By Mark Seavy

Licensing is increasingly providing a home for nostalgia and vintage-inspired tabletop products to connect with a younger generation of consumers.

Whether it’s licensed artists like Susan Winget and Tammy Rapp or brands like Hallmark, Dolly Parton, Farberware, and others, nostalgia has gained an audience with Gen Z consumers, licensing industry executives said at the recent New York Tabletop Show.

And in fact, in many cases that interest is tied to brands that may pre-date young consumers’ birth. At the same time, suppliers are taking advantage of the growing demand for nostalgia by giving contemporary sheens to vintage patterns and designs.

Lifetime Brands, for example, is updating the packaging and designs for its licensed Farberware kitchen utensils with plans to complete the transition by late 2027, said Stephen Spitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Lifetime Brands. The packaging’s former gray with a red accent design is being replaced with more neutral colors, while the utensils’ red handles are giving way to blue and taupe, he said. And Lifetime’s 11-inch by 14-inch “Build-a-Board” bamboo cutting boards that double as a serving tray and are sold under Dolly Parton and Hallmark brands have proved popular with Gen Z. This is also true for cake stands—not so much for traditional multi-layer cakes, but rather small snacks, Spitz said.

The Dolly Parton brand, which Lifetime launched at Dollar General in July 2024, generates about $20 million in annual sales across kitchen gadgets, mixing and nesting bowls, baking sheets, cutting boards, and other products, with a cake stand due in February. Lifetime also signed a licensing agreement for Ginger Aydogdu’s Simply Southern brand, which began as an American preppy apparel label and will expand into licensed dinnerware and glasses.

Vista Alegre, meanwhile, is launching licensed dinnerware with Netflix’s Bridgerton brand, including dinner (11.4-inch), dessert (six- and nine-inch), and charger plates (13-inch) as well as teacups and saucers. Certified International launched dinnerware, including a 16-piece set featuring pheasant illustrations from Tammy Rapp. Additionally, Villeroy & Boch is introducing Mickey and Minny Mouse four-piece sets (salad plates, bowls, mugs) in the U.S. in January, expanding distribution of a line that debuted in Europe earlier this year, said Nicole Hallenbeck, Brand and Digital Marketing Communications Manager at Villeroy & Boch.

Some of these new licensed brands are part of a broader “splatterware” trend, a nostalgic pattern characterized by scattered dots that mimics paint or glaze across a solid base. The style was popular in the 1990s and is making a comeback amid a “slow decorating” trend in rooms featuring a collected, personal, and less polished design. Certified unveiled a variation with “spongeware,” including pitchers, soup, mixing, and batter bowls that are hand painted with a sponge by in-house designers.

“With cake stands and other products, you can provide the feeling of walking into your grandmother’s kitchen” Spitz said. Though there have been updates that reflect modern consumer behavior. For example, those cake stands are now more likely to be used for smaller pieces rather than jumbo baked goods due to the increasing use of weight loss drugs.

That emphasis on health and wellness can also be found in stainless steel and non-stick ceramic cookware that is free of polyfluoroalkyl synthetic (PFAS) chemicals that were prized for their ability to repel water, oil, and stains, but can increase the risk of cancer. Gibson Homewares sells stainless steel cookware under the Martha Stewart and other licensed brands and is parting ways with the John Deere and Transformco’s Kenmore labels, said David Nicklin, SVP for Marketing at Gibson.

In addition to the growing spotlight on health and wellness, many consumers are emphasizing value for their money over low prices, tabletop executives said.

The change in consumer attitudes doesn’t mean an opening price point is less important at retail, but rather that they “understand the products more and want them to be representative of them,” said Zrike Brands CEO David Zrike, whose company has signed a tabletop license for BBC Studio’s Bluey brand and plans to bring recently acquired dinnerware supplier Caskata into licensing within two years. Caskata will also bring Zrike into the direct-to-consumer (DTC) business within six to eight months.

And though suppliers continue to grapple with a “challenging” business environment with increased materials, transportation, and fuel costs, the market has come down from disruptions driven by U.S. import tariffs imposed a year ago, Zrike said. Suppliers continue to apply wholesale price increases to offset rising costs but are being more selective, he said.

“Shipping companies have cut back on their capacity, so getting containers has been difficult,” Zrike said. “We have swallowed price increases, and we must work every day to get our margins. We are not seeing another 2025, but we are still suffering selective price increases, and you must pass that on to some degree. You must carefully manage your portfolio.”