Behind the rise and rise of Aussie designer furniture brand Sarah Ellison
Known for its modern aesthetic and original designs – you’ve probably seen its ‘Huggy’ chair on Instagram – Australian designer furniture brand Sarah Ellison has just launched what it believes will be its next big hit: the 70s-inspired, modular ‘Float’ sofa in Piccolo, a custom, chocolate-brown colour that the brand created in collaboration with the Pantone Color Institute. Pantone has previously created custom colours for the likes of Valentino, which showed its Fall/Winter 20
2022-23 collection almost entirely in its signature PP Pink, and American football star Tom Brady, who used Brady Blue for the launch of his activewear line. But this marks the first time the company has worked with a designer in the home category, as well as an Australian designer.
The collaboration, which launched globally on Thursday, heralds Sarah Ellison’s ambitions to move beyond its current status as a cult “Instagram brand” to become a global name that is synonymous with iconic furniture design, like Eames.
“Someone like Pantone has that authority in the design world, so we were thrilled that they wanted to partner with us,” Leigh McKeown, co-founder and managing director of Sarah Ellison, told Inside Retail.
The collaboration is the latest major milestone for the brand after it clinched a deal with Design Within Reach (DWR), an American furniture chain owned by Miller Knoll, considered the LVMH of the furniture world, to distribute Sarah Ellison products online and through its network of 45 bricks-and-mortar stores in the US.
The brand has enjoyed a positive response to its first collection, which debuted in DWR in February, and it expects the US market to represent the bulk of its revenue within the next 12 months.
“It’s selling like hotcakes.