Kate Spade New York @ 20

Kate Spade New York tableware and accessories has for two decades held a singular spot on retail shelves and on customers’ tables thanks to a timeless charm and chic stylings. Even after 20 years, the fun, fresh, playfully sophisticated, and refreshingly original collections from Lenox occupy a unique niche in the tableware pantheon. 

Kate Spade’s contribution to fashion cannot be understated. She became synonymous with fashionistas everywhere when she started her fashion brand 30 years ago, in 1993, quickly establishing its label as the go-to brand when shifting from a no-name plate to designer-of-note.
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Kate’s playful, signature sense of style appealed to pre-teens, twentysomethings, their mothers, and even their youthful grandmothers; the early Kate Spade New York (hereafter called KSNY) bags straddled the generational divide and helped seal her legacy. Her simple yet fun design sensibility and approachable pricing were born during her days as a fashion editor and head of accessories at Mademoiselle magazine. While there, she thought the market lacked stylish, affordable, and sensible handbags, so she decided to create her own. Alongside her husband Andy, the brand launched with signature nylon bags; cheerful color palettes; quintessential pops of color; bold patterns; and optimistic slogans. They quickly expanded to clothing, jewelry, shoes, stationery, eyewear, baby items, fragrances, and gifts. In 1999, Spade sold a 56% stake in her business to Neiman Marcus Group, helping to expand the brand worldwide; seven years later, the couple unloaded the remaining 44% to Neiman Marcus.

In 2004, while Kate was still very involved with the company, Kate Spade at Home was launched in partnership with Lenox. Beth Baer, V.P. of product development, has been with Lenox since 1997 and recalls the excitement of the launch. “I’ll tell you, these 20 years went by in a flash,” she chuckles. “I remember the debut well. It was a super exciting time, different than anything we’d ever done. It was a huge launch with a vast range of products: formal and casual dinnerware; cut barware and stemware; crystal gifts; flatware; vases. It was quite an extensive assortment of products. We were able to bring vibrant colors and personality to a traditional category, and everybody noticed. KSNY has a unique POV from other designer brands, so it just exploded in the marketplace. Everyone was talking about it and very enthusiastic about the potential of the new partnership. We were bringing a whole new perspective to shelves. And the initial response was very positive. We didn’t doubt the success of it at all. We knew we were with a very strong brand with a unique DNA and a terrific product to support that.”

Baer recalls Kate’s enthusiastic involvement as well. “Yes, of course, she was initially very involved, setting the direction. It’s why we had such a great breadth of product. The brand quickly made its place in a very competitive bridal market. This collection spoke to her fans with their own perfectly imperfect lives.” Spade’s golden touch, in fact, was very much a reflection of her own personality; she was spirited and eclectic, sophisticated and playful, often photographed wearing cat-eye glasses and chunky necklaces, primary colors, and clothes with silhouettes from a bygone era. Kate’s designs spoke to the things that spoke to her. Her divestiture from the company in 2006 after it sold to Neiman Marcus and her subsequent death in 2018 had no negative effect on sales. The brand holds a special place in the Lenox portfolio, which includes flatware-heavy brands like Oneida, Reed & Barton, and Cambridge. “We view the KSNY brand as a complementary brand to what we stand for,” says Baer. “We’re a traditional tabletop company, and KSNY goes after a traditional design aesthetic with a twist. It’s approachable, and as such, it's a very important brand in our portfolio and one we plan to continue. The longevity speaks to our success with the KSNY team.”

Over time, the spotlight shifted from dinnerware to giftware. “It’s a much bigger and stronger focus for us,” says Baer. “KSNY’s collections are a great way to celebrate milestones and gifting occasions. So we layered in holiday and the idea of celebrating moments in your life because that’s where the brand really excels. It brought us a new point of view and satisfied a broad range of needs.” With a new gifting agenda, the brand launched crystal giftware, including the signature rose bowl vase. “And silver gifts were a significant addition to the gift category because the price point of under $50 was underrepresented in the market,” says Baer. Additionally, the wit and whimsy that KSNY brings on sentiment pieces filled a void that was exciting to the consumer and has become a hallmark of the brand. “We always love seeing what the next sentiment is going to be,” says Baer. “They’re very clever, marrying the right product with the right thing to say.” Signature barware with clever aphorisms (two of a kind; yours and mine; cheers to us) artfully etched, Baer notes, has been a way to bring personalization to adoring fans. “It may not have your name, but it speaks to them personally and to their personalities,” the exec says. “The strategy has always been to talk to a young professional with a new job and home, an aspirational consumer whose budget may not support her design dreams. And we moved out of the dining room to speak to someone other than the bride with expanded 12-piece sets that had more value, kitchen accessories, food prep, and bakeware. It’s just as much fun to prep for the party as to serve at it. That was the thought process. We layered in cutting boards, cookware, and enamel. This was when we introduced the iconic quintessential tea kettle ($60), which remains the number one SKU in our assortment. It’s a real conversation starter. You can decorate with it, leaving it out on the stove because it shows your personality.”

CHARLOTTE WARSHAW IS KATE SPADE’S V.P. WHOLESALE AND GLOBAL LICENSING.
“Lenox and Kate Spade New York have enjoyed a long and successful partnership over the last 20 years,” she says. “The relationship has been collaborative with Lenox’s strong sourcing and development capabilities, coupled with the strength of our iconic brand.” Still, despite strong brand recognition from two powerhouses, longevity is never a given in the tabletop arena. Why has this collaboration endured? “Kate Spade New York brings a different perspective to tableware and gifting that’s unique within the market,” Warshaw maintains. “Our partnership has created numerous unique products that speak directly to our core consumers and their everyday needs. An example of this is our new tabletop and gifting collection, Make It Pop, which is our latest expression of the brand, incorporating key design codes – boldness, color, and optimism – with the goal to evoke joy.”

Make It Pop is an ideal example of how the KSNY brand has leveraged its playful vibe to tableware and giftware (dinnerware, serveware, bakeware, kitchen, barware, cutting boards, giftware, frames) for today’s consumers. “We covered everything,” Baer enthuses. “The idea behind Make It Pop was that with COVID, there was a huge resurgence of consumers wanting to update their homes in a joyful manner, so we wanted to provide something that could help them decorate and celebrate with friends and family. Make It Pop focuses on color and whimsy and makes you smile. We focused on the brand codes so recognizable to KSNY – novelty, stripes, color, phrases – and we wanted the assortment to be more evergreen instead of in and out; something that could live for years. It’s been hugely successful. KSNY is all about finding new ways to bring joy and newness to the customer and keep them excited. I’m a product person, and naturally identifying new designs and products that appeal to consumers is a constant drive to my passion for the business. It’s easy working with the KSNY team because they also love to develop products. Anything we ask of them, they’re happy to work on. That’s one of the things I love about the partnership; they share the same energy and passion. I never tire of it. It’s exciting to work on a concept, see it come to fruition, watch it be successful, and see the joy it brings. That’s why I’ve been here for 26 years. The product is always changing; it’s never the same thing. We’re always looking for the newest, the hottest.”

Lenox is a brand whose 135-year history has been forged on catering to the consumer of the day. This is a company whose lifeblood has been endowed by franchise collections that established the trends of the time. KSNY is proving to be a solid part of that infrastructure. “Who doesn’t want a collection to live on for 20 years?” Baer posits. “Somethings you get lucky, but it’s always a goal. It’s great if you get collections with staying power that are recognizable and allow you to expand into other categories. Within the KSNY portfolio, we have many designs that do that: Deco Dot, Charlotte Street, and Wickford. These patterns have had real staying power, and I don’t foresee them going away anytime soon. And there are always ways to reinvent them with complementary pieces. It’s important to provide freshness to heritage patterns to keep them alive and growing.”

Design development between the two companies is a true collaboration and ongoing conversation. “We identify the need in the market, KSNY brings the trend, and we work closely to create product for the consumer,” says Baer. “The system has worked well all these years. Fashion changes so quickly, and it’s not as easy to do in tableware, but we’ve figured out a perfect blend.” Baer offers as example the launch of Charlotte Street in 2013, the blue and white stripe and dot design inspired by the historic London street, and the top dinnerware seller. “That was a pivotal year for casual,” says Baer. “There was a void in the market for blue and white dinnerware, and we had a specific design idea. There was a constant back and forth with different points of view until we landed on something updated with a twist. It’s a great example of how we work closely together. KSNY is very involved in all of our development. They present artwork to us, and we can lay it out on a plate; that’s our expertise.”

Today’s KSNY range covers some 400 SKUs, including 12-piece sets of dinnerware, $165 to $245; giftware, from a $20 ring holder to a $100 frame; kitchenware from $25 food storage containers up to $90 toasters. Fine dinnerware is $165, five pieces. “We have a tighter assortment now, focusing on absolute best sellers,” says Baer. “It’s the right amount of product that the market can take.” The product is sourced and produced in Asia and Europe.

The COVID years saw a bump in sales thanks to a heavy online presence, where the product is easily understandable. “When the consumer shifted focus to buying online, we beefed up our marketing efforts with visual assets and videos that tell the KSNY story, and that’s a good thing because we can reach a broader audience,” says Baer. This year, packaging was changed to Kate Spade Green, a vibrant hue that was the brand’s signature visual identity at the start, groundbreaking at the time since green was rarely associated with fashion brands. (In celebration of KSNY’s 30th anniversary, Pantone created Kate Spade Green, left.) “The packaging is very iconic and speaks strongly to the brand,” says Baer. For the product developer, two decades is a long time to create collections for a very specific niche. But the well has abundant reserves, she maintains, and emerging technologies help. “One thing that’s gotten easier is CAD (computer-aided design),” says Baer. “The tech that’s evolved has enabled 3D development, like ornaments, cookie jars, salt and peppers. At this point, after 20 years, we know the areas of success for us, and we have great relationships with our accounts who tell us what their customers are looking for,” says Baer. “And we’re also a D2C company, so we talk directly to consumers. We keep up on trends and have great relationships with our factories, which come to us with new technologies as we try to figure out how those improvements are applicable to our assortments. We go to trade shows; we travel the world. Everything is always an inspiration. And the KSNY point of view is unique. It’s fun to design with the team because of everything their brand stands for.” Warshaw agrees. “As a true lifestyle brand, we want to offer our customers the opportunity to express themselves in various aspects of their lives, including home, which Lenox helps us do. We design extraordinary things for every day. Our unique style is synonymous with joy, which is timeless and universal. We’re celebrating our 30th anniversary and will continue to bring joy to our customers around the world.”

While KSNY for Lenox is a decade younger than the parent company, its own two-decade anniversary is a laudable milestone in the fickle tableware category. Baer credits that longevity to a crackerjack team that has matured with feedback. “An entire generation has grown into our products since the tableware launched in 2004,” says Baer. “Functionality has become a greater directive, as well as space-saving innovations; designs that stack and store easily with multi-functions are critical. Gone are the days when we designed pretty things that could only be displayed on a counter. There must be functionality. And today we meet many customers on social media, which helps us share the KSNY story and helps people envision the product in their homes. We present the product in a variety of lifestyle settings so consumers can see how to live with the product that’s unique, joyful, and innovative. We continue to design extraordinary things that the consumer can relate to, respond to, and love.”

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View the original article at Tableware Today:
https://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=808369

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