NEW YORK – Jonathan Adler is bringing its version of modern American glamour — replete with color, craft and joyful design — to a larger home furnishings audience.
The New York-based design company, long a fixture in the tabletop and gifting world, made its High Point Market debut last month with the aim of expanding its wholesale customer base and its interior design business.
Its two prominent spaces flanked an aisle in Interhall — one showcasing gifts and accessories, the other furniture and lighting —giving market-attendees a sense of its core DNA but also its scope of design.
“I feel we have something for everyone, whether that’s a small gift or a house full of furniture,” said President Mary Beth Sheridan during an interview with Home Accents Today at market. “Everything we do is grounded in craft and artistry.”
Sheridan, a former senior leader at Anthropologie Home & Beauty, The Children’s Place, and Macy’s, joined Jonathan Adler just a few weeks prior to market, but she is no stranger to the industry, or to High Point.
As the chief merchandising officer for Anthropologie’s growth-oriented home and beauty divisions pre- and post-pandemic, she got a first-hand look at the potential in the home business. “That’s where I got my chops understanding the consumer,” she said.
Although a regular at NY Now and Maison & Objet in Paris, Sheridan has also walked the aisles of High Point Market. “I love High Point — the people, the energy, the product, the newness,” said Sheridan.
And now, the potential. Sheridan is approaching High Point with a two-pronged strategy. The first is to grow its wholesale business with independent retailers as well as upper-tier department stores and international customers. Jonathan Adler currently has 1,000 points of distribution, ranging from major department stores to smaller retailers, as well as its own retail stores – eight in the U.S. and one in London.
Its second goal is to attract more of the interior design trade. Although this is not the front-forward business of Jonathan Adler, the company has legs with the design-appreciative customer, Sheridan said.
Gazing around the Interhall showroom, with an assortment that ranged from a turquoise mahjong set and jewel-toned objects to velvet upholstered sofas and burl wood accent furniture, Sheridan said the company typically features a bright, spring/summer color palette year-round. She sees an opportunity to round out that palette with other colorways. “The way we do color could be interpreted differently,” she said. Its aesthetic can also be diversified. That will help the company to attract a wider customer base as well as a younger audience, according to Sheridan.
After a busy market morning in which the company opened new retail accounts and held conversations with designers, Sheridan seemed pleased with Jonathan Adler’s inaugural High Point Market.
“We’ll definitely be back.”
