As the premier association of the home fashion products industry, the Home Fashion Products Association has been fulfilling its mission to advance the growth of the global home fashion products industry by setting standards for excellence through technical product compliance, advocacy and awareness efforts since 1968. As the textiles and home fashions industry has changed, the HFPA has transitioned to meet its objectives, continually looking for new ways to best serve its members and the home fashions industry.
And so the HFPA continues to evolve. The organization is continually expanding its reach, as evidenced by the addition of the American Down and Feather Council in 2001. Since joining HFPA, ADFC has grown into a leading voice of the down and feather industry, developing a successful labeling compliance program geared toward self-monitoring the strict labeling requirements for U.S. down and feather bedding products. Working with industry experts and government agencies, raising consumer awareness and building an understanding of labeling standards required in the U.S., the program has helped to remove more than 1 million non-compliant products from sale in the last two years.
Building on the success of the ADFC-labeling compliance program, in 2007 HFPA became a standards writing organization. Setting standards and industry guidelines is an important way of providing authoritative information, to both consumers and trade, on historically difficult issues such as thread count, finished product dimensions and product country of origin. As our industry has transitioned into global manufacturing, uniformity and standardization of home fashion products have become as important to the consumer as customization has become in the technology industry.
HFPA continues to provide well-established membership advantages, such as monitoring and communicating key state and federal legislative issues, taking action on behalf of the industry when necessary. HFPA also continues to provide access to the HFPA Legal Services Program, designed to provide cost-effective legal advice and services to members, and to communicate current regulations governing U.S. trade policies. Additionally, HFPA continues to work with its members and their retailers to establish uniform Market Week dates twice per year. The next HFPA Market Week will be held Feb. 11 to 15.
To find out more about these and other discussions, events and education seminars, please come to the HFPA Annual Meeting being held on Nov. 28 at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. You can sign up to attend in advance by contacting HFPA program coordinator Tina Cadet directly at tcadet@kellencompany.com [1]. We look forward to welcoming you and to sharing an incredible 2008 planned for HFPA.
Deborah Collins, executive director of HFPA, can be reached at dcollins@kellencompany.com [2]