Lillian August
Lillian August continues to serve as an inspiration to the interior design world with her award winning designs. Her most recent award was the WITH IT Legacy Award, designating her as a woman of achievement who has made a significant lifetime contribution to the industry. As the director of design and licensing for her company, Lillian August Designs, Lillian is the hands-on artist, textile and furniture designer for one of the industry’s most iconic brands. As a woman and a professional, Lillian is devoted to her family, her licensing partners and facilitating the career endeavors of the many professionals she works with in her retail showrooms, the press and the many manufacturers that she creates visionary products for. Lillian August is also recognized as a talent that truly helps her loyal retail following create the homes they envision; she enables them to bring their aspirations to reality with high quality, designer style and exceptional value in the products she creates.
Lillian August is an artist, a painter, an interior designer, a textile designer and a furniture designer. She has had an enduring relationship with the upscale home furnishings consumer for over twenty years. She has an innate ability to predict the lifestyles that the luxury consumer aspires to and has been able to create products that match that desire.
Lillian’s newest branding endeavors include her dynamic first year partnership with Hickory White that has created new distribution in trade showrooms and expanded retail placements for Lillian’s evolving case goods and upholstery designs. Her 120 item Townhouse fabric collection with Fabricut is slated to premier October 2009 along with her new Townhouse lighting selections by Currey and Company. “Townhouse to me represents the best of traditional design elements presented in fresh colors, formalities and applications…furnishings, fabrics and lighting that are equally at home in a Pacific Heights row house or a Manhattan loft,” Lillian shares.
Lillian scripts her lifestyles with color, and as she says “Color is what
gets me out of bed in the mornings…the opportunity to work with pure colors is inspiring! I find my customers are more courageous and individualistic in their color choices today. I am passionate about seeking out the global influences that constantly keep my product collections exactly where the client wants to go visually.”
Originally from Philadelphia, Lillian is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Raising her young family in Louisville, KY she combined her talent for color and textiles by designing a collection of quilts, sewn by local women. Her quilts gained national attention for their fresh infusion of unexpected colors and patterns in a very traditional art form. Her success in that medium lead to the opportunity to create designs for Imperial wall coverings in 1985; her books of wall paper designs became the top selling assortment in the country for 10 years. Lillian was then tapped by Dan River to design and develop a major textile program. In 1992 upholstery manufacturer Frederick Edward invited Lillian to launch the Lillian August Collection. It was an immediate success, and in 1995 Drexel Heritage acquired Frederick Edward and the Lillian August license, where the collection expanded to include upholstery, case goods and accessories.
Lillian August refined her highly successful, distinctive and immediately recognizable look in her tenure at Drexel Heritage while gaining national retail placement. Her brand grew to include partnerships with Robert Allen, Currey and Company and many other accessory and soft good licenses.
Lillian feels that the most rewarding aspect of the growth of her company is that it has allowed her to work with her three sons, Dan, Michael and John Weiss. “Each brings their unique talents, visions and insights to our company, and it is much stronger today than it could have ever been without their commitment to excellence in each of their endeavors,” Lillian emphasized.
She continues “It has been through their efforts that we have been able to grow our retail showrooms to include five locations including a 75,000 square foot flagship store in Norwalk, Connecticut. This daily face to face interaction with the consumer and the merchandising expertise we gain from working with the best suppliers in the industry filters each selection we make for the Lillian August Collection. What we bring to retail is the result of years of observing how the consumer makes purchases, and the designs they respond to.”
“This opportunity with Hickory White is going to be the most dynamic design era for the Lillian August Collection. There is amazing creative energy between the Hickory White team and the Lillian August design group, and we know that the next few markets will feature many new products and lifestyle presentations.
The lifestyles of my clients are evolving; they are more focused in their purchase decisions, they are more environmentally conscientious and casual in their homes, we are working on new products that match their needs and desires,”
concludes Lillian.