luxury webblog

GE Money, Sales Finance continues to be one of the most active providers of consumer financing to retailers big and small across the United States. Heading into the traditional holiday shopping season, Sales Finance has added a number of new programs and announced renewed or expanded relationships with many long-term partners, representing more than 30,000 business locations nationwide.

Over the past month, Sales Finance announced new agreements including:

– Edwin Watts Golf – Launched last week, the Edwin Watts and GE Money Sport Finance program can be used at any of the company’s 70-plus domestic retail locations, and will be available for catalog and online purchases in 2010.

– The Tile Shop – Since 1984, The Tile Shop has grown from one store in Minnesota to 43 locations nationwide. The Tile Shop revolving credit card is part of the GE Money Home DesignSM program and can be used for the purchase of tile, supplies, tools, rentals, and installation and maintenance services.

– Oreck – The Oreck Power Card is available through 450 Oreck Clean Home Centers, as well as through its online store for the purchase of homecare items, including a variety of vacuum, air purification and other cleaning products.

– 1-800-Mattress – 1-800-Mattress offers products from most major manufacturers and has served more than two million customers over the past 30 years.

– Fender Musical Instruments Corporation – The Fender program is a manufacturer-sponsored agreement, rolling out to Fender’s 3,000 dealer locations in mid-December.

Extensions have also been completed with a number of partners including:

– Husqvarna – Since 2004, consumers have used the Husqvarna financing program to purchase outdoor power products for forestry, lawn and garden care.

– Bassett Furniture – Over the past century, Bassett Furniture has grown to some 130 stores, offering a range of home furnishings and accessories. The Bassett Furniture Credit program has provided consumers with flexible payment options since 1998.

– KTM Power Sports – Established in 2002, the KTM installment-financing program is offered through more than 375 dealers across the U.S.

– Steinhafel’s Furniture – Originally formed in 2004, GE Money recently extended the Steinhafel’s Furniture Card program with this leading Wisconsin-based furniture retailer.

– Bernina – Considered to be the premier manufacturer of sewing and embroidery systems, sergers and embroidery software, Bernina products are sold in the U.S. through a network of more than 500 dealerships. The financing program has been in place since 2002.

– Pep Boys – One of the leading sellers of replacement tires in the U.S., Pep Boys has more than 570 retail stores, offering full-service vehicle maintenance and repair capabilities and payment options through the Pep Boys Credit Card program, which launched in 1996. The Company plans to add 40 locations for fiscal 2010.

“Sales Finance has been meeting the financing needs of consumers and Main Street retailers for decades, enabling businesses to offer installment and promotional financing to their customers. Since announcing the launch of our Web-based finance management portal GE Money Business Center in July, we’ve signed and announced an array of new sales financing agreements with more than one dozen small- to larger-sized independent businesses,” said Glenn Marino, Sales Finance’s president and CEO. “Today, we proudly provide consumer financing through more than 145,000 small to medium sized business locations retail locations across the United States.

Financing For Bicycles, Furniture, Flooring and More

In June and July, Sales Finance announced new deals with Art Van Furniture (Warren, Mich.), Michigan’s leading furniture retailer; mountain bike manufacturer and retailer Giant Bicycle; dealers of Dacor (Diamond Bar, Calif.) luxury appliances; MEGA Group USA, a buying group representing 2,300 stores; and Rooms to Go – Puerto Rico, expanding the existing relationship with Rooms To Go, Americas’ number one independent furniture company with more than 100 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Rooms To Go was recently featured in GE Capital’s American Renewal campaign.

In August, Sales Finance announced a multi-year program with ABC Warehouse (Pontiac, Mich.), a leading consumer electronics retailer in the Midwest, followed in September by an agreement with the Western Home Furnishings Association, representing more than 1,000 furniture retailers across the country.

Agreements announced in October included Carsmetics (Tampa, Fla.), an express accident services business with shops in Florida and California, Lumber Liquidators (Toano, Va.), the nation’s largest hardwood flooring company, and the National Association of Diesel Motorsports.

About GE Money

GE Money’s Sales Finance unit, based in Kettering, Ohio, is a part of General Electric Company’s GE Capital division, (NYSE: GE), which has extended more than $146 billion of credit to some 50 million consumers in the U.S. since January 2008. Visit GE Capital: Advertising to learn more about GE Capital’s role in the American renewal.

GE Money provides credit card programs and financial services for consumers through dealers; national, regional and independent retailers; associations; contractors; manufacturers; healthcare practices; and service providers in nearly 20 industries including: automotive, consumer electronics and appliances, elective health care, floor covering, home design and improvement, home furnishings, jewelry, music, powersports, outdoor power equipment and sporting goods. More information can be found at www.gemoney.com, www.gecapital.com and twitter.com/gecapitalnews.

GE is a diversified global infrastructure, finance and media company that is built to meet essential world needs. From energy, water, transportation and health to access to money and information, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. GE is Imagination at Work. For more information, visit www.ge.com, www.gereports.com and twitter.com/ge_reports.

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Despite a weak start to the holiday shopping season and snowstorms on historically big spending days, the nation’s retailers managed to have a better Christmas than in 2008, according to the latest data.

“Santa moved from critical to stable condition,” said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at SpendingPulse, an information service of MasterCard Advisors.

Sales in December were up year over year in nearly every major retailing category, Mr. tiffany jewelry on sale said on Tuesday. Stores did not discount as deeply as they did in 2008, he added, which suggested that they might have preserved their profit margins.

SpendingPulse, which estimates sales for all forms of payment including cash, checks and credit cards, does not publish an industry number for the entire Hanukkah and Christmas season. Mr. McNamara, however, estimated that the retailing industry turned in a 1.7 percent sales increase in November and December compared with the period a year earlier.

The results were good, though not great, considering that Christmas 2008 was the worst in decades. And last month’s sales were also helped by a calendar shift that gave retailers an extra selling day before Christmas. So while sales in big retailing categories stabilized, they remained well below the highs of 2006 and 2007.

The definitive verdict on the holiday shopping season will come on Thursday, when individual tiffany jewelry sale stores report their December sales results. On Tuesday, analysts at Thomson Reuters predicted that the industry would post a 2 percent increase in December sales; they declined 3.6 percent in December 2008.

Those results, while closely watched by Wall Street, nonetheless account for a small piece of the overall retailing pie. Monthly retailing reports issued by the government tend to show relatively small percentage changes because they include huge categories like food, automobiles and gasoline.

From Dec. 1 to Jan. 2, big holiday categories fared better year over year, according to SpendingPulse. The results were also an improvement from November.

Sales of electronics rose 7.3 percent in December compared with the period a year earlier. That was also a better performance than in November, when sales increased 6.6 percent year-over-year.

Sales of jewelry increased 6.9 percent from the period a year earlier, an improvement from the 4.6 percent year-over-year rise reported in November. Sales of luxury goods not including jewelry — a sector that experienced an extreme decline in 2008 — rose 5.5 percent in December compared with a year earlier. In November, year-over-year sales in that category declined 7.3 percent.

E-commerce sales in December also climbed 17.7 percent year over year; Internet sales in November were up 12.3 percent. Mr. McNamara said winter storms might have helped increase online sales as consumers shopped from home instead of braving the elements. He also said that small, less-expensive purchases — for music or for mobile applications — seemed to bolster those online sales. Two long-struggling categories, department stores and clothing, continued to post declines.

Sales at department stores fell 2.3 percent in December, compared with a 0.9 percent decline in the tiffany bracelets period. Even so, the December result was an improvement on November, when sales fell 8.6 percent year-over-year.

Sales of clothing declined 1.8 percent in December compared with the period a year earlier, when year-over-year sales fell 8.9 percent. The December result was an improvement over the 5.7 percent year-over-year decline in November. Within the clothing category, sales of women’s apparel fared worst, declining 2.8 percent compared with 2008. Sales of men’s clothing increased 2.6 percent year-over-year, while sales of shoes, a relatively robust category these days, climbed 6.2 percent.

The appliance category was the only one to perform worse in December than in November, according to SpendingPulse. After a 3.5 percent year-over-year sales increase in November, sales of appliances declined 2.6 percent in December compared the period a year earlier. Mr. McNamara said the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers might have helped the category shine in November. But he also said that the December decline could simply represent a pause in sales. After all, dishwashers and refrigerators are not wildly popular Christmas gifts.

Over all, the SpendingPulse results are in line with what several retailing professionals predicted for the season: a 1 or 2 percent difference from Christmas 2008. After a tepid November, it appears December sales lifted the holiday season’s results.

The International Council of Shopping Centers, an industry group, said on Tuesday that sales at major retailing chains were up 2.5 percent year-over-year for the week ending Saturday.

“For the final week of the fiscal month of December, post-Christmas sales were boosted by consumers tiffany on sale their gift cards,” Michael P. Niemira, the council’s chief economist, said in a statement. “Holiday sales were late in coming, but showed healthy gains as the season wrapped up.”

Since 2001 a small portion of the Rincon Valley has been transformed every cufflinks into a marketplace.

In the shadow of a large green and white barn, some 35 vendors gather year-round to sell goods ranging from organic fruits and vegetables and fresh coffees to furniture and jewelry at the Rincon Valley Farmers & Artisans Market.

“We are unique — we’ve got the old historic barn that’s a really cool setting,” said market coordinator Laura Brumbelow, whose office is in one of the barn stalls. “We are in the rural Rincon Valley, which is absolutely beautiful scenery, and we have a lot of great people that have handmade products, one-of-a-kind things.

“You never know what you are going to see because we do have vendors that come every so often, but we also have our regular people too.”

Surrounded by tables of organic vegetables and fresh fruit at the Jan. 2 market, shopper Suzanne Johnson held a fresh lemon to her nose and inhaled.

“I think the market is wonderful,” she said. “People have to eat naturally — that’s how you live earrings. It’s a little more expensive, but it’s worth it.”

Located four miles east of Saguaro National Park East at 12500 E. Old Spanish Trail, the market was created in 2001 as a way to help the Rincon Institute, a nonprofit land conservation organization, generate money to help the valley keep its rural character and protect its open spaces, Brumbelow said.

“We work to protect the land locally,” she said. “The market makes about $50,000 a year but that basically covers our needs and expenses. We work a lot with volunteers and depend a lot on the community.”

For artist and local resident Garnet Myers, living in the Rincon Valley and helping protect its land keeps him coming out to sell his painted sandstone art.

“I have been at this market going on several years now,” Myers said, his face hidden under a large cowboy hat.

“Most of the clientele or people that come to this market are new people that have moved to the area, they have not seen everything there is to see yet, so it’s exciting for them. They are in a beautiful part of the valley, so that enhances it for me to be here.”

IF YOU GO

What: Rincon Valley Farmers & necklaces Market.

Where: 12500 E. Old Spanish Trail.

When: Every Saturday.

Hours: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. October through April, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. May through September.

More information: Call 591-2276 or go online to www.rvfm.org.

Contact photographer David Sanders at dsanders@azstarnet.com or 573-4155.

Songwriter Paul McCartney made a valid point when he penned “Can’t Buy Me Love” 46 years ago for the Beatles.

“I don’t care too much for money; money can’t buy me love,” the now-Sir Paul croons on tiffany ring tune.

McCartney may be right — money isn’t able to buy love — but it sure can buy the flowers, chocolates and trinkets to make sweethearts and loved ones happy this Valentine’s Day.

Cupid’s favorite day falls on a Sunday this year, which puts a snag in an otherwise crazy crush for florists and others who ordinarily make the bulk of their Valentine’s Day sales and deliveries on weekdays.

“I expect sales to be conservative,” said Jerry Smith of Burnett’s Flowers and Gifts, 4322 E. 11th St. “Normally during the week, when ladies are at their offices, sales are higher. Saturday is good, but Sunday…well … it’s just one of those things.”

Burnett’s is typically closed on Sundays, and this year will be no different on Feb. 14. While many deliveries will be made Friday, Smith said the store will be busiest next Saturday.

And he believes it will be a red rose holiday.

“The overwhelming majority of our purchasers will be men, and men tend to stay with something tiffany bracelet — red roses — even though research tells us women prefer roses in other colors,” he said.

The National Retail Federation predicts couples will spend about $4 less this year on gifts for their significant other or spouse — $63.34 compared with $67.22 in 2009.

But men, the federation says, “will spend $135.35 to impress all the people in lives, while women only expect to spend $72.28.”

Ken Tirpak, floral director for Reasor’s stores, also expects lighter sales this year.

“Guys always wait until the last minute. … If their wife works, they have to do something for them at work,” Tirpak said. “I guess they’ll have more time to plan a dinner, do something, if they have an entire weekend.”

Reasor’s offers a dozen long-stemmed roses in an arrangement for $39.99, as well as a single 5-foot red rose in a 30-inch-tall vase for $49.98.

Reasor’s floral departments, which offer cash-and-carry items around the clock, will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Valentine’s Day.

Natalia Banjac, store manager at Kokoa Chocolatier, said Valentine’s shopping started last week “by tiffany cufflink, of course.”

Kokoa in recent months has consolidated three locations into a single store at 1722 Utica Square.

“Yes, the economy definitely had an impact on us,” Banjac said.

She believes sales will be about normal this year, “but I think Saturday is going to be crazy.”

The store also will be open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Valentine’s Day.

“Truffles are selling a lot — we’ve got 18 different kinds,” Banjac said. “We’ve also got chocolate-covered blueberries and cranberries, and English toffee.”

Kokoa also sells chocolate spheres in two sizes, and the cost to fill the largest with 16 truffles is about $85 before tax, she said.

Bruce G. Weber, owner of the jewelry store with his name at 1700 Utica Square, expects better sales this Valentine’s Day. Moreover, he doesn’t think jewelry prices will be affect by the surge in gold prices.

“I think most of the jewelry on sale now was probably made before prices got that high,” he said.

Weber said diamond hearts and pearls are always good sellers, as are diamond solitaire rings. His store has tiffany money clip specials starting at $99.

Weber said his daughter, Sherry, who has begun displaying handmade jewelry at the store, expects great sales.

“She has a case full of pieces available in vivid colors; a great array of necklaces and earrings and bracelets,” Weber said. “Yes, she’s expecting a big Valentine’s Day.”

   Recent findings by The Conde Nast Bridal Info Bank indicate that 55% of brides are involved in selecting their tiffany pendants ring. For the many couples who become engaged on Valentine’s Day, Tiffany & Co. is the premier resource for the absolute best: stunningly beautiful diamond engagement rings that are, by any measure, without equal.
    (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030128/NYTU011 )
Tiffany diamonds, the world’s finest, are cut for maximum brilliance and according to strict proportions to ensure perfect balance and precision. In addition, all diamonds are set in platinum, which complements as well as strongly secures the diamonds in their settings. Tiffany’s incomparable array of ring designs includes Lucida(R), one of the rare patented diamond cuts and a masterpiece of modern design. The square mixed-cut shape, with high step-cut crown, wide corners, and brilliant-cut pavilion, highlights the diamond’s unique ability to gather, refract, and tiffany earrings light.
Lucida and all Tiffany ring designs are the dazzling result of uncompromising dedication to quality and craftsmanship. Tiffany is one of very few diamond retailers to operate a diamond evaluation laboratory where experts independently grade stones. Just 1-2 percent of ‘gem quality’ stones (stones of superlative clarity and color) meet the jeweler’s standards.
Tiffany experts also assist couples in choosing a ring style that will reflect taste and personality for a lifetime. This includes selecting a wedding band — for both bride and groom — that fits comfortably and complements other jewelry.
Wrapped in the Tiffany Blue Box(R), each Tiffany engagement ring comes with a tiffany key rings service guarantee. Just as the engaged couple trusts in each other, they can trust in Tiffany & Co. for designs of lasting value to celebrate all of life’s memorable occasions.
SOURCE Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) today announced plans to open a store this autumn at The Royal cufflinks, located in the financial district opposite the Bank of England, in the City of London. The store will occupy approximately 130 square meters (1,400 square feet) and will be the third Tiffany & Co. location in London. Tiffany & Co. currently has a London flagship store on Old Bond Street that opened in 1986, as well as a boutique in Harrods department store that opened in 1997.
The new store, situated in this historic location, will feature architectural elements of the famous TIFFANY & CO. New York flagship store, including cherry wood interiors and stainless steel detailing on the showcases and vitrines. A broad range of the company’s designs will be offered, including the new Lucida(TM) diamond cut and setting; fine and engagement jewelry; the exclusive jewelry designs of Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso and Jean Schlumberger; and an assortment of TIFFANY & CO. gifts.
“We are very enthusiastic about our new store being in the heart of London’s business center. This will enable us to better serve our retail and corporate customers in that area,” said James Seuss, managing director of Tiffany & Co. — London. “Aside from its added convenience to our customers, this new location places us in a historic setting along with many of the world’s other leading luxury retailers.”
Tiffany & Co. is the internationally renowned jeweler and specialty retailer. Sales are made primarily through TIFFANY & CO. money clips and boutiques in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. Direct Marketing includes Tiffany’s Corporate division, and catalog and Internet sales. TIFFANY & CO. is a publicly held company with its shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange (TIF). Additional information can be found on the company’s Web site at www.tiffany.com.
Note to Editors: TIFFANY & CO. and Lucida are exclusive trademarks of Tiffany and pendants.Â

CONTACT: TIFFANY & CO.

Not since Holly Golightly has Tiffany’s seemed so special.
The famous jewelry company, whose Fifth Avenue store was the epitome of quiet sophistication and magic for the young woman in Truman Capote’s novel, will soon be offering stock to investors at a price that promises glittering profits for its owners.
After less than two and a half years as a private concern, Tiffany & Company said yesterday that it cufflinks sell four million shares for between $21 and $23 a share, which promises thirtyfold gains for some of its executives.
The 140-year-old company, which has been dealing in the world’s valuable gems since it bought the French crown jewels more than a century ago, said it would use some of the funds to repay the debt incurred when an investor group bought it from Avon Products Inc. in October 1984.
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A Bonanza for Executives
For about 30 of its executives, who paid only 67 cents a share for 1.5 million shares in a leveraged buyout, the public issue will provide a bonanza. Half of the four million shares will be sold by the company and the other half by the participating employees in late April or early May. The company has applied to list the shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Tiffany had been traded over the counter for many years before its acquisition by Avon in 1979.
The public sale will also yield substantial gains for Investcorp, an investment company representing Middle Eastern interests, and the General Electric Credit Corporation. Investcorp took a substantial equity stake in Tiffany and provided a $95.5 million loan for the $135.5 million leveraged buyout by management. In May 1985, Tiffany money clips its debt through an $85 million loan from G.E. Credit. From their original holdings of 79 percent in Tiffany, Investcorp and its clients have sold much of their interest, reducing their holdings to 49 percent. Investcorp and its investors will receive about $24.6 million for the stake they intend to sell, which originally cost them $8.9 million. And G.E. Credit, benefiting from warrants to buy Tiffany shares as part of its loan, will reap $10.3 million for its original investment of $625,000 in warrants.
But it is the executive employees and other private investors who will be getting the big return – some $44 million on their investment of little more than $1 million. They include William R. Chaney, Tiffany’s chairman and chief executive; Thomas A. Andruskevich, senior vice president and chief financial officer; John R. Loring, senior vice president for design; Paloma Picasso, the jewelry designer, and Suzanne McMillan, vice president, marketing.
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Targeting Affluent Shoppers
The return to public ownership comes after some strong gains in sales and earnings.
Since the buyout, management has shifted from a decade-old policy of trying to reach a larger cross section of consumers to concentrate on affluent customers. This strategy seems to have paid off handsomely.
Tiffany’s sales in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31 rose 28.7 percent, to $182.5 million, from $141.8 million the year before. Net profit amounted to $7.4 million against a net loss of $2.6 million.
In conjunction with the public issue, the company reported a solid increase in its gross profit last year. A loss in 1985 resulted from increased interest expense caused by the high indebtedness connected with the leveraged buyout. But although Tiffany, which has nine stores, had a 1985 profit from operations amounting to $7.6 million, the net operating profit soared last year to $21.9 million before interest expense and other items.
In an interview last year, Mr. Chaney, Tiffany’s chairman, said the company had consolidated two pendants, a silversmithing plant and a distribution center, and had trimmed its staff.
It also embarked on a program of wholesaling jewelry, silverware and leather products that it manufacturers for other retailers in this country and Europe.
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New Store in London
Last fall, Tiffany returned to London after a 46-year absence, opening a store on fashionable Bond Street. World War II had forced the company to close its London and Paris stores.
The chain has closed its store in Kansas City, Mo., but it retains outlets in Atlanta, Beverly Hills, Calif., Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Francisco.
In its effort to offer more ”traditional products typical of the old Tiffany,” as Mr. Chaney put it in the earlier interview, the company has expanded its offerings of jewelry produced by its designers: Miss Picasso, Elsa Peretti and Jean Schlumberger. Miss Peretti, who was an investor in the leveraged buyout, chose not to sell any of her shares in the proposed public issue.
This issue will include distribution in this country by a syndicate led by Shearson Lehman Brothers and Goldman, Sachs & Company. The remaining 800,000 shares will be offered by an international syndicate led by Shearson Lehman Brothers International and the Goldman Sachs International Corporation.
If the four million shares are fully bought or oversubscribed, Tiffany’s American underwriters have an option to sell another 480,000 shares owned by some of the selling shareholders.
Despite the public sale, however, most of the Tiffany investors, both corporate and individual, are retaining shares in the company. Those shares would achieve market value if the investors chose to sell them.
For example, even after the four-million-share offering, 16 executives and directors will hold 815,300 shares. At the expected offering price of $21 to $23 a share, those shares would be worth more than $17 million.

Tiffany & Co.’s fiscal third-quarter earnings edged down 1% as lower costs nearly offset sales drops. The upscale jeweler enjoyed strong sales in Europe and most of Asia.

Tiffany boosted its earning view for the year, saying November is off to a good start and it is hopeful about sales through the rest of the holiday season.

Results improved in many product categories during the third quarter, discount tiffany later in the period, investor-relations chief Mark Aaron said in a conference call.

The change largely reflected easier comparisons to last year’s weak sales, “but we think may also reflect some improvement in underlying demand in some markets,” Mr. Aaron said. Tiffany sales are most soft in its highest-priced products.

The Asia-Pacific region, except for Japan, where demand is still weak, and Europe achieved better-than-expected sales. Those overseas results, combined with ongoing expense restraints, contributed to profit above Tiffany’s prior forecast.

Sales in the Americas dropped 9%, with U.S. sales at stores open at least a year down 10% and off 8% at its New York flagship store. The declines were less sharp than experienced earlier this year.

In Europe, sales rose 16% excluding foreign-exchange effects, with same-store sales up 9%. In the Asia-Pacific region, same-store sales declined 3%, with weak sales in Japan offsetting strength elsewhere in the region.

For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Tiffany posted a profit of $43.3 million, or 35 cents a share, from $43.8 million, or 35 cents a share, a year earlier. Earnings from continuing operations fell to 34 cents from 36 cents. Revenue decreased 2.9% to $598.2 million. Excluding currency changes, sales fell 5% and same-store sales declined 6%.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast a profit of 24 cents a share on $575 million in reduced tiffany.

For the fourth quarter, Tiffany anticipates a mid-single-digit percentage increase in sales. Analysts’ mean estimate calls for 6% growth to $892 million, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Tiffany stock, which has almost doubled in 2009, rose 4.9% to $43.89 Wednesday in 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tiffany is well-placed to gain market share as the economy improves and other jewelry chains go out of business because Tiffany has kept its cachet with restraint on promotions, said Edward Yruma, retail analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The jeweler raised its full-year guidance to $1.88 to $1.98 a share with sales down about 8%. The company’s prior forecast, from August, was for a profit of $1.65 to $1.75 on a 10% sales decline.

Gross margin fell to 54.8% from 56.3%. That was largely offset by overhead costs declining 2%, income-tax tiffany for sale slumping 43%, and interest and other costs falling 22%.

If for reasons of climate or cost you can’t have an outdoor living room in your backyard, it’s still possible to bring the backyard into your home — with organically oriented furniture and accessories. They’re popping up in stores and on websites like, um, mushrooms.

Evoke the look of Mother Earth with stools that are real tree stumps, lamps with gnarled tree roots for bases, serving bowls carved from hollowed-out root balls, and screens that resemble creeping ivy.

“We call it ‘nature’s couture,’” says Geoffrey Ross, one-half of the New York linens tiffany and co team Dransfield & Ross. They recently introduced a collection of furniture featuring a red-lacquered carved-root footstool (Horchow.com, $439) made from the roots of trees that would ordinarily be discarded by the lumber industry.

Organic originally appeared in the 1970s, but this time, “it’s natural rethought, with some wit thrown in,” Ross says. “Hence the roots are lacquered in really bright, fun colors.”

Or the roots of California junipers are glazed in their natural state, lending a sculptural look to lamp bases such as the Gin Twist lamps ($825-$2,530) offered by Room (Roomonline.com).

Sometimes there’s no effort to add gloss — such as the salvaged- wood tree-stump stools ($1,045-$1,295) offered by ABC Carpet & Home in New York.

Websites such as Vivaterra.com (motto: “Eco Living with Style”) are all about organic, featuring such things as bowls carved from Chinese fir root balls ($29-$149). VelocityArtandDesign.com has quirky organic-minded items: screens made of “algues,” plastic components linking together to form web- or plant-like curtains/ room dividers ($30-$200).

LIGHTING

Switch on the elegance with accents

Chandeliers and other fancy light fixtures are highly popular now, but they’re not always cheap. For those who want to upgrade on a budget, there are Kichler Light Accents, little dangling dollops of glass, crystal or acrylic that can tart up a plain chandelier in no time and at little cost.

“It’s a way to allow consumers to customize their lighting,” says Bob Doernberg, senior product necklaces of the 68-year-old lighting company. “You can use as few as one per arm and still enhance the appearance of a fixture.”

Light Accents come in 72 designs, shapes and colors, range in size from 2 to 5 inches, and cost $5.95 up to $50 (for Swarovski crystal pendalogues) each. A tiny but powerful neodymium magnet attaches them to steel light fixtures and keeps them there.

Introduced at a lighting market in Dallas in June, the pendants are sold in cartons of six at lighting stores.

EXHIBITS

Off to see the wizard of art: Louis Comfort Tiffany

Tiffany the jewelry never seems to slump in popularity, but the same could not be said about the art of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848- 1933), son of the jewelry company’s founder.

In the late 19th- and early 20th-century, the son’s exquisite lamps, pottery, glassware, enamel and stained glass came to rival even the father’s blue-boxed baubles. Then his fame foundered.

“More than any other American artist, he went from a peak of popularity to his work being considered absolutely worthless — and then came back again,” says Marilynn Johnson, curator of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages, opening Oct. 15 at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. It showcases 120 objects in all the media in which Tiffany excelled.

In November, he’ll star in another exhibit, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall, opening Nov. 21 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which will focus on the 84-room country estate that Tiffany designed and built in Oyster Bay overlooking Long Island Sound.

“I was struck by how seductive it is,” says Tiffany’s great- grandson, Michael John Burlingham, who’s silver bangles on a biography of his ancestor. He saw the Artist for the Ages exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art earlier this year. “He made art that everyone can understand, and he made it at a high level.”

FAUX LOOKS

Absolutely fake

and proud of it

A sure sign of the demand for faux looks in home decor is that they’re often as expensive as the real thing.

But nouveau faux is a more evolved look than old faux: It has a sense of humor and revels in its fakeness. For instance, no one would mistake Designpublic .com’s Lights Up! fake-wood pendant lampshades for real, yet they cost $300 and are undeniably charming.

The design team White Webb (Matthew White and Frank Webb) of West Hollywood created a line of faux intaglio furnishings that are made of wood but are silk-screened with hyper-enlarged antique engravings. The designers say the effect combines classicism and humor. Thus, the non-electric chandelier,

which holds eight candles, has the appearance

of a 17th-century chandelier, but is also clearly a thoroughly modern piece. And at $2,900, it costs

as much as a real antique.

If this all sounds too steep, there’s “Oh So Faux” wallpaper offered by the Alpha Workshops in New York City, a decorative-arts studio that provides vocational training for people with HIV/AIDS. The handpainted wallpapers, which come in 10 standard wood colors or any custom color, cost $58 per yard.

Spokesman Clay Schudel says it’s a big seller.

“People want an artificial look. They want the feel of wood, but they also want to play up the artifice of it.”