I just read several different articles on the subject of frugal fatigue. Nation-wide, there is a growing sense that treating oneself to a present every now and again is acceptable again. In one case, it was branded ice cream as opposed to generic. In another, it was granite kitchen counter tops instead of laminate. In electronics stores, purchases of luxury flat screens are creeping up on purchases of replacement cheap home office printers. Women’s shoes, the good ones, are increasing in sales. So are brand name designer clutches and small leather goods. In the home, wallcovering is now on the rise in sales. In short, people are finding that a judicious decision to loosen up the purse strings for something really desired is no longer a completely terrible idea. Possibly luxury shame as a concept is ending.
On a personal note, my wife and I had our front porch rebuilt, something we had been putting off endlessly due to budget and economic concerns. It felt good. It looks great. It wasn’t as expensive as we feared. We got sick of waiting. We are really happy we did it. The Halloween pumpkins have never had a better holdiay setting!
I guess that is frugal fatigue. It also may be a sign that there is hope in the air.
I keep hearing about this topic when I meet with and talk with interior designers, and also potential design clients. It is now glaringly obvious that the next generation of design clients wants to see the invoices, know the actual prices, and then pay a % fee on top of real costs for the merchandise management services that a designer provides. I mentioned in an earlier post that today’s designer should consider charging an initial design fee (to cover concept and initial drawings plus a cushion), a % of total purchases to manage them, and an hourly fee, or some other version of a structure like this. The days of having mark-up on merchandise provide the primary source of income are apparently over. As one client told me, “I am hiring a designer, not a furniture store”.
One of the side benefits of this formula is that it now does not matter if the specified products are expensive. Before, when a designer marked everything up 50%, or 100% (or more?), it made expensive to-the-trade furnishings quickly too costly, and in effect relegated that designer to specifying lower-priced goods. This in turn reflected in their design work. Transparent-to-the-client selling allows for a much wider variety of pricepoint (high and low), and gives the designer a chance to use really fine things as well as inexpensive things when budgeting a project, all with the client’s blessing! This increases the designer’s range, and also allows for the designer to reach for the best with the client’s full support.
Wherever I go, this is a hot topic, and one that deserves attention. The clients seem to be driving this one, and I can’t say I blame them. Many designers already pass their invoices through at cost after negotiatiing a fee structure as explained above, and they seem to have a higher level of trust with their clients.
This is worth considering, and thinking about, even if you disagree. As they say in advertising, this idea “has legs”, and it is running.
Everyone says that things are getting better. Even pessimists seem to feel that things are not getting worse (though they cannot bring themselves to say that things are getting better). So, what if things actually ARE getting better? Then, that is when the work begins- not the work of survival, but the work of recovery.
The interior design profession is what is known as a lagging indicator. We feel the force of a recession after many other industries, but also we come out of a recession after most other industries. Sadly, home furnishings should be a priority when things start to get better, but evidently only I think so! Anyway, if the economy is improving, our business will as well, just not right away. SO, this is when you should start “marketing up the food chain”. What does that mean?
To begin with, buyers have to buy or renovate homes, or developers have to build homes, or corporations have to expand/move/contract, in order for a design project to happen. So, before a designer is involved there is often: an architect, a real estate attorney, a developer, a real estate agent, a banker, a kitchen/bath store, or someone or some company ahead of the designer in the food chain. Go meet them. Go market to them. Let them know of your skills, your vision, your desire to work with them and what you bring to the party in terms of special skills and abilities. Develop a Power Point. Develop your “elevator speech”(see ideas for designers in this blog re sound bytes, but basically it means a 30 second answer to “what do you do?”). Go see some of these folks and introduce yourself. In short, get out there and “market Up the Food Chain”. Then, when business really turns and our industry starts rising, you will be way way ahead. Good luck! Go get’em!
In the course of my journey through the wonderful world of interior design I have come across a phenomenon, thanks to a design firm in Las Vegas, and thanks to a group of designers in New York.
If it is true that 90% of the wealth in America was generated since 1980, and 70% since 1995, then it seems likely that many people who are now our nation’s wealthiest people did not grow up with the lifestyle they live today. This is a fundamental cultural shift away from the world of inherited wealth. Inherited wealth came with a sort of training- symphonies, ballet, trips to art museums, life in well-decorated houses, private schools, tutors, family dinners at fine dining room tables- at least some did. What this created was a sort of cultural training program for the next generation.
In today’s world, that “training” is not necessarily something to take for granted, and it is no one’s fault, especially not the wealthy person who made it on their own. What designers need to consider, I think, is how to offer this client what might be more than just a design project. Make the design process a cultural exploration and a voyage of discovery and not just the purchase of home furnishings. Part of the designer’s value might now be the education that comes with the design experience. If they do not know what you know, then share your knowledge as a part of your service, and as an explanation of your design brilliance.
So, be the cultural concierge- offer a wonderful world of history and cultural authenticity that manifests itself in your client’s living spaces and takes them on a journey into the creation of an environment that will offer their children that cultural training program above for future generations.
Rubelli, the majority shareholder of Donghia and half owner of Bergamo, manufactures textiles in the hills above Lake Como. Here’s a quick peek!
The Rubelli mill is in Cucciago and was built in the mind-1800’s. This mill houses both a modern textile mill as well as looms from the 18th century. Here it is before renovation in 2004:
Here’s how it looks today: 
Here is one of the antique looms. These are used by students who are studying to be Master Weavers to create silk textiles exactly as they were woven 300 years ago.
Handloomed velvet on antique loom at Rubelli
One of many modern looms at Rubelli
Ancient design being woven on modern Rubelli loom
Metallic yarns for modern looms
Complicated jacquard Camelia being woven at Rubelli
This is the Palazzo Rubelli, built by the famous architect Mauro Codussi in the late 15th century on the Grand Canal in Venice. The Palazzo houses the Rubelli’s extensive collection of archival textiles, several of which are in images that follow.
A French chalice cloth of Lampas with a chinoiserie design, woven around 1720.
A Venetian silk damask from the early 16th century, featuring enlarged caper blossoms surrounding a stylized pomegranate.
A rare hand-woven, cut and loop velvet that was woven by Rubelli for the Italian royal family in 1902.
As I am sure you have noticed, people no longer pay attention. You are talking and they start looking over their shoulder, checking their Blackberry, whatever. So, if you are talking to a prospective client, you need a concise, short answer to explain what you do and what makes your firm different/better. You need a sound byte in an era of information overload. You can expand your discussion after they seem interested, but you should start with a quick, accurate, concise answer.
Have several people in your office (or several people who know your business) develop a paragraph each describing your business. Then distill them down into a short 15-20 second “sound byte”, and practice it. It is like the old elevator sales test. Can you sell something to someone in the time it takes to take the elevator down to the ground floor?
A sneak peak at the new huge Dania Showroom under construction
The wonderful new Chicago Donghia Showroom
Classic Donghia in Paris
We’ll always have Paris- new Monaco Sofa- a ladies’ Chesterfield
Chicago Showroom
Dining in Paris at Donghia
Angelo Donghia and Volume Chair circa 1970’s
Cantilever Chair
From the Historical Donghia Archives
Armani by Rubelli at Bergamo
Woven Peacock Feathers at Donghia- No peacocks were harmed!!
From the Donghia Fall Collection
From the Bergamo Fall CollectionA met a designer in Boston who keeps close track of the likes and dislikes of her clients. I met another in Las Vegas who does the same thing. For instance, he has a client who collects snow globes- you know the little things you can buy at airports and souvenir shops? Anyway whenever he goes somewhere and sees one, he buys it and sends it to that client. Small thing- big return in customer loyalty. The same for the designer in Boston. The client loves cats- why not send an antique postcard of a cat found at a flea market? This is a simple way to generate loyalty and repeat business, but you have to do your homework and notice the little things that can matter later on.
I like Carte De Visite calling cards from the Civil War, in case you were wondering.
