By Mark Seavy 

As the New York Home Fashion Market Week gets underway, the spotlight will be on brand licensing and a shift in direct-to-retail (DTR) strategies. 

More companies are launching branded lines in coordination with retailers in response to continued consolidation in the home textiles business. As a result, brand owners and licensees are working to fill any gaps within DTR programs.  

This improved coordination of licensed products lines comes as brand owners increasingly put together brand summits that are standard in the entertainment industry, but new for home textiles. These summits enable a sharing of designs and brand style guides along with, in some cases, any DTR plans, licensing executives said.  

For example, Kohl’s has expanded a DTR effort for ready-to-wear apparel and some home goods with actress Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James brand to also include window treatments and rugs from licensee Town & Country Living.  

Cathay Home’s acquisition of Sunham bolsters its portfolio of licensed brands (including Lenox, KnitWell Group’s Ann Taylor, and Newell Brands’ Coleman) with the addition of Maus Frères SA’s Lacoste, WHP Global’s Anne Klein, and Delta Galil Industries’ Splendid, and it also provides another avenue for DTR expansion. Additionally, Cathay hired former Town & Country Living executive Cynthia Nixon as VP of Licensing and Marketing and purchased Royal Heritage Home to extend its business into cotton-based textiles and electric blankets from a base in microfiber products. 

“It is splitting the difference between a DTR where we are boxed out and have to work around it and now having a way we can work with it,” said Judi Alvarez, VP of Licensing and Marketing at Town & Country, a Draper James licensee. “It is a new day for licensing in collaborating with the retailer and brands to be able to tell these stories and be out there with compelling products.”  

Whether the retailer will purchase from Town & Country in addition to their DTR remains to be seen, Alvarez said, but the team will start with sales of its broader assortment through Kohl’s eCommerce business. Town & Country has the Draper James license for kitchen textiles, table linens, outdoor decorative pillows and cushions, and area and accent rugs. The rugs have launched at HomeGoods and HomeSense and will be available along with bedding and rugs (hitting shelves in June) at Sam’s Club. 

“[The focus on coordinated ranges is necessary] in order to grow the brand and make it meaningful to a wider customer base,” a home textiles licensing executive said. “Retailers have the ability to work with a brand and create looks that are specifically their own and then licensees can layer into those looks and coordinate product into categories where they are not supplying it themselves.” 

At the same time, some home textiles companies are developing their own brands. Town & Country, for example, is affixing its own brand to pet beds in addition to those already being sold under licenses. Town & Country has been selling its branded textiles through an Amazon store and will expand to its own direct-to-consumer business by early 2026.  

Revman, meanwhile, is launching Tommy Hilfiger bedding and other products, further deepening the licensing agreement it has for the Calvin Klein brand with PVH Corp. And Pem America plans to highlight its Scout branded bedding during Home Fashion Market Week under a license with Deb Waterman Johns.  

“There are so many things at play and retailers have so many brands in their stable that they can keep their assortments fresh by working specifically with the brands they feel have a story,” Alvarez said. “This allows licensors to work in multiple channels of distribution. And we want to know whether there is going to be a market besides the retailer that has the DTR. It gives us confidence that the brand is well known, and that consumers will be delighted at whichever retailer they shop.”