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Editorial
A New Model of Partenership Comes to the Window
Coverings Industry
Celebrity endorsements
have been around—probably—as long as there have been products
to sell. Linking a product or company to a famous name, likeness
or personality automatically imparts a certain cachet to the product
and a desire to be like the celebrity among its intended buyers.
That translates into sales as long as the celebrity identifies with
buyers and stays out of trouble. In the home and lifestyle world,
no one was as big as Martha Stewart—until she ran into legal
problems involving stock trades.
In the window coverings industry there have been dealers who have
successfully used traditional celebrity endorsements for several
years (see this month’s cover story on page 20). This idea,
however, has evolved more recently among suppliers into what might
better be called “celebrity partnerships.” Take Kirsch,
which introduced its Raymond Waites collection several years ago
and its Clodagh collection a little more than a year ago. Both are
well known designers who bring their own styles, colors and inspirations
to the lines they create—an automatic draw for any designer,
and her customer, wanting to key in to that high-style world.
Taking this idea a step further is Alta Window Solution Specialists,
which this month announced its partnership with Kathy Ireland Worldwide.
Ireland is best known as the supermodel that she is. But over the
past nine years, she has created and is chief designer of her own
Los Angeles, CA, home design firm creating lines of furniture, area
rugs, flooring, lighting, wall art, decorative accessories, bedding
and now window treatments. Kathy Ireland Home by Alta will be the
exclusive window treatment manufacturer for products using Ireland’s
design philosophy, trend direction and coordinated color palettes.
It brings its considerable, 30-plus years of experience to the deal.
It is the next step in partnerships. It is a multidimensional, coordinated
group of products aimed at the strongest consumer market (“families,
especially busy moms”) and headed by a highly acclaimed, successful
and readily recognizable woman. And that is why a supermodel is
featured on this month’s cover.
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