For most people, the period that immediately followed the economic crash of 2008 might not seem like the best time to start a business, but Studio Four NYC founder Stacy Waggoner saw an opportunity and seized it. Her then-employer, AM Collections, had just been acquired by industry giant Stark, and she realized that she preferred working for a smaller company. So the textile veteran—who had previously worked for multiline showrooms Pranich & Associates and David Sutherland, as well as textile brand Jack Lenor Larsen—launched her own company specializing in both established and emerging designers.

Nearly 17 years later, Studio Four represents 43 textile brands and cultivates in-house designer collaborations with creatives like Brian Paquette, Robert Rufino and Angie Hranowsky. “The whole idea of producing wallpapers and marketing them and sampling them and selling them and fulfilling them, it’s a business. There’s a lot more than just saying, ‘Oh, I like this design,’” Waggoner tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “One of the things that [we at] Studio Four pride ourselves on is that we’re really good with small lines that are coming to the market. I think a lot of that is [because of] my background in dealing with so many different lines. I know where the pain points are.”

Waggoner was also able to see how the textile industry was changing. Around the time of her company’s inception, she noticed a renewed interest in digital printing, and quickly embraced it. “With digital, you can get so detailed, and you can really convey the brushstroke and layers of color that you couldn’t do as a screen print,” she says. The medium also offered a more cost-effective path to establish a design business, allowing her to forge her own path for less. “It’s much less expensive. When we do screen prints, every screen costs about $750. You’ve got to be really sure that that is your exact design and color. The startup and the setup and the expense of burning screens is a lot, production wise,” she says. But not just anything can be printed on a fabric. “Once [digital] started hitting, there were a lot of people who were doing things like, ‘Oh, let me just take a photograph of this antique textile and print that.’ It’s not as simple as that,” she explains. “You have to have the color sense. You have to have the artwork sense. There’s something that is just a little spark.”

Crucial insight: Waggoner has noticed very little hesitation from her clients on tariff-induced price hikes. “I do think that people have gotten, I don’t know [if it’s] complacent about it, but I do think there’s less price sensitivity than there might be in other sectors,” she says. “Certainly at the grocery stores. I just went and bought some wine, and I was like, ‘Oh no!’ It’s all more expensive.” Her clients are mostly understanding of tariff turmoil and the price increases that follow. “We got a certain amount of pushback, but not a ton,” she says. “Our clients read the newspapers. They understand what’s going on. Originally, it had a little bit of a shocking freeze effect on our business. But I think that our clients mostly have said, ‘It is what it is.’”

Key quote: “I love working with small lines. In larger showrooms, they’ll have a mix of really big lines and really small lines, but when the really big line is expanding, they’re like, ‘Oh no, where are we going to put the little line? Let’s go put them in the back over down that aisle.’ People are forever chasing tiny lines around a showroom, and they’re not getting the attention they deserve. I’ve got some lines that have 10 SKUs, and the 10 SKUs are really great, and they deserve to have a place.”

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Some of our favorite podcast guests from 2025 share their predictions about what’s to come in the next year.

This episode is sponsored by Loloi. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.