“Yenta of the Center” is Designers’ Source for High-End Home Furnishings
(Another in an occasional series of conversations with L.A’s leading architects and designers)
Rocky LaFleur in Kneedler|Fauchère showroom in the Pacific Design Center
If you want to know what’s going on in the world of high-end to-the-trade home furnishings, chances are the name Rocky LaFleur will come up. For more than 30 years, Rocky – an associate at Kneedler|Fauchère in the Pacific Design Center – has been this industry’s source for what to scout out and who to talk with to make magic happen. In fact, he is widely known as “Yenta of the Center.”
Rocky attributes his gift for connecting people with great product and opportunity to his “reverence for his customers and finding inspiration in their talent.”
Rocky in Paris, a city he regularly visits to see and understand the best in design
“I’m fortunate to find a home in Los Angeles’s design community”, says LaFleur. “I grew up in a small town in South Dakota, the oldest of nine children, and in many ways still find myself involved in a life and profession that respects the value of tried and true friendships.”
His professional journey includes outside sales for Pindler & Pindler, national showroom manager for S. Harris, and 10 years as Vice President of Real Estate at the Pacific Design Center. Along the way he’s gained a huge circle of admirers and contacts, garnering many awards and professional recognition by American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), Network of Executive Women in Hospitality (NEWH), and other trade organizations.
Kneedler|Fauchère showroom
Happily at home with Kneedler|Fauchère for more than a decade, Rocky has helped to create the company’s well-regarded hospitality and outside sales programs. His sixth sense for talent and sensitivity to customer perspective fits perfectly with the company’s tradition of luxury aesthetics and service.
You’ve been a representative at Kneedler|Fauchère at the Pacific Design Center for 12 years. Tell us about the showroom and what makes it stand out?
It’s simple: the people. We consciously work to create an environment that attracts soulful, committed, passionate people. We have been in business for more than 65 years and it always comes back to the people. Certainly our wonderful supplier partners provide inspiring product that is hand-crafted and of the highest quality, and we are proud to represent such beautiful collections. This element must be present. Beyond that, it’s the people and our relationships that we value above all else.
Rocky LaFleur and Eleanor Schrader
You also spent 10 years as the Pacific Design Center’s Vice President of Real Estate from 1988 to 1998. What changes did you see at the PDC during that time?
I saw the expansion of the commercial/office furnishings showrooms in the beginning and their leaving the building by 2000. Also, the Blue Building was leased to 100 percent capacity and today is down to 50 percent. The Green Building opened in 1987 and was leased up to 75 percent; in the post-recession, it’s down to almost 10 percent. Today there are no residential showrooms in the Green Building, and it is converted to office tenants.
Showrooms like yours – and interior designers – are facing a whole new world in terms of the end users because of the DIY movement, a plethora of home improvement TV shows and magazines, etc. How are showrooms and designers responding to this new environment?
Fee structures have decreased for designers, and clients want more involvement in projects – in fact, they shop on their own in the PDC. Designers are being requested to provide faster projects with better accountability and transparency.
Kneedler|Fauchère showroom
How do you see the interior design profession changing over the next 10 years?
The younger designers more tech savvy, and there is more internet sourcing and purchasing. They have much more access to varied sources. The lower-end resources have left a void in the market in which we’ll see a movement upwards to better-crafted products, one-of-a-kind bespoke furniture and fabrics, and better quality as the market expands. There’s a trend towards going back to the basics of high-end, better quality, to-the-trade design business.
You often speak to UCLA design students. What are your major messages to them?
First, I am not trained in interior design. However I have more than 40 years of experience in high-end to the trade design businesses, as well as 38 years in West Hollywood. I can only share what I have learned and what I know.
Here is what I encourage them to do:
- Fill their creative reservoirs with art, museums and travel.
- Learn the classics.
- Embrace quality avant-garde, not just what is easy and mundane.
- Believe that they are choosing a very special career.
- Know that design comes from a storied history that dates back to the Renaissance (think the Medicis) and before.
- Know that designers have creative genes, just as the cave dweller painters did.
- Know the history of interior design on the West Coast and Los Angeles since the Gold Rush.
- Dive in and be a part of L.A., truly the most creative city in the world today.
- Search. Be curious. Create community.
- Be aware of the specialness of the creative world.
You’ve done work for Wynn and other hotels. What has that been like?
I have worked for more than15 years in high-end worldwide hospitality resort and casino properties, including Wynn, MGM, Caesars and Four Seasons. The greatest pleasure is working with the world’s most creative designers, being of service to them and bringing to them and their projects the finest fabrics from around the world, as well as furniture hand crafted for fine installations. I get to interact creatively with some of the world’s finest design product creators. I’ve helped advance the high-end hospitality business, mentored junior designers, and made friends for life. I’m fortunate to have been an integral part of a fascinating and dynamic niche business.
Anything else you would like to add?
I am the luckiest man. I get to do what I love with the people I love. My day is seamless and integrated on all levels.
