Have you ever been to the Jacob Javitz Center?
It is Massive!I have grabbed a couple of Photos and a description of the event so that you can get an idea of what we were about to take on!
The New York International Gift Fair, the premier gift and decorative accessories market in the United States, has opened its doors at the
Jacob Javitz Center. This semi-annual event fills 638,000 net square feet, including the entire
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the Passenger Ship Terminal. The 45,000 national and international attendees are drawn from major retail outlets, specialty retailers, distributors, catalog companies and others. There are more than 2,800 firms exhibiting in eleven major merchandise sections of the Fair, including international sponsored groups representing Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Canadian Province of Quebec, South Africa, Thailand and United Kingdom.
Wow! We need to pick enough items to fill our measly 600 square foot store from 600,000+ square feet of merchandise. How do you edit? Where do we begin? Row One? Booth One? Hand-made?
Take a breath, and make a plan.
We new that there were a few Lines that we wanted to carry. We decided to start with them and then fill in the holes after that.
We started with
Lampe Berger. The first
Lampe Berger lamp was created in 1898 by Maurice Berger, a pharmacy dispenser, to purify the air in hospital wards. Jean Cocteau and
Pablo Picasso were the first “well-known people” to appreciate it.
LAMPE BERGER, the leader in innovations for air care, cleanses the room air by destroying unwanted odors and providing long-lasting fragrance, due to its exclusive diffusion system.
By eliminating unpleasant smelling molecules (tobacco, cooking, etc.), LAMPE BERGER cleanses the interior air in your home.
The Lampe Berger comes with simple instructions and is safe to use.
Just add fragrance, then insert the wick/burner, and allow the wick to soak for 20 minutes.
Light the burner for two minutes and extinguish.
After the purifying process occurs (destruction area), the fragrance then disperses into the air.
45 minutes are all that is necessary to fragrance a room of up to 300 square feet.
To stop fragrancing, simply place the cap on.
Next, we went to
Votivo. We have been buying their candles for years. Our Favorites are the
Tomato Leaf and the
Champaca.
Since its inception in 1994,
Votivo has built a worldwide reputation for high quality home fragrances and distinctive packaging. Each
Votivo product is a culmination of care and commitment to detail. Each candle is hand-crafted. Each tissue is hand-wrapped. Each pewter seal is hand-pressed. Each candle is specially made. At the heart of every
Votivo candle is a unique fragrance meticulously formulated and layered to reflect depth, richness, and complexity. Our candles are famous for their ability to quickly fill a room with wonderful fragrances. As one of the original domestically made luxury candle lines, Votivo passionately pursues excellence in the art of candle making.
After that we went through several rows, grabbing Catalog after Catalog. Our plan was to take them Home and search through them over a glass of wine from Tony at
B&G Wines in Hillsdale, NY, so that we could decide where to go the next day.
We happened upon an amazing Company called
Fringe. They were the sweetest people and we fell in Love with their Product.
Vases,
Candles,
Magnets,
Trays, all of which were amazing!
A Collection of beautiful printed glass decorative pieces.
Fringe Studios relies on nature for the inspiration for many of its products. Most items come in gift boxes.
This Company has brought an amazing presence to our shop. We can barely keep them on the shelves.
By the end of that first day, I thought I was never going to make it back the next morning. My shoulders were killing me. We had so many catalogs to go through.
Despite being overwhelmed by the sheer size of the
Javitz Center and the number of Vendors at the
NYIGF, we had a blast! Laughing at each of us complaining about our feet, our shoulders, and the strange mix of people we were shoulder to shoulder with.
That evening over a bottle of wine, we made a plan and for 3 more days we created "
Passiflora"! Picking and choosing the things we love, and the things we thought our Friends and Neighbors would love!
Little did we know, this would be the easy part!!
Ken and Kevin Signing Off from Passiflora, Hillsdale in Upstate New York!
