Tuesday, January 12, 2010

From Etsy straight to Target

I was in Target two days ago, looking for jeans, and a present for my seven year old's friend. Our wander took us through purses on sale...... wow, those styling little bags with the applique cassette tapes look just like I might find on etsy. Looks handmade. Only it's factory "hand" made, in China. Purposely not-perfect applique, and cheap.

In the toy area, looking for lego, again I spotted something that looked straight off the handmade, OOAK, etsy shelves. I blinked. Was I dreaming of wandering through Etsyland? Could it be true? The Target shelf read, "Woodland" and there were giant stuffed owls, and hedgehogs. They were designed to look hand made, and used "funky" fabrics (faux, up-cycling) and even the etsy-popular, houndstooth print of last winter.

Yep, it's official. The big companies are stealing ideas from Etsy designers. They are at very least, reading the "Trends" articles in the etsy blog. Maybe this is not news to many of you. What do you think?

2 comments:

Courtney said...

Totally. but in all fairness, trends are out there for Etsy designers to gobble as well. Big designers want in too. Etsy is just a wonderful resource for young, fresh talented ideas. Target has great design because they see what is hot/trendy and then they act, and fast.

Periwinkle Paisley said...

I think it's a huge bummer. People see something cute in Target, they're right there looking at it. They aren't going to go looking online for a made in the USA stuffed owl.