The "little black dress" is more than just something to wear. It's a fashion icon about which every woman, fashionista or not, knows two things: everybody needs one; and, with the right accessories, it's always appropriate. The little black dress is an outfit that says something about the woman wearing it. She's classic, sophisticated; she has good taste. It's a distinction fashion designer Nicole Miller capitalized on by making the little black dress her signature design. It launched her career and allied her with millions of women searching for easy options that always look good.

Now, Miller is poised to take the ease, style and sophistication of her "little black dress" into the world of interior design, with a collection by Excelsior to debut in 2006. It's a move she's making in great company. High-profile fashion names like Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Fendi, Missoni, Vivienne Westwood, Todd Oldham and others have lent their great taste, and affluent fan-base, to furniture and home accessories companies aiming to get their brands noticed among fashion savvy consumers who have thousands of choices.

As furniture continues to see slow growth (up just 3%, for example, from 2002, to $72 billion in 2003) and added competitors (many from lower-cost Asian markets), adding high-profile fashion names is a point of differentiation; a way to build brand recognition among consumers who equate products with lifestyle.

When fashion struts into the limelight of furniture, it carries with it the lifestyle associations consumers attach to luxury. As Mary Jo Matsumoto, a fashion designer and style expert, explains, "Once you get involved in the realm of design, whether it's fashion or home, it all starts to overlap. More and more boutique and even department store buyers are looking to designers to see what kind of lifestyle they advance." A lifestyle is a self-composite of sorts. "The term is being used lately to explain an overall feeling about what a person wears, drives, sleeps in, cooks with, lives in, sits on. It's down to what kind of flowers they have in their home, throws and pillows they use, dog accessories they own, etcetera," says Matsumoto.

And studies show she's right. American prosumers (they're the creme-de la creme, pro-active, culturally, socially aware consumers that have become marketing's oracles) consider a respected brand name a guaranty of quality and authenticity. They overwhelmingly say they are "very aware of brand names" and that they think the brands they own say something about who they are.

These are cues furniture and interiors manufacturers are banking on in many ways. High-end UK based, The Rug Company, oozes style cache with rugs created by such varied designers as Diane Von Furstenberg, Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith among many others. Of the group, company founder Chris Sharp says, "We always want people who are going to bring something challenging to the table." To consumers, their different aesthetics mean more choices and more lifestyles. At Kartell, Philippe Starck's Mademoiselle chair is being shown covered in vivid optic Missoni fabric. It's just another bright spot for the Missoni Home collection, a group including the bedding, pillows, towels and rugs you might expect form the textile gurus, plus items like candles, dishware, chairs, and ottomans. Fendi, under the brand Fendi Casa, is selling its lux lifestyle with a complete furniture line of long, lean leather couches, low tables and furry accessories; each piece boasting the same levels of detail and quality that consumers expect from the company's couture.

Even home hardware companies, like Brizo, an upscale line of faucets, are selling their products as part and parcel to a luxurious and sophisticated lifestyle. Positioning itself as the "fashion faucet," Brizo's advertising budget goes to women's fashion and lifestyle magazines like Vogue and Glamour, rather than the standard home decor magazines. Plus, Brizo created four different fabrics, each emblazoned with interlocking Brizo faucets to be used by fashion designers like Michael Kors, Nicole Miller, Patricia Field, Isabel Toledo, Tory Burch and Todd Oldham to make one-of-a-kind outfits that will be auctioned for DIFFA, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. With this campaign, Brizo has aligned itself not only with luxury, but with a good cause --“a win-win for a company courting consumers who want to feel good about the purchases they make.

So, while consumers are being sold, and are buying into, a luxurious lifestyle, what they are actually getting is a matter of opinion. Often times, as manufacturers themselves point out, the designers do not actually create the pieces sold under their name. Once a fashion designer strikes a licensing deal with a manufacturer, executives and designers from that company visit the designer's home to get an idea of their personal, overall style. They then design pieces that reflect it. Of course, the fashion designer signs off on designs, with a vested interest in the style and quality of the item their name is attached to.

Bernard Mizrahi, an interior and furniture designer, calls the process a "victimization" of consumers, but he says, "That is the consumer world we live in." For the manufacturers who vie each other for consumer attention, Mizrahi says tapping into the luxury fashion market "is like opening a new door, a new cash flow."

Some companies, though, like Fendi and Missoni Home, who parlayed their existing fashion properties into home design companies, and others, like The Rug Company, give their designers free reign and expect them to create each piece on their own. Sharp says that for fashion designers at The Rug Company, "The design process is very much an open book... We only get involved in guiding them with manufacturing constraints."

When buying furniture with a luxury name attached, it's best to look into the reputation and history of the company. Excelsior, for example, will be manufacturing the Nicole Miller collection with the same attention to detail and quality that their existing collections, name or no name, receive. And that's something Mizrahi is quick to point out. "You can buy a good name, but sometimes it's manufactured in places where you have very cheap labor, and low quality. If you know the company is a good one, you see that they use the fashion name to bring attention. They are considering the consumer who is fascinated with brand," he says.

The fashion world, known for seasonal changes and snap of the finger trends, is much faster moving than interiors, but it's very possible to buy fashion name pieces from reputable companies and avoid styles that will soon look years past their prime. According to Chris Sharp, even with all of the influence of lifestyle and luxury, "The interiors market will never be as fickle as fashion" and products that are all hand made using the best materials, will last a lifetime.