WEST ELM CELEBRATES LOCAL MAKERS, EXPANDS WEST ELM LOCAL COLLECTIONS TO ALL STORES FOR HOLIDAY 2015

Leading home furnishings retailer supports 500+ designers and
artisans in communities across America and Canada, and offers 4,000+
locally made products

BROOKLYN, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Deepening its community commitment, home furnishings retailer West
Elm announced today that West Elm LOCAL
collections, initiated in 2014 as a way of supporting neighboring
makers, are now available in all 74 locations throughout the United
States and Canada.

“West Elm LOCAL empowers our store leaders, who we call ‘shopkeepers,’
to introduce their customers to the people who are creating, designing,
and driving innovation in their regions,” said Jim Brett, president of
West Elm. “We have also enlisted our shopkeepers in our overall mission
to revive retail stores as the center of community, a space where local
makers and local customers can connect.”

“Knowing an authentic artist is behind a piece, and often having the
opportunity to meet the artist, changes the shopping experience and
creates a human connection,” said Mo Mullen, director of West Elm LOCAL.
“The strong response to our West Elm LOCAL offering reflects our
customers’ desire for original works that make that personal connection.
The connection inspires everyone involved — the customer, the maker, our
shopkeeper, and our entire West Elm team.”

“Our commitment to makers is long-term. For some, it is their first time
working with a retailer, and we’re collaborating at all stages of
growth, helping the makers scale, and building their business together,”
said Mullen. “By establishing these relationships at the store level, we
can offer West Elm customers great design, with a sense of place, that
represents a personal story.”

A few of the featured West Elm LOCAL makers from around the country
include:

• Eric
  Trine: An object-based designer and commercial artist, Eric is
  known for his steel, geometric side tables in powder-coated finishes.
  Eric started as a featured maker in West Elm’s California stores,
  where he is based, and is now part of the “Best of LOCAL” assortment
  on westelm.com.
• Goods
  that Matter: This New Orleans-based accessories maker offers
  products ranging from soaps and dishtowels, to notebooks and totes. A
  portion of Goods that Matter sales go towards pressing social and
  environmental needs, including oil spill cleanup and wetland
  restoration.
• Little
  Seed Farm: NYC transplants Eileen and James Ray dropped everything
  to open Little Seed Farm outside of Nashville, TN in 2011. Now, they
  create personal care products using milk from the farm’s herd of goats
  and herbs grown in their garden. They were the winners of the “West
  Elm Small Business Grant” in 2014.
• Louise
  Gray: Alexandra Gray Bennett and Jocelin Johnson of contemporary
  quilt designer Louise Gray reinterpret the art of quilting from
  Minneapolis, Minnesota with beautiful, handmade quilts of 100% cotton
  that can be used for warmth or as decorative wall hangings.
• Convivial
  Cloth: Living in a close-knit seaside community sparked Adam Bice
  and Noah Beller to create striped beach towel sand blankets that
  button together and pack easily, which makes connecting with friends a
  breeze.

About West Elm

West Elm helps customers express their personal style at home.
Headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, the brand opened its first store in 2003
in DUMBO, the neighborhood it still proudly calls home. Everything West
Elm does is designed to make an impact, from its commitment to Fair
Trade Certified, local and handcrafted products to its community-driven
in-store events and collaborations. Mixing clean lines, natural
materials and handcrafted collections from the US and around the world,
West Elm creates unique, affordable designs for modern living. The brand
operates 86 retail stores in the United States, Australia, Canada and
the UK, ships internationally to customers around the world and operates
stores in Mexico, the Middle East and Philippines through unaffiliated
franchisees. West
Elm is part of an active community on Facebook,
Instagram,
Pinterest,
Twitter
and YouTube,
and is a member of the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. portfolio of brands.

Contacts

for West Elm:
Nicole Sutliff
nsutliff@wsgc.com
718-780-4416
Andrés
(Dru) Ortega
aortega2@wsgc.com
718-780-0452