As part of an ongoing brand extension, Corte Madera, CA-based Restoration Hardware will launch Brocade Home this month with a 64-page catalog. Based in New York, the new brand, which has been more than a year in the making, will have “much more of a feminine energy without being girly,” says Lisa Versacio, senior vice president of new business development at Restoration Hardware.
A glance at the nontransactional Brocade Home Website suggests an esthetic closer to the vintage-inspired, delicately ornate decor of Anthropologie than to the more solid and masculine lines of Restoration Hardware’s furnishings.
“We see our customer as predominately women and not necessarily a specific age group. It seems to appeal to a younger audience and old people like me — and even older,” Versacio says with a laugh. “It’s hitting a female chord across the board, which was really the plan.” Nonetheless, she adds that Brocade Home’s target customer is younger than that of its parent company, whose customers according to its datacard have an average age of 45.
The Brocade Home catalog will mail monthly and offer 400 SKUs covering all categories of home furniture, lighting, and textiles. Versacio would not disclose circulation specifics but says mailings will start small. Catalogs will be mailed to rented lists but not to the Restoration Hardware house file.
The Brocade Home’s Website will remain nontransactional until early 2007. Stores are a possibility in the future, Versacio says, but not until the end of 2007 at the earliest, though “more likely it will be the beginning of 2008.”
Versacio had previously created and launched the younger, more-affordable Pottery Barn spin-off West Elm for San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma. She was hired more than a year ago to oversee the development of Brocade Home. Versacio hired eight staff members — none of whom had been part of Restoration Hardware — to work on the launch.