More with less

May 21, 2008

Designers are a lot of things – intelligent, creative, thoughtful, and passionate – just to name a few. One trait that manages to turn the rustic, cobblestone streets of SoHo into a runway of modernity is their understanding that simple can be stunning. During the four-day-long International Contemporary Furniture Fair, showroom-lined Greene Street is filled with spectators there to see just that.

One great example is Matthew Hilton’s solid wood Light Table featured at De La Espada. Offering Amstel Light and a full demonstration, the crowd grew at their post-fair party while the good people at De La Espada showed eager guests just how long the table with only two legs perched at either end can become with its leaf inserted. Sleek and simple, its complex balancing act gives it a look of the future without overshadowing the raw beauty of the grain.

The ICFF itself is a bazaar of big names and emerging talent. We walked the Javits Center’s 145,000 square feet in search of inspiration and designers we felt could bring something new to the Teroforma table. While we’re still regaining our voices and resting our feet, we’re excited about the people we spoke with and are looking forward to new possibilities. With over 38 countries represented don’t be surprised if we end up adding places like Botswana or Japan to our already diverse map.

This is all wrong

May 09, 2008

Let me preface this rather long post by reassuring you of a few things: I believe in competition; I believe that generally fast and smart should get rewarded and that slow and dumb should not; I believe mostly in sinking or swimming; I believe in the marketplace and in the power of the individual to determine the fate of ideas when presented on a fair field of play.

But, even with all of that in mind, with the recent announcement that Nau - the world-friendly activewear brand - is closing its doors, it seems appropriate to share some thoughts on why sometimes market forces are wrong and why every once in a while, we must act to preserve strong ideas which are, temporarily, at risk of being overtaken by stronger forces.

Nau is a brand that started out of Portland, Oregon and really first rose to national attention at the end of last summer. They are a bunch of ex- Nike and Patagonia guys who were acting on the vision of a guy from Colorado who had an idea that businesses should set social considerations equal to those of shareholders and returns on investment. Going beyond the token 1% contribution of revenue to social causes (nothing against Patagonia and their saintly work with 1% for the Planet), Nau dedicated 5% of every sale to charities that their customers could select - almost $250K in their short life span. They used verifiably eco-friendly materials for all their designs and made the sourcing open to the rest of the industry (it’s usually a huge trade secret). They developed a new way of thinking about shops, where customers who decided to order from the shop for home delivery - thereby reducing emissions related to inventory jockeying - got a 10% discount (thanks BWJ!).

Say what you want about the design style, take a less active stance on what businesses must do to “do their share,” even shout at them for fiddling a bit with the way that people shop for apparel…

But when, on the same day, the newspaper tells us that the price of oil is going to reach $200/bl AND Exxon Mobil posts the second largest Q2 profit in its history AND a company that set out to do the right thing in a way that improves life and living for us all is folding because it can’t get some funding to keep the lights on through a recessionary period - IT MEANS THERE IS SOMETHING REALLY, REALLY WRONG!!!

So here’s an idea for the guys at Nau:

Set up a website called www.savenau.com - I just reserved it and you can have it for free.

Post a letter on the site indicating what it will take financially to keep things going for another 12 months - about 90 days after the election…

Offer a single special share in the company to customers, suppliers, vendors and utility providers who work with you - they contribute what they can.

They get to own a % in that share equal to their contribution so long as the sum gets you near the money you need.

Perhaps your investors will make up the rest knowing that so many people are behind you.

Good luck!

FYI - for a full obit, or for a reason to help them take up the challenge of surviving, check out this piece at Treehugger

At Home with Blomma

May 03, 2008

About a year ago, our good friends Nick and Jeanette decided to sell their home in Wilton, move to a house near the beach in Norwalk, CT and open a small shop that they could bike to every day.

Their store - Blomma Home & Garden - is proof that a beautiful life is always a simple life. Their carefully selected range of design objects for the home come from all over the world and center on subtle styling and high-quality craftsmanship. Things you want to use every day precisely because they help to create little moments of perfect luxury. So you can imagine our delight when, over a glass of wine late one afternoon a few weeks ago, Nick and Jeanette asked if we would be interested in adding some of Teroforma’s range to their wonderful collection. We jumped at the chance to work together with them!

So, into the late hours of last night (and into the small hours of this morning), Anna and I helped Nick and Jeanette remove, dust, replace and rearrange the store to make way for Teroforma. A bottle (or three) of champagne were popped to help smooth the process along. The highlight was when a guy from the restaurant across the way, who could see us working hard as his last customers were heading home, took pity on us and had 4 glasses of wine delivered by the waitress with the words “people achieve great things in small numbers.”

We’re delighted to add another great store to our growing list of friends around the country. Even moreso that they are friends who believe in the same things we do. And as for the guy across the street, we agree, but suspect that when it comes to living a life of simple luxuries, the number of people ready to join us isn’t that small.