Word: rattan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...aggressive in dispatching Bloomingdale's officials?first himself, later subordinates?to visit foreign manufacturers and persuade them to design goods specifically for Bloomingdale's. The store was the first to feature merchandise from Communist China (see box previous page). Bloomingdale's two years ago persuaded Philippine craftsmen to design rattan furniture to its specifications, but other retailers began selling copies. So this year the store requested a cinnabar finish or a glass-rattan combination...
...Bloomingdale's a shipment already on route to France. Result: on Oct. 25, 1971 the very day the U.N. gave a seat to the People's Republic, Bloomingdale's opened its "China Passage" shop. The timing helped to make the shop an immediate hit. Woven rattan baskets, bamboo ladders and other simple items sold well. Bloomingdale's customers snapped up 4,000 blue cotton Mao suit−despite warnings that the wearers might turn blue since the dye was not fast...
Bloomingdale's has since regularly shopped the Canton Trade Fair and has imported nearly a million dollars' worth of Chinese products, putting some to uses for which they were not intended. Rattan headrests, a sort of pillow in China, were stood on end, wired, and−presto!−became lamp bases. But Carl Levine, vice president in charge of home furnishings, was not satisfied; he wanted the Chinese to tailor products specifically for Bloomingdale's. Lacquered boxes and fans, which were decorated with floral patterns and calligraphy, had great potential, he thought, if their makers would forget...
...about a year, Bloomingdale's will offer a modified version of the classic rattan peacock chair, fans, framed posters featuring, yes, calligraphy, and even some Chinese-made copies of American Indian baskets. After that? Well, says Fashion Coordinator Anne Bertsch, the store's international strategy has been to "start with more or less simple ideas, then graduate so that we are challenging manufacturers abroad to produce more spectacular items." The Chinese, it seems, will just have to learn to please choosy capitalists...
...garment buyer, asked to pay $32 each for cashmere sweaters that sold at last November's fair for $9, bristled: "I can get them cheaper in Taiwan." Some exceptions to the nonbuying rule: Sears, Roebuck, Bloomingdale's and Macy's made purchases of furniture, rattan and handicrafts, and West Coast importers Huntington & Rice placed orders for Chefoo white wine, which will retail in the U.S. for about...