Housed within the company's flagship home furnishings store at 919 Broadway, the new, larger space was decked out with fresh product custom-tailored in price points and looks for buyers shopping the market.
Buyers looking for fresh new fashion found it in Safavieh's Roma Shag at the fall 2017 NY Home Fashions Show.
"The advantage of this space is that we're in a private showroom area, but still connected to our retail store, which offers a comprehensive assortment of our handmade rugs throughout both levels," said Arash Yaraghi, a Safavieh principal. "For this market, we focus on big box and large chains as well as e-commerce -- so we're previewing new developments in everything from printed rugs to shags," he told RugNews.com, "But in this location our customers can see the full range of qualities Safavieh has to offer."
"Our customers love this location," added Cyrus Yaraghi, Safavieh principal, at the showroom. "The Flat Iron District is known to be the center for the best inspirational brands for home furnishings, and shop here for trends during market. We've had solid appointments all week."
The new Safavieh wholesale showroom offers plenty of private meeting spaces.
Customizing programs gives large retailers a one-two punch of exclusivity and fashion, Arash Yaraghi explained. "At Safavieh, we're not committed to any one quality or category. We're committed to fashion and design. Most customers at this market want machine-made rugs because of the price point, but they want them to look like handmade rugs.
Safavieh's new Sparta Shag collection captures the handmade look of plush Greek flokati rugs.
"The handmade industry responded by following through on many of the requests that these buyers made. I like to think I was a pioneer of that. These looks didn't exist before in machine-mades," Yaraghi continued. "Before the handmade guys got into the business, machine-mades were all flat and there was no fashion. It was the same thing with hand-knotted rugs from India. People went to India to develop Persian rugs after the embargoes. Now, India makes some of the most beautiful rugs that compete with Persian rugs.
A texture story from Safavieh shows solid and patterned shags (above) and a detail of the luxurious Roma shag below:
"The machine-made revolution came about in the same way: when the hand-knotted importers and weavers went to Turkey or Belgium, we brought with us all that we knew. We also brought the market knowledge of what the American consumer wants. People in our industry are creative. They go a step beyond," Yaraghi concludes.
The airy showroom at Safavieh NYC.