Thanks in part to his popularity on TikTok, fashion designer Joseph Altuzarra is jumping into home decor with a new West Elm Kids collaboration.
“Three or four years ago, this project is not something I would have done,” Altuzarra said. “But through TikTok, I’ve shared a side of myself that I hadn’t shared before — and a lot of that involves being [part of] a family and having kids.”
He added, “This collection feels like a natural extension of [my] brand, from a stylistic point of view, and also of who I am.”
Joseph Altuzarra x West Elm Kids, which hit West Elm’s U.S. and Canadian e-commerce sites on Monday, is made up of 42 pieces of furniture and accessories, each made for kids’ rooms and reflective of West Elm’s signature modernity and functionality.
For the collection, Altuzarra designed each piece starting with a sketch, in the same way he develops his clothing collections. His daily sketching routine is well-known among his 54,000 followers on TikTok, where he’s been posting “day in the life”-style videos since July 2022.
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His West Elm collection is focused on two themes inspired by the personalities and growth stages of his young girls: A zodiac and constellation theme — which plays out in products including “Shooting Stars” bedding, peel-and-stick star wallpaper and a moon-and-stars rug — was based on “imaginative worlds” and storytelling, as loved by his three-and-a-half-year-old, Emma, he said. And a focus on hot air balloons, clouds and sky was based on the “joy and wonder” of his 1-year-old, Charlotte.
This is not the first time Altuzarra has designed home decor, which he calls a passion. In 2021, under his own label, he launched a small collection of home products, inclusive of accent pillows, decorative baskets and monogrammable blankets. And a year prior, he teamed with Etsy and select artisans on a line of limited-edition, one-of-a-kind home products.
As designing home decor is “a natural extension of working on clothing,” Altuzarra said it will be a bigger part of his business in the future. “It’s a [category] I’m thinking about more and more,” he said.
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On that note, West Elm Kids is set to become a bigger part of 21-year-old West Elm’s business, according to the company’s president, Day Kornbluth.
“It’s an exciting growth opportunity,” Kornbluth said, noting the success of West Elm sister brand Pottery Barn’s 24-year-old kids’ business — the companies are owned by Williams-Sonoma, Inc. According to Williams-Sonoma’s second-quarter earnings report, announced August 23, West Elm’s revenue for the quarter dipped 21% year-over-year to $484 million, while Pottery Barn’s saw a smaller decrease of 11%, to $786 million. Pottery Barn Kids & Teen, which will open its first standalone store in Mexico in September, pulled in $256 million, reflecting a dip of 9%.
The growth of West Elm Kids is outpacing the main West Wlm brand, which is to be expected considering its newsness, Kornbluth said. West Elm Kids is not yet available in-store.
Since launching in 2021, West Elm Kids has debuted several collaborations, including with Pottery Barn Kids and National Geographic. The Altuzarra partnership is the largest to date, based on the number of products, and “many” more collabs are set to launch in 2024. In terms of ideal collaborators, Kornbluth said West Elm has sought out style authorities who are raising small children.
“Our customers range in age from their 20s on up,” Kornbluth said. “We’ve been the place that they’ve [come to] to furnish their first apartment and their first owned home. Now, those customers also are thinking of us as a place to come when they’re furnishing their their first nursery.”
Altuzarra said, while decorating his daughters’ rooms, the “cartoony” decor options he was finding on the market didn’t fit his home’s sophisticated aesthetic. As such, he’s happy to introduce a kids’ line that feels “grounded in a refined design language,” and that can transition from a baby’s room to a child’s room and potentially beyond.
Altuzarra, who launched his namesake designer clothing brand 15 years ago, has been busy. Since 2020, he’s collaborated with companies including sneaker brand Keds, Spanish footwear brand Castaner and kidwear boutique Maisonette. And in late 2021, he debuted Altu, focused on gender-neutral fashion styles. Shira Sue Carmi, formerly president of Mansur Gavriel, was hired as Altuzarra CEO in January 2020. The company was reportedly generating less than $20 million in 2016.
Following the success of home categories at the height of the pandemic, it’s clear that the category can serve to safeguard brands, in terms of providing a diversified revenue stream. Brands that have launched home decor since 2020 include Rhode, Tanya Taylor, Loro Piana and Jacquemus. Homeware is currently a $643 billion market that’s set to grow at a 5% annual growth rate through 2026, according to Euromonitor International.
