MILAN — American furnishings retailer RH, which is on a mission to create a curated world of luxury living, travel, dining and design services, will release its first print Interiors source book since 2020 Friday. A copy previewed by WWD shows an expanded roster of international collaborations with names like Sonoma, California’s Ron Mann, the Netherlands’ Nils Verhoeven, as well as Italy’s Francesco Crivellari and U.K.’s Oliver Oulton and returning collaborators, such as Sydney’s Nicholas and Harrison Condos, master glass designer Los Angeles-based Alison Berger and San Francisco-based artisan Jonathan Browning.
The 604-page source book is the culmination of chairman and chief executive officer Gary Friedman’s goal to unite the world’s most renowned global designers and manufacturers to develop and showcase their work on RH’s expansive platform, and part of the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware‘s bid to turn itself into a true U.S. luxury brand. The book, envisioned for potential and current customers, as well as interior designers, is fueled by RH’s ethos of: “There Are Pieces That Furnish a Home and Those That Define It.”
“Time is why we’ve built the largest global residential interior design firm in the world. A multidisciplinary practice of designers, interior architects and stylists who have completed projects from San Francisco to Shanghai, Miami to Milan, L.A. to London, Pittsburgh to Paris, Tokyo to Toronto and Denver to Dubai, so your world is within our reach,” Friedman prefaced the document, which he signed “Carpe Diem.”
At the last RH shareholders’ meeting, Friedman said 2023 would mark the unveiling of the most “prolific” collection of products in the company’s history, with more than 70 furniture and upholstery collections across RH Interiors, Contemporary, Modern, Outdoor, Baby & Child and Teen. “These new collections reflect a level of design and quality inaccessible in our current market, and a value proposition that will be disruptive across multiple markets,” he said.
Part of the Corte Madera, California-based company’s long-term strategy includes building the world’s first consumer-facing architecture, interior design and landscape architecture services platform, RH. The 2023 RH Interiors source book itself features 100 exclusive collections, boasting what the company says is the largest curated and fully integrated assortment of luxury home furnishings in the world.
Emerging figures like Oulton, son of London-based furniture designer Timothy Oulton, along with Italian designer Crivellari, whose family has specialized in producing high-quality upholstery furniture with its eponymous brand since 1978, were tapped to introduce generously proportioned sofas and sectionals reflecting the architectural influence of ’70s design.
The Bella, Dillon and Durham collections have pieces available in fine leather and fabrics including Libeco Belgian linen, Holland & Sherry Australian wool twill, Italian artisanal hides and Viganò merino wool velvet — as well as an array of premium performance options. The brand will also unveil a wide selection of lounge and dining chairs inspired by iconic midcentury, nature echoing biomorphic, ancient Greek-style Klismos and even more traditional wingback designs.
RH’s debut furniture collection with Mann, who is known for his knack for sculptural spaces and boundary-pushing creations is named Andora. It’s occasion tables evoke the architecture of the postmodern movement with intersecting planks of wire-brushed American white oak that form dynamic angular bases.
Friedman highlighted the integration of sought-out material like European and American White Oak, Walnut and Indonesian Teak throughout its lines. He also pointed out that the sofas are predominately Made in America with eight-way hand-tied springs (considered the gold standard), or Made in Italy with forward-thinking engineered foam and high-end tailoring. Testament to this enhanced attention to materials and craftsmanship is the work of Netherlands-based designer Verhoeven with whom RH unfurled Jorris, and Julien, made from solid European oak reclaimed from decades-old buildings.
The cover of the new source book features Byron, a collaboration with the Condos, characterized by hand-carved European white oak creations intended to convey a dramatic play of light and shadow.
Elsewhere, the Van Thiels, a duo also from the Netherlands, presented two collections this season: the Padua inspired by the Vienna Secession movement and crafted with richly grained American oak, fashioned into streamlined silhouettes that provide a graceful counterpoint to sinuous metal hardware, and the Belmont, which pays homage to French Art Deco designs where geometric forms with waterfall corners are wrapped in European mappa burl wood veneers.
For lighting, master glass designer, L.A.-based Berger features prominently with Hemisphere, inspired by the French Gothic architecture of Paris’ Notre Dame, and Tulip, reflecting the graceful lines of the flower in bloom.
RH’s interior design facet allows its customers to connect with a professional designer for a one-on-one consultation for entire homes or single rooms. It was originally envisaged as a concierge-level program, launched in tandem with the RH Design Ateliers offering integrated workspaces inspired by the leading architecture and design studios across its retail network in 2016. Interior design services at the time were part of Friedman’s plan to establish RH as a leading design firm and a move toward selling spaces.
This year, RH has been on a roll. In June, it unveiled one of RH’s most ambitious projects yet: RH England, The Gallery at Aynho Park — a 73-acre, 17th-century estate — a crown jewel in its strategy to become a globally recognized luxury brand with exclusive galleries, restaurants and lodging worldwide.
Based on its recent efforts, RH raised its revenue outlook in May for fiscal 2023 to a range of $3 billion to $3.1 billion.
For the second quarter of fiscal 2023, RH forecast revenues of $765 million to $775 million and adjusted operating margin in the range of 14 to 14.5 percent.
