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RACHAEL RAY TALKS RUGS, LAUNCHES LINE WITH KALEEN AT HIGH POINT
 Rachael Ray reviews her new collections at a launch party at the Kaleen showroom during the Fall 2017 High Point Market. Above, Monty Rathi and Blake Dennard of Kaleen flank Rachael Ray. Behind Ray is Michael Murray, design partner, Rachael Ray Home. |
HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Rachael Ray, already known to High Point Market shoppers for her highly saleable furniture line for Craftmaster, made an under-the-radar visit to Kaleen's Showplace showroom last week to introduce her much-anticipated rug collection to key customers and press.
The Food Network celebrity chef and TV show host -- whose lifestyle empire also includes a magazine and cookbooks, cookware, pet food and not-for-profit programs -- quickly drew crowds of fans outside the showroom as word of her appearance spread through the halls.
At last week's High Point Market, this Soho collection rug by Rachael Ray Home from Kaleen was on display at the Craftmaster showroom with her newest furniture.
According to Monty Rathi, COO of Kaleen, the line took about a year and a half to develop. "It's been really great working with Rachael and her whole team," Rathi told RugNews.com. "She's not a celebrity like other celebrities. She didn't just want her name on our products. Before she puts her name on something, she wants to design it. She is inspired by design, which is also our passion, and that makes for a successful partnership. These rugs are her inspiration, her design, her colors, and the way she wanted them to look in her own home," he explained.
From the Upstate collection by Rachael Ray Home, a machine-made polypropylene rug inspired by a vinyl tile pattern used on the Titanic.
Blake Dennard, Kaleen's senior vice president, points out a pattern from the Rachael Ray Upstate collection (UP5O603) and explains that it's a direct design from Ray and her product development people. "This came from a vinyl tile from the Titanic." he noted.
"That's what's so great about the collaboration with Rachael and her team. It's not just a celebrity who's sticking her name and her picture on a rug. It is a design collaboration," Dennard continued. "Of course her name is very helpful to us in a marketing campaign, but they really helped us with design and creating product that her customer likes. She has a specific look, and they have been able to capitalize on that in the Craftmaster [furniture] line."
The licensing partners line up for paparazzi at the Kaleen showroom, from left, Kaleen designer Prachi Gupta, Michael Murray and Rachael Ray of Rachael Ray Home, and Monty Rathi and Blake Dennard of Kaleen.
Rathi and Dennard acknowledge that the synergy between the celeb's furniture and rugs is an added bonus - giving Kaleen an edge with Craftmaster's dealers. Indeed, the names of Ray's rug collections and her furniture lines dovetail, but Rathi says rugs can be used with any of the furniture collections. "We're having a lot of fun with it. We've been asked to let her work freely here," Dennard explains of the input from Craftmaster.
RACHAEL RAY ON DESIGN
The new Soho collection by Rachael Ray Home for Kaleen meets the celeb's criteria for affordability and quality.
Speaking with Ray, it is immediately apparent that a lot of thought went into conjuring the outcome she expected from Kaleen. She was concerned at first, she said, because she wanted rugs that would be affordable for her customers. "But very often, I don't like the quality and the feel of affordable rugs."
She posed the question, "Why does it have to cost so much?" And Kaleen came up with the answers: The Soho and Upstate lines retail at $299, and the Highline collection at $399 for a 5x8.
"I really do draw this stuff," she said of her licensed products. "I've even taken a couple of my doodles and put them next to the objects so you can see my actual drawing."
"I work really hard on it," she continued, "and I'm thankful that we found partners that were able to give people what I believe is really decent quality for a great price."
CONCEPT TO REALITY
Fans' cameras click as Rachael Ray admires the final results Kaleen achieved for her Highline collection rugs.
Ray likens seeing her rug collection at Kaleen's showroom to seeing a fairytale come to life. "It's like when you're a little kid and your parents tell you a story or you read a book that you really love, and you wish you could walk into it. This is really walking into what starts in my head.
"I draw those as doodles in remembrance of places I like to actually be, or I improve on things that I already own. So, when you walk into a room and see all those things come to life, it's like walking into a storybook. If people like it or not, it's always up to them."
RACHAEL'S DECORATING 'RECIPES'
"I don't want the plate to be louder than the food that's on it. And I don't like the room to speak for the family; I want the family to make it theirs. I want them to take our stuff and make it their own. I don't want it to look like I decorated your house. It should look like you decorated your house," she said.
-Soho
"For the Soho collection, I really wanted it the carved to be CARVED and feel sexy -- like you're staying in a rock and roll hotel," Ray explained.
-Upstate
"For Upstate, I wanted everything to look faded and beat up, like rugs that I've paid way too much for or found at some of the places I love to stay at that get lots of foot traffic and love," she added.
The Upstate collection, with its distressed traditional patterns, is inspired by antiques in Rachael Ray's own homes and favorite places, but practical enough for families with children.
-Highline
"I think the ones I love the most are the simplest. You can put Highline under anything. You can put it in a country cottage under a beat up antique that's been around hundreds of years, or you can put it under something that's sleek and modern. It has a border, but it has texture and a lived in feel to it even though it's something new. It feels so soft. I love it."
RUGNEWS.COM'S LINE REVIEW
Prior to the launch party, RugNews.com reviewed the new Rachael Ray Home collection with Blake Dennard, and indeed previously seen press release photos paled in comparison to the actual rugs.
A closeup shows the elegant hand carving in the Rachael Ray Home Soho collection.
In order to achieve the carved affect Kaleen's licensor envisioned for the Soho collection, for example, the rug maker used hand carving for a total look. "It's a poly acrylic hand-tufted rug; a little more transitional. It's not just a solid dyed yarn -- it gives it a little more depth, and that's something that came from Rachael and her people," Dennard explained.
Moving to the Upstate collection, Dennard noted the machine-made polypropylene range offers a good mix of traditional patterns and some unique patchwork looks. "There are some Tuscan looks, and in some designs we take a traditional pattern and intermingle it with a distressing for a rustic feel."
He explained that Ray's Highline collection was initially sampled with a space dyed wool yarn. "We had three colors that were intermingled, and it was a solid. Rachael came in and told us she wanted to tone it down so the change from the field to the border was not so abrupt. To get the look she wanted we used sideways tufting [on the border] and the same yarn. If we had changed the yarn, it would have made much more of a contrast."
Based on reaction to the line, which was on display at the Craftmaster Furniture showroom in room vignettes as well as at the Kaleen showroom, the extra effort has already paid off. "We had a great market with the three groups," Dennard told RugNews.com.
The simplicity of the tone on tone bordered Highline collection by Rachael Ray Home makes it suitable for multiple decorating styles.