Welcome to Dear Alice, a lifestyle approach to interior design.

Hey everyone, welcome to Dear Alice. We are taking a break during the holiday season, so we wanted to re-broadcast one of our favorite interviews that we've done with Tom Felicia.

It was a blast to record and speak with him. So I hope you enjoyed the episode.

Hello, everybody. And welcome to Dear Alice. We have a very special guest today, Mr. Tom Felicia.

Hello, hello, hello. Hey, guys. So happy to be here. Oh my gosh. We're so happy you're here too. Tom is The Life of the Party, as you'll quickly learn if you don't already know. And I'm so funny you say Life of the Party. I'm Life of the Party of Three. And that includes me and my two dogs. That's about, that's about, I mean, that's about the size of the party. I do have a friend who's staying in my guest house, and he comes over after he's done working, and we've been quarantined together. So it is hilarious. That's like, that's our party. Yeah. It's not a very big party. Tom, we party our faces on. We've been with you at Market. I don't even know.

Have you been at Vanguard for like 10 years now?

Well, yeah, last year we celebrated our 10th anniversary at Vanguard, which is kind of amazing

because that was Vanguard and Cravet were my sort of foray into the world of product design and, you know, and sort of High Point,

all of that. So it was my 11th year going to High Point and it was my of 10th year of actually

showing product there. Yeah. I was, yeah, it's kind of crazy. So we've been with Tom for 10 years and we have watched you in the showroom work groups

and loads of people.

And I'm telling everybody you are the life of the party.

You are people, a people magnet.

Everybody loves Tom and they will stand in line just to see him and just to just to siphon off some of his energy because

it's so good. I have to say, you know, first of all, I thank you. That is so sweet. And I will tell you,

it is a two-way street because we, when I'm there and we, you know, we have literally been like

in that showroom for like, I've been there for the last four or five days, you know, with the team and we're getting everything ready and hanging all the artwork and like, you know, assessorizing and doing the whole thing. And it's, you know, and it's kind of fun. I always say it's like going to summer camps for design, you know, because like we're all living together, eating together. It's kind of crazy.

And then we get really excited when people are coming through because there are so many people

designers and buyers coming from all over the U.S. and outside of the U.S.

from all over the world.

And it's so interesting to talk to designers from Russia, to talk to designers from, you know, from Texas and from, you know, from Utah, from everywhere.

Like, I'm meeting people from Maine and hearing what they're doing and how their market is and also what they're interested in.

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