Why you bought your couch

Summary

Planet Money: Why You Bought Your Couch – Episode Summary

Release Date: November 27, 2024
Host: Amanda Aronczyk and Erika Barris
Guest: Caroline Hippel, Chief Creative Officer at Hooker Furnishings
Setting: High Point Market, High Point, North Carolina

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1. Introduction to High Point Market

The episode kicks off with hosts Amanda Aronczyk and Erika Barris attending an awards gala in High Point, North Carolina, a pivotal event in the furniture industry. High Point Market is portrayed as the "Disney World for furniture," where trends are born and future buying decisions are made.

Key Highlights:

• Awards Gala: Celebrating outstanding achievements in furniture design, including the Pinnacle Award for best leather upholstery.
• Industry Significance: High Point serves as a trendsetting hub, influencing what consumers will purchase in the coming years.

Notable Quote:

“We are in downtown High Point, so a little background. North Carolina and this region have been making furniture for over a hundred years.”
– Amanda Aronczyk [07:45]

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2. The Role of Trend Forecasting

Amanda and Erika delve into the mechanics of how furniture trends are predicted and established. They introduce J. Anna Mize from Fashion Snoops, a trend forecasting expert who plays a crucial role in advising furniture companies on upcoming styles and preferences.

Key Highlights:

• Trend Forecasters: Professionals like J. Anna Mize analyze consumer behavior, retail data, social media trends, and cultural shifts to anticipate future trends.
• Collaboration with Designers: Trend forecasters work closely with designers, such as Caroline Hippel, to align product development with predicted consumer preferences.

Notable Quote:

“They hire trend forecasters like Jay. And they ask, what do you think is the next big thing?”
– Erika Barris [12:05]

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3. Making the Predictions: Huckleberry and Granny Millennial

Caroline Hippel discusses the specific trends her company, Hooker Furnishings, is betting on for the upcoming season. The primary trends include:

• Huckleberry: A rich, dramatic color predicted to resonate with consumers seeking grounding tones during uncertain times.
• Granny Millennial: A sub-segment of millennials gravitating towards neo-traditional styles that blend nostalgia with modern aesthetics.
• Botanical Whimsy: Patterns featuring botanicals and insects, adding a touch of surprise and delight to furniture pieces.

Key Highlights:

• Huckleberry Color: Envisioned to provide a sense of comfort and stability, reflecting broader economic and social sentiments.
• Granny Millennial Collection: Aimed at Millennials interested in antiques-inspired designs with a modern twist.
• Whimsical Patterns: Introducing playful elements like butterfly prints to create engaging and uplifting environments.

Notable Quotes:

“This is the color this season.”
– Caroline Hippel [13:19]

“They want items that evoke a feeling of the past, but make it modern.”
– Caroline Hippel [17:01]

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4. Implementation and Showroom Setup

The hosts tour Hooker Furnishings' expansive showroom, showcasing how predictions are translated into tangible products. The showroom is meticulously organized into vignettes that represent different styles and collections, such as "West" representing midtown Manhattan Glam and natural earthy tones inspired by lakeside homes.

Key Highlights:

• Showroom Design: Each vignette is designed to exhibit how different pieces can coexist harmoniously, reflecting the latest trends.
• Production Process: From selecting fabrics in predicted colors to upholstering furniture, the process from trend prediction to showroom display spans approximately a year.

Notable Quote:

“It takes about a year.”
– Caroline Hippel [15:27]

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5. The Cloud Couch Phenomenon

A case study on Restoration Hardware's "Cloud Couch" illustrates the profound impact a single piece of furniture can have on the industry. Designed to embody ultimate comfort and visual appeal, the Cloud Couch became a massive hit despite widespread criticism regarding its practicality.

Key Highlights:

• Design Concept: The Cloud Couch was intended to be the ultimate sofa—plush, billowy, and visually striking.
• Cultural Impact: Symbolized a shift from formal to relaxed living spaces, mirroring broader cultural changes towards comfort and informality, especially during the pandemic.
• Practical Success: Despite customer complaints about maintenance, the Cloud Couch thrived due to Restoration Hardware's inventory strategy and quick availability during supply chain disruptions.

Notable Quotes:

“It is the ultimate sofa.”
– Timothy Olden [19:33]

“The cloud couch blew up because of convenience.”
– NPR Voice [20:53]

“Caroline describes it as the couch that ate the world.”
– Amanda Aronczyk [20:09]

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6. Results of the Bets

Post High Point Market, Caroline Hippel evaluates the success of their predictions:

• Granny Millennial Collection: Received a positive market response, with sufficient orders prompting immediate production.
• Huckleberry Color: While terracotta outperformed initial expectations, Huckleberry remains a strong contender for future trends.
• Botanical Whimsy: Patterns featuring butterflies and other botanicals were well-received, particularly in pillows and chairs.

Key Highlights:

• Adaptive Strategies: Hooker Furnishings remains flexible, ready to adjust future collections based on real-time feedback and sales data.
• Continued Research: Ongoing analysis and post-mortem evaluations ensure that trends are accurately captured and products are aligned with consumer desires.

Notable Quote:

“We do all of our research, but until you see the whites of the orders' eyes, you're not ever sure.”
– Caroline Hippel [26:07]

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7. Future of Furniture Trends

The episode concludes with a look ahead, emphasizing the importance of staying ahead in the competitive furniture market. Hooker Furnishings plans to continue leveraging trend forecasting to innovate and meet evolving consumer needs, aiming to introduce the next "cloud couch" without previous drawbacks.

Key Highlights:

• Innovation and Leadership: Striving to lead rather than follow trends to maintain a competitive edge.
• Sustainable Practices: While not explicitly discussed, the underlying theme suggests an awareness of economic and environmental factors influencing consumer choices.

Notable Quote:

“Flattery is a compliment and we do it better.”
– Caroline Hippel [23:50]

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Conclusion

"Why You Bought Your Couch" offers an insightful exploration into the intricate processes behind furniture design and consumer purchasing decisions. By unraveling the interplay between trend forecasting, design implementation, and market reception, Planet Money provides listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the economic forces shaping everyday choices—even something as seemingly personal as buying a couch.

Key Takeaways:

• Influence of Trend Forecasting: Critical in determining what furniture becomes popular and available in the market.
• Consumer Behavior: Heavily influenced by broader economic, cultural, and social trends.
• Industry Dynamics: The furniture market is highly competitive, with companies striving to innovate and stay ahead of trends to capture consumer interest.

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the "Why You Bought Your Couch" episode of Planet Money. For a deeper dive, listening to the full episode is recommended.

Transcript

[ADP]

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[Amanda Aronczyk]

Hey, it's Amanda Aronczyk. Real quick, before the show, we want to talk about the idea of return on investment on, well, this show. What do you get from Planet Money? Well, you get two episodes every week that hopefully reveals something you find really interesting about the economy. It's a twofer, honestly entertaining story that also helps you make smarter decisions. That is the return. But what is your investment time? Yeah, sure. But other than that, Planet Money is free. That is because we work for npr and NPR is public media. So public media, it's kind of like a public sidewalk or a public park. It's free and made for everyone no matter where you live or what community you belong to. And yeah, we're getting to the part where we ask you to donate to help us keep giving you this free thing. But also, if you don't give, NPR will still be free because it's a public good to help people everywhere understand the news, the economy and what is happening in the world. That is what you are really investing in when you support npr, a public good. And now is an especially good time to give because Giving Tuesday is almost here. To sign up, go to plus.NPR.org support NPR. Get sponsor free versions of all our big shows, including this one and bonus episodes. P.S. if you are hearing this and you are already a plus listener, you are the best. Thank you again. Sign [e-mail].

[NPR]

This is Planet Money from NPR.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a woman named Kristen Hawkins at an awards gala in High Point, North Carolina. Like, is this a big night?

[NPR]

So tonight we are celebrating.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Celebrating because Kristen works at a company that is up for one of the evening's awards. All right. Well, I'm nervous for you.

[NPR]

I know my fingers are crossed.

[Erika Barris]

We're excited.

[Caroline Hippel]

But you know what, it's an honor to be nominated.

[NPR]

I know that's like cliche to say, but it is, you know, the Pinnacle Award. So we're excited to be here.

[Erika Barris]

There are a couple hundred people here all dressed up like bites are being served. There's cocktails.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

The awards start and I make my way to the front, manage to grab a seat. There are introductions and then a series of presenters take the stage.

[Erika Barris]

Corey, we need to speak loudly so people can hear. Finally, the real stars of the evening start to appear on a screen behind the presenters.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

When you and I were chosen for this category, we were so excited because we really enjoy sitting and that's what we're giving the award. And it looks like you share the same enthusiasm.

[Erika Barris]

You heard right. The presenters really enjoy sitting. This is the Oscars of furniture. An entire evening of the latest standout furniture and home furnishings categories like home office and outdoor. This award category is for the best leather upholstery.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

The lucky nominees are a wood and leather armchair, a kind of boxy looking leather chair, and a swivel chair in nubuck cognac, which I think is a leather and a color and a drink for that matter.

[Timothy Olden]

And the winner is wide leather chair.

[Caroline Hippel]

Designed by Bernhardt upholstery design team for Bernhardt furniture.

[Erika Barris]

The winner is the wood and leather armchair. The judges are design experts and they declared this chair a winner because it's quote, strongly modern with a nod to traditional elements. A standout piece in any setting.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Excellent job. Bowie leather chair. Other big winners tonight, a 77 inch pendant light, a stylish recliner, and in the entertainment furniture category, a black and tan credenza took the prize. These are some of the finest high end pieces of furniture from this past year.

[ADP]

That brings us to the end of.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

This year's Pinnacle awards presentation.

[Erika Barris]

And while these are all very stylish items, this evening isn't just about celebrating this year's winners. It's also about the future of furniture. Because we're at High Point market, the trendsetting event for furniture. The people who come here decide what furniture makers will make over the next few years and what consumers will want to buy.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Thank you for coming out. This is where trends in furniture are born. Hello and welcome, Planet Money. I'm Amanda Aronczyk.

[Erika Barris]

And I'm Erika Barris. You probably own a chair or a table or a sofa and you probably think you know why you bought it because it was comfy or blue or the right price. But what if the style, the color, the cost, maybe even whether you would like it were choices made for you years before you even thought about buying that piece of furniture?

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Today on the show, the city that makes or breaks the furniture world, we travel to high point, North Carolina and meet the people who make the bets on whether or not you'll want that comfy blue couch.

[Capital One]

This message comes from Capital one Banking. With Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet. With no fees or minimums on checking accounts. What's in your wallet terms apply. See capital1.combank for details Capital1NA member FDIC support for the following message comes from LinkedIn ADS As a B2B marketer, you know how noisy the digital ad space can be. If your message isn't targeted to the right audience, it just disappears into the noise. By using LinkedIn ads, you can reach professionals who are more likely to find your ad relevant. Target them by job title, industry, company and more. Get a $100 credit on your next campaign at LinkedIn.com results. Terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Dell Technologies. During Dell Technologies Black Friday event, save on select PCs like the XPS 16 that accelerate AI with Intel Core Ultra processors. Shop Dell.com deals.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

There is this scene from the movie the Devil Wears Prada. Maybe you remember it. Meryl Streep is playing the role of a fashion icon and trendsetter, and she is berating Anne Hathaway, who is dismissive of the fashion industry, dismissive of what she sees as a small difference in style. Meryl Streep looks at her and her cerulean blue sweater and she's basically like, you don't get it.

[NPR]

That blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room.

[Erika Barris]

This room, where the furniture industry makes the decisions that ripple out into showrooms and catalogs and eventually into our homes, is actually more of a small city. We are in downtown High Point, so a little background.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

North Carolina and this region have been making furniture for over a hundred years. But when a lot of furniture manufacturing left for Asia, Highpoint decided to focus on what was left the marketing, branding, styling, staging, the fashion of furniture. And today There are about 13 city blocks filled with properties, many of which have been converted into showrooms. This is what makes up High Point market.

[NPR]

This is like Disney World for furniture.

[Erika Barris]

Our guide at High Point is J. Anna Mize.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Now, Jay is not exactly the Meryl Streep of the industry. She says those are some pretty big Louboutins to fill. But she's not not Meryl Streep. She's a VP at a company called Fashion Snoops that specializes in trend forecasting, and she's been in the furniture industry for years and seems to know everyone here. Are you having fun?

[NPR]

Always?

[Capital One]

Yeah, of course.

[NPR]

No, I mean, you get to come and look at design and be with all of your friends.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

There's a lot of like 9am Mimosas.

[NPR]

Oh, yeah. This is a hospitality industry and you're in the south, so everybody wants to feed you, water you. I guess people buy more that way.

[Erika Barris]

We're in a massive glass and metal building. Picture a new mall with each store filled with lighting or bedding or textiles or furniture. We head up to the third floor.

[NPR]

We are on our way to Hooker Furniture. It is a hundred year old company and probably one of the giants, I.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Would say Hooker Furnishings. Yes, we know. Anyway, it's one of the largest and oldest furniture manufacturers in the country. Day has arranged for us to meet a friend and client of hers named Caroline Hippel.

[Erika Barris]

Caroline is a big deal in this industry. Just won an icon award a few nights earlier. She's the chief creative officer for Hooker Furnishings.

[NPR]

Hi, y'all.

[Capital One]

Hi.

[Caroline Hippel]

How are you?

[Amanda Aronczyk]

I'm good. How are you?

[Caroline Hippel]

Let me have a hug first. Look how beautiful you look. Thank you.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Full disclosure, Caroline was not talking to me. She's talking to Jay, who's wearing this fabulous deep plum coat. Then Caroline turns to me. Hi.

[Caroline Hippel]

And you do too.

[Erika Barris]

Oh, thank you so much. Caroline, along with hundreds of people, have spent the past few months designing and displaying furniture in this enormous space.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

They have set up one city block worth of sofas, side tables, lighting fixtures, all carefully staged together in vignettes. Now, the buyers here are not regular shoppers. There's no one buying a bedroom set for their home. High Point is a business to business market. The sellers are furniture manufacturers, companies like Hooker Furnishings. They are here selling their latest designs.

[Erika Barris]

The buyers include interior designers, but more importantly, the big spenders are are reps from the retail stores. Think Crate and Barrel, Restoration Hardware, Wayfair. Most of those big chains do not, in fact, have their own factories. So twice a year, High Point puts on this big market and the Crate and Barrels of the world come here to buy the furniture they want to sell in their stores.

[Caroline Hippel]

You'll see in our showroom, we study color and mood.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Caroline takes us through a tour of the different vignettes to model their latest dining room set or their outdoor furniture. The rooms are set up with showroom samples.

[Caroline Hippel]

Here we have the lakeside version, you know, mountain homes, lake homes. And here you're seeing the moss greens and the earthy tones.

[Erika Barris]

There's a lot of furniture and so many rooms.

[Caroline Hippel]

And now we've just walked into a new collection for us this season called West. We've just left the lake and come to, you know, midtown Manhattan, Glam.

[Erika Barris]

She's hoping that all the retailers who are milling through These vignettes that they will see the glamorous bed or the moss green chairs and that they will like it and order them for their stores. This is the point of the week at High Point Market.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

For a long time, decisions about what furniture a company would make would be driven by, well, what do they know how to make? Like, do they make hardwood tables and chairs? Then they'll make that. But now with the Internet, the market is more competitive. Consumers have more choice. So furniture makers are trying to figure out what consumers might want.

[Erika Barris]

And for that, Caroline and the furniture company hire trend forecasters like Jay. And they ask, what do you think is the next big thing? Basically, together they make a series of bets about what the consumer will want to buy. And to do this, Jay and her colleagues do a ton of consumer research. They're pulling data on retail stores. What are people buying? They're looking at social media. What are people searching for? And they're following a media tracker. What topics are people reading about?

[Amanda Aronczyk]

They pull all of this together and try to make sense of what the big cultural trends might be. Then they make predictions on all sorts of things, including styles and buying habits and colors. Those predictions help determine what Caroline and the furniture company decide to make. She explains this by bringing up an example their color predictions.

[Erika Barris]

Caroline and J. Point out this one really dramatic color that they think is going to go big.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

And what color would you say that is?

[Caroline Hippel]

Huckleberry.

[NPR]

Yeah, yeah, Huckleberry.

[Caroline Hippel]

It could be aubergine, merlot, architectural. Jaja just came out with it called Beat. They call it Beat.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

There's a couch, some suede chairs, and some pillows in Huckleberry Jay's plum coat. It's actually huckleberry.

[Caroline Hippel]

This is the color this season.

[NPR]

Even my nails are kind of that color.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

And yes, if you're wondering, this is a somewhat vibes based prediction model. But as I'm looking around seeing this color everywhere, I don't know, I kind of like it. So wait, so did I want that color?

[NPR]

You will want that.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

I do. Now I know.

[Caroline Hippel]

That's perfect. That's how working with someone like fashion snoops helps us.

[Erika Barris]

Amanda, you're so easy. It's too much.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Oh, I'm not ashamed. Huckleberry.

[Erika Barris]

Stunning pushover. I guess Caroline was also into it. Because of Jay's predictions, Caroline and Hooker furnishings have made a bunch of furniture in Huckleberry as well as dusty terracotta, like those orange pots for plants and a brassy mustard.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

So how did they get to these predictions?

[Caroline Hippel]

You think about what's going on in the economics of the world, what's going on in the environment that affects how the consumer feels. And then you'll see that translated into the choices they make to furnish their home.

[Erika Barris]

Jay says that during uncertain times and times of social upheaval, people are drawn to grounding colors. Darker colors.

[Capital One]

Yes.

[NPR]

So I said Huckleberry a year and a half ago.

[Caroline Hippel]

Yeah.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

So that's when the whole process really began. Caroline heard Jay's prediction about Huckleberry. They decided that they're going to give it a try. But her company doesn't actually weave their own fabric. They have to buy that from other people. So about a year ago, Caroline went to find fabric in that color.

[Caroline Hippel]

So we then go to a fabric market where we look at 5,000 fabrics in four days. It's an ongoing schlock.

[Erika Barris]

Caroline and her team go, they pick out some fabrics they like, and of course, they order some styles in Huckleberry. That fabric is then used to upholster chairs and sofas and ottomans. This whole process from. From the initial prediction of Huckleberry to the Huckleberry sofa in the showroom, it moves pretty slowly.

[NPR]

It takes about a year.

[Caroline Hippel]

Yeah, it's about a year.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Now that the Huckleberry furniture is here, the big test for Caroline and Jay, will the retailers order it this week at High Point. We will find out later how this all works out for them.

[Erika Barris]

The next bet that Caroline and Jay are making is one based on demographics, like who is buying nice furniture.

[Caroline Hippel]

Right now, the millennials are the most important buying group in home furnishings because they are now in their early 40s. Yeah. And so. And there are more of them than any other demographic population.

[Erika Barris]

Caroline wants to show us what they've designed for the millennials. So we walk to another showroom.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

She says Millennials are buying homes, getting rid of their futons and that Ikea lounge chair that so many people own. It's like practically a stage of adulthood. Now millennials are spending real money on furniture.

[Caroline Hippel]

We have a collection called Archives, which is for the Granny Millennial, the neo traditional, and it's lacquered walls.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

What kind of Millennial?

[Caroline Hippel]

Granny Millennial. Granny Millennial.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

What is that?

[Caroline Hippel]

That is the millennials that are interested in this neo tradition, this nostalgia for antiques.

[Erika Barris]

Yes. Granny Millennial, or Grand Millennial appears to have been named a few years ago.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Think Millennials who are into things their grandparents might have owned, but make it more fun, like wildly floral wallpaper or a needlepoint pillow that says slay all day.

[Erika Barris]

Do it for the gram.

[Caroline Hippel]

You Know, Matchy Matchy is not what the neo traditional millennial wants. They want items that evoke a feeling of the past, but make it modern.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

So for the granny millennial, Caroline has made a bed with a big tufted headboard and a leather desk chair and a walnut veneer table. Cheap. Points out the table. And it looks like my dining table, which I inherited from my actual grandmother.

[Erika Barris]

The third and final, final bet that Caroline walks us through, a bet that people would also like a little whimsy, like a winged back chair with butterflies printed on the fabric.

[Caroline Hippel]

There is a thing about botanicals and insects right now. There's a nature thing, but not everybody will use that butterfly because it's a little whimsical. But we like a little surprise and delight in our mix, you know, because it's not boring. You know, that's basically. It's fun and white neutral. Yeah. But it's not the way to uplift the soul, in my opinion.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

So after High Point Market ended, we wanted to know, did anyone buy what Caroline and Jay were selling? Were retailers like the Crate and Barrels of the world putting in orders to buy some of this furniture?

[Caroline Hippel]

So we did this. We predicted which rooms and things that they would like, and then we'll have a post mortem Wednesday about it. You know, what did we think was going to happen? What did happen? What do we need to change? And how do we tweak our color palette for next season and next season?

[Erika Barris]

So did Caroline and Jay's predictions on Huckleberry, Granny, Millennial, and butterflies come true? Will these trends be in stores near you soon? That is, after the break.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

If you want to understand the dream scenario for furniture sellers like Hooker Furnishings, an example of why they want to be ahead of the trends and why they rely on predictions from forecasters like Jay, it's useful to look at this one pretty famous piece of furniture, the cloud couch.

[Timothy Olden]

The initial concept was to come up with the ultimate sofa. So we sat down as a team and said, what is the ultimate sofa? But it had to look beautiful because everything we do has to look visually strong, and it had to sit like a cloud. We wanted.

[Erika Barris]

The voice in this ad is the sofa's designer, Timothy Olden. He designed the couch for rh, which most people know as Restoration Hardware. It was launched back in 2015.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Now, if you don't know this couch, allow us to describe it. It looks like a big, white, fluffy cloud. It's plush, it's billowy, it's a sectional.

[Timothy Olden]

What else is there to say? It is The Ultima sofa.

[Erika Barris]

The cloud couch has been so successful, it made all of these enormous ripples through the furniture industry. Caroline describes it as the couch that ate the world.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Jay says there are both cultural and practical reasons why this couch blew up. First, the cultural one. Jay says the couch represents the breakdown between church and state. Church being the formal living room where you were forbidden to sit versus the state, which is the den where you would actually lie around with your friends, eat snacks.

[Erika Barris]

The cloud couch is the peak of this massive cultural change from from formal to relaxed. Think soft, baggy pants and fast casual dining. But a couch, and especially during the pandemic, everyone wanted a lot of casual comfort.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Then, also because of the pandemic, there was a practical reason the couch did so well.

[NPR]

The cloud couch blew up because of convenience. And it was very popular in Covid because it was one of the only products that was available.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Why?

[NPR]

Because you couldn't get anything in and out of China. You couldn't get anything in and out of Vietnam. And the way the restoration hardware works is they are stacked warehouses.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

So that means that they had it on hand.

[NPR]

They had it on hand, no kidding. And they were one of the only retailers that did. And so it's been a big driver for a lot of their success is their convenience model of being able to like, really do what they call quick show.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

When I asked a lot of people at high point about this couch, they did not want to talk about it. Jay, every time I say cloud couch to someone, they're really, like, upset about it. Why?

[NPR]

Yeah, I think, listen, I think because fundamentally this is a market of aesthetics and we know what's. What's actually good. And I hate to say this on record, but I will. It's a really crappy piece of furniture.

[Erika Barris]

There are many, many tiktoks and comments on Reddit dedicated to complaining about the cloud couch, mostly about how the pillows need to be floofed up every day or otherwise. It looks like a disaster. Or how there's no support. It feels like you're just lying on a pile of blankets.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

We reached out to Restoration Hardware, but they didn't comment on customer complaints or the alleged floofing issue.

[Erika Barris]

But even with the backlash, Restoration Hardware's slouchy, low, extra soft cloud couch became a hit.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Now, for a while, they were the only ones selling their couch, but once it was a hit, many manufacturers made dupes. The way one executive described it to me, furniture is a knockoff industry, and.

[Erika Barris]

Retailers at all sorts of price points, from West Elm to Raymore and Flanagan to Wayfair came to High point, where they might buy knockoffs of that couch. Some might cut corners on quality. This is how high fashion furniture moves through the industry and gets less expensive.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Caroline Hippel from Hooker Furnishings says they have a couch inspired by the cloud couch too. She says it's very hard to copyright a sofa or an ottoman. A company can patent something more technical, like the mechanism in a sofa that's got a pull out bed. But trademarking a slouchy sectional is futile.

[Erika Barris]

Of course, her company would rather be a company that leads, you know, makes the trendsetting furniture that gets copied, not be the kind of company that just makes dupes.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Standing in the Hooker Furnishings showroom, I point out a random chair to Caroline. What would happen if you went across market and you saw that chair somewhere else? Like, literally?

[Caroline Hippel]

They could be fussy, but then I would say, flattery is a compliment and we do it better. Really? Seriously, that happens all the time. I'm like, oh, dear God. But by the time they floor the copy, you're onto the next.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

This knockoff culture is why many furniture makers have to keep trying to come up with the next cloud couch, minus the problematic pillows.

[Erika Barris]

So how did their bets on Granny Millennial, Huckleberry, and Butterflies work out?

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Two weeks after the end of market, we called Caroline to see what trends worked and which did not. What would you say your biggest bets were at High point this season?

[Caroline Hippel]

Well, we've been studying what the Millennial is interested in.

[Erika Barris]

Caroline starts by talking about the collection they've designed for the Granny Millennial. Now, success would look like getting a lot of orders. So many that they could even start making, or as they call it in the biz, cutting the furniture. Caroline says the orders are still coming in, but her early read on the collection for Granny Millennials is very good.

[Caroline Hippel]

We felt so positively about this collection that we cut it actually and have inventory for it already. And that's a real sign of confidence, right?

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Cut it like, meaning they cut the wood. They had their factories in Vietnam start making this furniture. Then we talk about their bet on colors.

[Caroline Hippel]

The dusty carracotta seemed to be the biggest draw.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Do you think terracotta might have beat out my favorite huckleberry?

[Caroline Hippel]

I think maybe so, but don't count Huckleberry out. Sometimes color is marketed. You know, you use it to attract attention. But what we find is that usually for some of the newer colors popping into the our world, it takes a couple of seasons for them to really gain traction and people to figure out how they can use it.

[Erika Barris]

Yeah, Huckleberry hasn't taken off yet. And finally, for their last bet, how.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Did Butterfly print do?

[Caroline Hippel]

Very well. Very, very well. You know, we did it in a terracotta and a mustard, and both placed very well. Mostly in pillows, I will say, and chairs.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

As for a huge viral trend piece, the Next Cloud Couch, Caroline says that it is too soon to say. She'll spend the next few weeks sorting out exactly what happened. At this market, we do all of.

[Caroline Hippel]

Our research, but until you see the whites of the order's eyes, you're not ever sure. So it's always just a happy surprise for me. I never count my chickens until the.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Orders are in and she's already getting ready for the next market in spring 2020.

[Erika Barris]

James Sneed produced today's episode with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Zhang, Fact Checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Sina Lofredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

[Amanda Aronczyk]

Thanks this week to John Joe Schlichtman, who introduced me to High Point with his book Showroom City. Thanks also to Tammy Covington, Erica Cross, Ben Muller, Neal Saunders, Steve Wilcox, and the teams at GJ Styles, Terracea, Universal Furniture, Verelin and Forehands. I'm Amanda Aronchik.

[Erika Barris]

And I'm Erica Baris. This is npr. Thanks for listening.

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