NEW YORK–The launch of the Rebecca Moses line of home fashions has extended the reach of Li & Fung’s Homestead unit throughout all of the rooms of the home.
The line, which was introduced during the recent home textiles market, includes bedding, bathroom textiles, soft accents such as decorative pillows and throws, storage items and tabletop products. Li & Fung, the importer, is the parent company of Homestead, which is marketing the line and is headed by David Greenstein, who founded Homestead in the 1990s and now serves as the unit’s chief executive officer.
In an interview with HFN, Greenstein said the designer line is an example of what Homestead can achieve through the sourcing power of Li & Fung, which acquired the company toward the end of 2006. “The idea is for the retailer to come to us and say we want a total turnkey solution from you,” Greenstein said. “Design it, develop it and source it across the whole gamut of product.”
The Rebecca Moses collection encompasses more than 1,000 SKUs, Greenstein said. Based here, Moses is a designer who has had a high-end apparel line, and who has been shifting her attention to home products over the past couple of years. Her designs are characterized by the use of vibrant colors and neutrals to create the possibility of mixing and matching in women’s wardrobes.
Homestead is “very proud of this launch,” Greenstein said. “There are two purposes behind this line. First, we want to show the Rebecca Moses aesthetic because she is an incredibly talented designer. Second, we want to show American retailers what can be done when an importer like Li & Fung goes across the whole home.”
For the home line, Moses is using highly embellished fabrications featuring accents, embroideries, silks, textures, linen and combinations of jacquards. The colorations on the initial launch feature fall shades of orange, gray and green.
The target date for the appearance at retail of the Rebecca Moses program is spring 2009. “We don’t have any specific targets among channels of distribution,” Greenstein said. “But we are looking for a cornerstone retailer for the line, which could be in any channel. We also don’t have any fixed ideas about pricing.
“The line is so huge, we need to find a retailer-partner to go in with the assortment, and then price it,” Greenstein said. — David Gill