Inspired.talk

Lee Jofa Designer Icons Holiday Book Signing

 

Next week in our New York City showroom, we’re kicking off the holiday shopping season in style with Luxe magazine. We’re hosting a book signing at Lee Jofa in New York City's D&D Building featuring some of the biggest names in interior design. Meet these iconic designers in person, listen to some of their personal accounts and share in a festive holiday toast with designers Anthony Baratta, David Easton, Eric Cohler, Suzanne Kasler, Suzanne Rheinstein and Thomas O’Brien. All will all be on hand to sign copies of his or her book, which will also be for sale. These wonderful books will make great holiday gifts, so bring along your holiday gift list! Click the link below each book title to purchase the book in advance from Amazon.com.

Anthony Baratta All American

David Easton Timeless Elegance: The Houses of David Easton

Eric Cohler Cohler on Design

Suzanne Kasler Inspired Interiors

Suzanne Rheinstein At Home: A Style for Today with Things from the Past

Thomas O’Brien American Modern

Sip cocktails and stock up on unique and personalized gifts for friends and family, and be sure to grab a few copies for yourself as well. The event will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 5 from 4 – 6 p.m. at the D&D Building in Manhattan. If you’d like to attend, please email us [email protected] or call 800.648.5728x2396 to RSVP.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Behind the Scenes at Blogfest

Last month Kravet brought together bloggers, marketing experts, design professionals and print magazine editors for the first annual Blogfest 2011 in New York City. This event gathered more than 100 design and lifestyle bloggers from across the US and Canada. All learned about it from engaging with Kravet on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which is how we announced and promoted the event. These bloggers chronicle the inner workings of the design world, from education to inspiration, through their blogs and we wanted to celebrate their influence at Blogfest.

Bloggers snapping photos during the Lee Jofa studio tour

In order to chronicle every moment of our exclusive event, I had the great pleasure of doing on-camera interviews with bloggers, designers and editors throughout Blogfest 2011. In doing so, I gained behind-the-scenes access to the industry greats who showed their support for Kravet during the event and allowed me to share their enthusiasm for the world of interior design.

 
Interviewing House Beautiful Editor-In-Chief Newell Turner, photo via Pretty Pink Tulips

I was a bit nervous at first about having interactions with my design idols captured on film, but their warmth and generosity of spirit put me at ease each time as they so effortlessly emoted a love of their craft and support of the blogging community. One thing that impressed me was that every person I spoke to radiated enthusiasm and passion, which always makes for a great interview.

Chassity Evans with Beth Greene

Abbe Fenimore and Eric Cohler

One of the attendees, Austin Handler, a Hamptons-based designer with Mabley Handler and blogger for Designing the Hamptons, expressed his excitement well: “If [Kravet] put together an event just for design bloggers, where we all got to meet in each other in person and interact, that would be worth getting on an airplane. But throw in our industry’s best magazine editors and top designers and tv personalities and this becomes an event that’ll be hard to top!”

Sarah Baynes, ELLE DECOR Editor-In-Chief Michael Boodro and Manvi Hidalgo

We've already started planning for next year and continue to relive all the fun and excitement of the event through the hundreds of blog posts we’ve seen so far. We are so impressed by the talent and unique perspective each blogger captures in his or her posts. We are inspired, humbled and, most of all, motivated to take Blogfest 2012 to the next level!

Stay tuned as we continue to recap some of the great moments from our Blogfest week and of course make the announcement about dates and details of Blogfest 2012.

-JP

Lee Jofa and Traditional Home Celebrate Heritage Launch at Blogfest 2011

 

To celebrate the launch of the Heritage collection for Lee Jofa, Traditional Home and Lee Jofa invited bloggers from the Blogfest 2011 event to preview six styled vignettes featuring the fabrics each designer chose to recolor for the collection. Designers were in attendance to answer questions and sign copies of Inspired Styles (Assouline) a beautiful book featuring many prominent Kravet and Lee Jofa designers.

The Heritage collection features classic fabrics from the Lee Jofa archive that have been reimagined and reinterpreted by the designers, who sought to update the designs for today’s market. Designers David Easton, Diamond & Baratta, Eric Cohler, Suzanne Kasler, Suzanne Rheinstein and Thomas O’Brien each brought his or her own unique aesthetic to the project, creating a beautiful juxtaposition and a tribute to the past.

 

David Easton selected Gaddesden, a screen adaptation of a Jacobean tree of life block dating from the 1920s, with the intent of adding texture to the background and softening the look for today’s market. “Gaddesden utilized the typical vine pattern current to its era that I have always liked, said Easton. “I wanted to make an older, historic pattern fresh and new and I thought this specific design leant itself to this.”

 

William Diamond and Anthony Baratta of Diamond & Baratta selected Rosebank, which originated in the 1850s during the heyday of Victorian floral design. The handblocked pattern was introduced to Lee Jofa in 1913 and remains in the line to this day as a screen print. Diamond and Baratta love classic floral English chintzes and jumped at the opportunity to recolor this classic print for today’s market.

 

Eric Cohler was inspired by the Treyes Handblock pattern, printed with 20 handblocks, which was first introduced to Lee Jofa in 1963. Inspired by an Indian tree of life design dating back to the 1920s, the original documentary version was on linen union, but Eric Cohler felt that it would be beautifully presented on glazed cotton as a true English country house chintz.

 

Suzanne Kasler chose to reimagine the Shiraz print, a popular multicolored floral inspired by an antique rug design, which was developed by Lee Jofa in 1996. “In reworking the color palette, I continued to go back to the basic pattern and how it translated into two colors,” said Kasler. By tracing the outline of the design and recoloring it with one color on white and natural linen, she transformed the pattern and gave it an entirely new look.

 

Suzanne Rheinstein chose to recolor the classic English documentary floral Clarendon, which was created in the 19^th century when the Victorians delighted in bringing the outdoors in. “One of the things I love in my design work is the chance to use things from the past in ways that are suited for the way we live now,” she said. Rheinstein updated the classic design on linen.

 

Thomas O’Brien chose to work with a favorite handblock, called Nympheus, which dates back to 1915. He added signature elements of deep indigo to the coloration of the classic design. Says O’Brien of his preference for featuring the reverse side of the print, “The rich bleed-through is more abstract on the reverse side, and the pattern is softer. It takes on the feeling of a watercolor.”

These updated and transformed fabrics are now available in Lee Jofa showrooms throughout the country. Thank you to Traditional Home for giving our blogging friends the opportunity to many of their design idols!

Blogfest 2011 Initial Recap - More to Come!

This week we hosted more than 100 interior design bloggers in New York City for the first annual Blogfest 2011. Joining us from 29 states and 5 Canadian provinces, these bloggers brought with them a level of enthusiasm and excitement that made this event an experience for all to remember. Kravet organized the three day event, coordinating travel between venues and getting top licensed designers to host events that showcase our products.

We’d love to share with you some of the highlights of the event. We do plan to host a similar event next year, so stay connected with Kravet on our social media sites to get information for next year’s Blogfest 2012. In the meantime, here are some of the highlights of Blogfest 2011:

From left: Mark Rozzo, Town&Country; Newell Turner, House Beautiful; Dara Caponigro, Veranda; Beth Greene, Kravet

Panel discussion and magazine presentations at Hearst:

House Beautiful, Veranda and Town&Country introduced bloggers to their editors and gave everyone an inside look into their magazines during an afternoon at Hearst Tower.

 

 

ELLE DECOR Modern Life Concept House:

ELLE DECOR opened it’s first-ever show house a day early to host bloggers for a cocktail party and give them the first look into the Modern Life Concept House in West Chelsea.

 

 

Lilly Pulitzer Debut at Lee Jofa:

Bloggers attended a luncheon at Lee Jofa at the NYC showroom where they previewed the Lilly Pulitzer collection and saw the designer room decorated by our merchandising team in all Lilly.

 

 

Barbara Barry presented Indochine at Kravet:

Barbara Barry presented the inspiration for her latest collection for Kravet, called Indochine, and hosted a tea at the Kravet NYC showroom where bloggers got to speak with her one-on-one and snap photos.

 

From left: Ann Maine, Traditional Home; Thomas O'Brien; Suzanne Kasler

Traditional Home and Lee Jofa host Heritage Collection party:

To launch the Heritage collection for Lee Jofa, Traditional Home threw a party for bloggers where they mixed and mingled with Thomas O’Brien, Eric Cohler, Diamond & Baratta, Suzanne Kasler, Suzanne Rheinstein and David Easton. The party featured styled vignettes by each designer where their featured fabric was used.

 

 

Sub Zero and Wolf Wine Down Art Live after-party:

Kitchen brands Sub Zero and Wolf hosted our bloggers at an event in their NYC showroom that featured wine experts and chefs doing tastings and cooking demonstrations for bloggers.

Arch Digest editor-in-chief Margaret Russell hosts bloggers at Conde Nast building:

Following an intimate breakfast at Conde Nast, Architectural Digest EIC Margaret Russell presented her thoughts on blogging, design, and the future of AD to our Blogfest bloggers.

 

 

Studio Tours of Kravet, Lee Jofa and Brunschwig & Fils:

Bloggers took guided tours of our NYC studio space where we do merchandising and product development for all three brands.

 

 
Thom Filicia with Kravet's Beth Greene

Tours of the New York Design Center and Sweet Endings party:

New York Design Center offered guided tours of the building, followed by a cocktail party featuring Kravet license designer Thom Filicia during which we said goodbye to bloggers and concluded our event.

For more on Blogfest, visit www.blogfest2011.com, www.facebook.com/blogfest2011, http://kravet.typepad.com and www.facebook.com/kravetinc.

Kravet Hosts Inaugural Blogfest 2011 in New York City

   

NEW YORK, NY - May 9, 2011 - On May 16, 2011, more than 100 top design bloggers from the United States and Canada will descend on New York City for a three day design and media event created by Kravet Inc. This inaugural conference, Blogfest 2011, brings together industry elite as well as editors from the industry’s biggest design magazines at venues considered New York design institutions.

While conferences and events celebrating blogging culture are not new, Blogfest 2011 bills itself as more experience-based rather than educational. By bringing together seven of the top shelter magazines: Architectural Digest, ELLE DECOR, House Beautiful, New York Spaces, Town&Country, Traditional Home and Veranda, Blogfest will offer attendees unprecedented access to the editors of each magazine.

"Our industry has changed through the years, so has the way we approach marketing and branding," said Beth Greene, VP of Marketing for Kravet Inc. "We are inspired by the ever-changing and dynamic digital landscape and look forward to bringing together the brightest and most creative bloggers for what we hope will become an annual event."

In addition to editors, Blogfest bloggers will rub elbows with design icons such as Barbara Barry, Eric Cohler, William Diamond and Anthony Baratta, David Easton, Suzanne Kasler, Thomas O’Brien and Suzanne Rheinstein, all of whom are hosting special events throughout the three day event.

Kravet Inc. has organized Blogfest from its inception as part of a continued commitment to stay at the forefront of the digital movement in the interior design industry. The Kravet brand has developed several technology-based tools to improve the way customers find and purchase products, and has added a social media element to its marketing strategy to increase brand awareness and communicate with customers and industry influencers. Through Blogfest, Kravet hopes to bridge the gap between the individual design blogger and the magazines, brands, designers and the events that inspire them daily.

The full agenda for Blogfest is available at www.blogfest2011.com. This unique event is sold out. For press-related questions regarding Blogfest 2011 contact Ann Feldstein, Sr. Director of Marketing at 516.293.2000 ext. 2726 or [email protected].