Look up the word "abnormal" in the dictionary and you'll see it's about being irregular and deviating from the norm. Consider "abnormal" in this industry and it's far more complicated. A retail format given up for dead is turning into one of the pandemic winners. Reports of another format forecast to rule the retail world turn out to be wildly exaggerated. And the once-biggest and arguably best player in the business is going down quickly in a spiral that could result in its extinction. So it goes for the home textiles business as it finds itself in a period that can only be called The New Abnormal. It may not be pretty and it may not last forever, but for right now, it is the landscape the industry must deal with. That becomes all the more poignant as the home textiles sector gathers for its fall market week in New York. It too is far from the norm of years gone by: showrooms scattered about town, attendance still optional for many key customers and one entire demographic - the Chinese - largely shut out from in-person participation due to travel restrictions in their own country.
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