The Guru of Home Décor
Dave DeMattei is applying the magic he learned at Coach and J. Crew to Williams-Sonoma's emerging brands. Will his vision connect with consumers?
By Kristina Zimbalist

PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY SULTAN FOR TIME / GROOMING BY RENEE RAEL FOR ARTIST UNTIED

Summer 2005 Style & Design
Dave DeMattei knows what you want. That is, if you live in America, are between the ages of 18 and 65 and prefer to spend less than huge sums on stylish everyday items, DeMattei has a pretty good idea of what will strike your fancy—maybe even better than you have. Right now, he says, there's a good chance you will be enticed by one of the following: chandeliers, end tables like the ones at the Hôtel Costes in Paris, and anything teak; objects featuring monograms, including pajamas, hand towels and, among a certain demographic, stackable jewelry boxes; bright orange, powder blue and other colors typical of midcentury design, whether you recognize them as such or not; and anything with a functional detail built into it, like a beach towel with a cloth loop for hanging or an ottoman that opens up to accommodate storage.

A metal desk was the object of DeMattei's scrutiny one Friday afternoon this past winter, and it was not faring well. "Do you see ..." he said as he marched over to the desk, "... this raisin color?" Eyes wide and eyebrows raised, he asked the question as if he had spotted an insect traversing its shiny surface. The desk was displayed near the entrance of the new Hold Everything store in San Francisco, a franchise that, in his role as president of emerging brands at parent company Williams-Sonoma Inc., DeMattei recently revamped. In place of the familiar postcollege plastic drawers and storage bins was a design extravaganza: Eichler-inspired architectural details, whimsical dinnerware from Italy, powder-coated filing cabinets the pale blue of Smythson paper, not to mention Jonathan Adler pillows and key chains reminiscent of Prada's. DeMattei passed a mint green nylon preppie tote bag, nodding approvingly. The desk, however, was not passing muster. "That was a mistake," he said, eyes wide again. "It was supposed to be a beautiful chocolate brown."

DeMattei, 48, has a confidence—and a sense of style—that cannot be ignored. And he believes American consumers, or at least a sizable subset of them, are equally discriminating. "I'm aiming at people who appreciate design," explains DeMattei, whose other tasks include broadening the appeal of Williams-Sonoma's lower-priced West Elm line and launching Williams-Sonoma Home, a furniture and housewares counterpart to the company's namesake kitchen brand. (Pottery Barn, of course, is the company's other marquee brand, accounting for roughly half of its $3.1 billion in annual sales.) "There is a whole population," DeMattei continues, "of people who want stylish home products that are a little more contemporary and that come at a great price."

So strong are DeMattei's convictions on the subject that they made themselves heard from a tiny, out-of-the-way office in the finance department at Gap. Hired as a numbers guy in the 1980s, DeMattei rose through the company and held six positions in 11 years, including chief financial officer of Gap Inc. at age 34 and president of Banana Republic at 36. He left the company after restructuring reduced his role, but during his tenure he quietly learned everything he could about designs that would sell. "I made sure I was always hanging around the creative people," he says. "It allowed me to get involved."

He deepened this creative training after being recruited to J. Crew in 1995 by co-founder Emily Woods, who put him in charge of building a retail division from the ground up. Among the highlights: launching J. Crew's flagship Manhattan Soho store, which DeMattei says made $1 million in its first 10 days, with him helping bag merchandise on opening weekend. From then on, he started each workday with a visit to the Soho store for an interview with the manager about what was selling and why. Soon after Woods and her family sold J. Crew, in 1997, DeMattei moved over to Coach North America, where he became president and remerchandised stores to look like boutiques rather than luggage shops. By the time he left, 4 1/2 years later, Coach's single C's were on their way to rivaling the double ones at Chanel—and net income had more than quadrupled.

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