as bone china here.



Lest you think toile is only suitable for your walls, below are four different twisted toile patterns designed By Groovy Q.



Pattern shown clockwise from upper left: Suburban Sprawl Toile, Girl Power Toile, the Classic Tom of Finland Toile and Vice Toile.

Available in pillowcases (and sheets):


Boxers:


even gift wrap:

Buy Groovy Q toile products here.

Town Toiles makes a line of products that range from aprons and tea towels to wallpaper, fabric and gifts in their own "city" patterns:




Above are just four examples: New York, Charleston, Nantucket and Boston. They also have San Francisco, Tampa, beach and Nautical patterns.

Shop Town Toiles here.

Buy them here.

And lastly, one of my favorite takes on toile is by Historically Innaccurate Decorative Arts where Richard Saja takes classically traditional toile fabric and embroiders such modern day icons as UFOs, bunny eras and Mohawks atop it:



Learn More about Richard Saja's work here, on his blog.


16" x 20", cotton/linen shell, 95/5 feather and down insert.Price: $184.00

Or buy the above Toile & Tats Anarchy Pillow here.


and don't miss Saint Honore's modern toile wall tiles, read about those here!

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