Why This Textile Company Said Goodbye to Showrooms

Original article posted at Business of Home by Haley Chouinard.

When Sharon Lee decided to pull her independent textile brand Krane Home from showrooms and pivot her company to e-commerce in January, she couldn’t know just how prescient the decision would turn out to be. Just weeks before the coronavirus became a global crisis, Lee had taken complete control of her business, lowered her pricing and changed her sampling model. “I guess I have a witchy sense or something, but the timing was definitely great,” she tells BOH.

Lee started Krane Home in 2013 after working as a designer for Michael Smith. Her mother is a Korean folk art painter and she herself had always had a passion for drawing and painting. While working for Smith, she noticed that Korean art was rarely being used in the interiors industry and decided to make it her mission to share a modern interpretation of the art she had grown up with. “My dream is to become the Korean D Porthault,” says Lee. “In Korean culture, the crane symbolizes longevity, and that’s what I want for the brand. I want to still be doing this when I’m 95.”