Tag: home & giving

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Interiors Addict

Retailers: next season’s best-selling items are waiting to be discovered

General Eclectic, Stand E2318, Exhibition Pavilion (MSG)

Sponsored by Home & Giving

Melbourne is famous for its incredible hidden laneways which are full of vibrancy, colour and activity. It comes as no surprise that it is home to some of the most amazing lifestyle brands in the Australian market; and Melbourne Home & Giving Fair is where these best-selling brands come together to put on an energetic show for retail buyers.

General Eclectic, Stand E2318, Exhibition Pavilion (MSG)
General Eclectic, Stand E2318, Exhibition Pavilion (MSG)

This August, it’s all about bringing together the incredible products that reflect the latest styles and inspiring trends– with a Melbourne twist. The show floor at Home & Giving Fair will become a city grid, replicating the diversity of retail stores found everywhere from Chapel Street in South Yarra, to Brunswick street in Fitzroy and beyond.

Darcy & Duke, Stand E2718, Exhibition Pavilion (MSG)
Darcy & Duke, Stand E2718, Exhibition Pavilion (MSG)

At Home & Giving Fair, retail buyers can expect a line-up of over 470 wholesalers, including well-known international brands such as Bodum, Royal Selangor and Le Creuset, along with 70+ brand new exhibitors and thousands of new products. Exhibition Pavilion at Melbourne Showgrounds will host an Australian first, a new Fair Trade Zone, where retail buyers can find a collective of over 20 exhibitors showcasing beautiful product with an ethical edge.

Look out for the ‘street art walls’ that signpost the Home & Giving Fair’s creative alleyways at Door 7 at the MCEC and Avenue Pavilion at the MSG. Sign your name or company, strike a pose and share your snap by hashtagging #homeandgiving for your chance to win $200 South Wharf Promenade Dining Voucher.

Holiday Trading & Co, Stand A1001, Avenue Pavilion (MSG)
Holiday Trading & Co, Stand A1001, Avenue Pavilion (MSG)

It’s less than a month away from the biggest retail buying cycle in Australia so don’t miss the largest gift and homewares trade event on the calendar. Melbourne Home & Giving Fair is trade only, and runs from 2-6 August, at both the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre and the Melbourne Showgrounds. For more information and to register today, visit their website.

Carnival Homewares. Stand C47, Door 7 – 10 (MCEC)
Carnival Homewares. Stand C47, Door 7 – 10 (MCEC)

 

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Interiors Addict

Meet successful boutique Aussie brands at Design Life Sydney

Sponsored by Home & Giving

Unique, diverse and exciting, Australian design has much to offer. We are blessed to live in a country that provides great weather all year round (well almost!). This means that cheerful alfresco dining is often popular in warmer months, and during the cooler seasons we can hibernate indoors with industrial furniture and storage pieces incorporating natural minerals and warm earthy tones.

Dan300_6376_resized

In addition to this, trendy timber touches to furniture with colourful and soft textile detailing have become common in many Australian households. You can expect a blast of ocean colours. Sea palettes used on walls and a greater emphasis on the vast outdoors are ever-present. We are now closer than ever to having articulated an authentic Australian design identity!

Design without the compromise!

We all know that gift and homewares products reflect current and up-and-coming trends in the Australian market. Wholesalers are constantly being challenged with having to balance creativity with the demands of cost-effective and innovative production processes.

Dani Rosen, from Dan300 who will be exhibiting at Design Life, an event exclusive to the Home & Giving Fair, prides herself on the high quality of her textile and fabric products, due largely to local manufacturing allowing more control over design and production.

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Interiors Addict

Design Life Sydney – the very best in innovative and inspirational design

Sponsored by Home & Giving.

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Over the past few years, there has been an enormous surge in the variety of homewares available in Australia. As consumers, we are now spoilt more than ever by a diverse and inspiring range of styles to choose from. Whether it be a specific pattern (chevron was everywhere in 2013!), a beloved texture or simply an eye-popping colour – we all want what is hot right now.

east meets west

Interior, fashion and industrial designers are constantly on the lookout for the next up-and-coming trend. The gift and homewares industry is no exception. In February, the Home & Giving Fair will collect some of Australia’s best wholesalers under one roof to present Design Life Sydney. Design Life is an exclusive area of the Home & Giving Fair that delivers to retail buyers the very best in innovative and inspirational design.

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Interiors Addict

AGHA calls for entries in its new design award

The Australian Gift & Homewares Association (AGHA) is launching The Pulse, a new product design award which will take place during the Home & Giving Fair (15-18 February 2014) in Sydney.

The idea is to support new designers with small budgets but big ideas, by providing a platform where they can display their designs and be discovered. AGHA wants to give a foot up to those who want to make their mark within the gift and homewares industry. The Pulse gives them the opportunity to showcase their product prototypes, network with successful wholesalers/manufacturers and talk with industry buyers.

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Interiors Addict

Should stores embrace customers taking and sharing photos with their phones?

Sponsored by the Australian Gift & Homewares Association (AGHA)

Consumers spend 250% more time on social media than they did just 2 years ago. There are 250 million photos uploaded each day to Facebook, with 34% of bloggers posting opinions about products and brands. 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 14% trust advertisements (www.socialnomics.net).

Crowley & Grouch

Photo-taking for sharing on social media increasingly occurs in retail stores, an environment traditionally off limits to photography. Many retailers have been wary of the practice, and have only grown more so as they believe the perpetrators are using their stores as free showrooms prior to making the actual purchase at a different retailer, online.

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Interiors Addict

My blogging article in Giftrap magazine

If you were at the Home & Giving Fair in Melbourne at the weekend, you may have picked up a copy of Giftrap, the magazine of the Australian Gift & Homewares Association (AGHA). I wrote an article in there about why brands should connect with bloggers.

In it I interviewed The Happy Home blogger Belinda Graham, Priyanka Rao from flatpack furniture startup Evolvex, Sam Cannell from online homewares store SE10 Gallery and Alexandra Campbell-Kentmann from Freedom.

If you’re a member of AGHA, you should have a free copy of the magazine sent to you.

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Interiors Addict

Home & Giving trade fair favourites

Despite my best intentions I only made it along to one of the three trade fairs in Sydney this week and it was Home & Giving. I think stylists, decorators, retailers and buyers across the country are probably breathing a collective sigh of relief and pouring themselves a large glass of wine this evening. It’s been full on!

I really enjoyed Home & Giving. My favourite stand belonged to Have You Met Miss Jones. I had a great chat with owner Jennifer Jones, who seemed to be run off her feet taking orders all day. And it’s no surprise as her new stock is gorgeous. I’ve long been a fan of her bone china ornaments but now I’m eyeing off some colourful clay pottery, especially the orgami range of vases.

My favourite new discovery was Picket Fence Imports (their website doesn’t do their stock justice), where I drooled over vintage glass (like the 1920s jars below), baskets full of industrial bobbins and piles of old crates (including Coca Cola crates), most of which is imported from the US. TO DIE FOR. A stylist’s dream PLUS no minimum order!

I loved these giant glass bottles at Villa Maison.

And I was really surprised by how nice these battery operated flameless candles from Enjoy Lighting were. They even smell! Seriously, they’re good. Check them out. And this is a great little business success story too. They’re exporting them all over the world.

Which fairs did you go to and how were they? I heard nothing but good things about Life InStyle.

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Interiors Addict

New buyer orientation program to launch at Home & Giving this month

The Australian Gift & Homewares Association (AGHA) will launch a Buyer Orientation Program at this month’s Home & Giving Fair to help buyers maximise business opportunities.

As a ‘cottage industry’, the gift and homewares sector is made up of a majority of small and medium business owners with a passion for their products who are looking to increase their business proficiency. A new initiative of the AGHA, the Buyer Orientation Program offers to educate buyers, both new and existing, on how to get the most out of their time at the Fair.
 AGHA marketing manager, George Lancaster, says Home & Giving is a crucial opportunity for buyers and wholesalers to extend their business networks, which is particularly vital in the current economic climate.
 

“We want our buyers to be able to go into the Fair with the confidence to know what they are looking for, be sure they are asking the right questions and to be able to follow up with wholesalers after the Fair. The orientation program will educate our buyers and encourage a healthier relationship with wholesalers, with a focus on real business outcomes.”
 

Leading the program is Greg Dodge, who opened his retail store, Dandylyon, in 2010. He will share the lessons he has learnt about the importance of the Fair since joining AGHA.
The Buyer Orientation Program will be held on Saturday 25 February from 8-9am at the Mezzanine Level of The Dome. To register your interest email [email protected] or phone 1300 441 384.
 

The AGHA’s Home & Giving Fair will give retailers a chance to stock up on new products inspired by innovations and trends across toys, kitchenware, home décor, giftware, jewellery and accessories.