When it comes to textiles and design, The HON Company abides by a tried-and-true principle: premium partnerships create premium products. So, with a new design vision in mind for 2008, HON has entered into a joint venture with two textile-industry leaders, Maharam and Momentum, to update and expand its fabric-and-finishing offerings with fashion-forward options.
“The HON Company has had a partnership with Momentum in the past,” says Kandice Tjebkes, HON’s product business manager for surface materials, “but this year we’re thrilled to be adding Maharam to it. We liken the partnership between HON and Maharam to that of Target’s collaborations with prominent designers like Isaac Mizrahi. It’s all about bringing sophisticated, on-trend designs to the general consumer.”
At its essence, HON’s textile makeover is rooted in a fresh, light and simple design philosophy that involves revamping its entire catalog of contract furnishings. Specifically, HON will refresh 75 percent of its seating fabrics while maintaining almost half of its timeless panel fabrics and finishes. Out of this plan and HON’s premier partnerships springs forth two programs that will launch July 1 and are built on a cornerstone of all things classic yet contemporary, simple yet stylish.
The first program, Select Textiles, is comprised of an extensive collection of limited distribution, design-driven upholstery fabrics that will offer high-end products at reasonable prices. This is a carded, graded-in program that will incorporate three cards with Maharam and one new card with Momentum, creating roughly 80 to 100 SKUs for seating fabrics.
Going up a level is the wider-reaching Smart Textiles program that will also feature stylish selections from Maharam and Momentum, as well as other product lines. Unlike the Select program, distribution is not limited and end users will have more freedom to select any non-standard fabric they want from an estimated 2,500 SKUs. Several such fabrics, including Maharam’s signature repeat classic stripe pattern, are on display in HON’s Chicago showroom this year.
“Smart Textiles is a graded-in COM program,” Tjebkes says. “The idea is to offer a mix of timeless fabrics and finishes—an aesthetic mix of classic designs for traditional offices and stylish enhancements for more modern offices.”