A Closer Look at FIESTA

America's favorite dinnerware, was introduced by The Homer Laughlin China Company with great fanfare at the Pittsburgh China & Glass Show in January 1936. FIESTA was the creation of Frederick Hurten Rhead, a second-generation Stoke-on-Trent potter who had become Homer Laughlin's design director in 1927. The collection was an immediate hit with the public and by its second year of production, more than one million pieces were produced.

The original five colors were red, yellow, cobalt blue, green and ivory. Turquoise was added early in 1937. The shapes of Fiesta were created in an Art Deco style with concentric circles highlighting the bright colors. The first six colors were produced through the 1930's and 1940's, until a change in fashion direction dictated a change to a softer palette of pastel colors at the beginning of the 1950's.

Color trends shifted back to brighter colors in the early 1960's, and Fiesta moved with the trend. By the late 1960's earth tones were in vogue and the dinnerware industry turned in that direction. Popularity of these colors proved to be short-lived and sales began to fall. At the end of 1972, Fiesta was retired after 37 years of production.

The benefit of retiring Fiesta dinnerware line was that it quickly became popular with collectors; especially those who had childhood memories of this brightly colored dinnerware. As years passed, the value of the original Fiesta colors and pieces grew as more people became avid collectors.

In 1985, officials of prestigious New York retailer Bloomingdale's approached the Homer Laughlin China Company about reproducing a dinnerware line from the past. Soon the two companies agreed that Fiesta had the greatest chance for commercial success. In early 1986, Bloomingdale's introduced a reinvented line of Fiesta with a new color palette and improvements to the body and glaze. As the Homer Laughlin China Company was the country's leading producer of restaurant china, it made sense that the new FIESTA should be made of the same durable, restaurant-quality china body as the company's other products. The ceramic glaze would be lead-free, a comparatively new innovation in the china industry.

This new version of Fiesta was an instant success, and a new generation of consumers became converts to Fiesta’s iconic brand. Over the next 20 years, new colors were introduced and Fiesta became a color trendsetter in the housewares industry. In the 86 years since Fiesta was first produced, there have been a total of 56 colors in the line. The new color for 2024 is sky.

Today, Fiesta is the leading dinnerware brand in casual tabletop, as well as a consistent leader in bridal registries across America. All the while, generational collectors continue adding new dinnerware pieces to the sets their family members introduced them to years ago. Today, Fiesta dinnerware is the most collected dinnerware in the history of the tabletop industry, with well over one-half billion pieces produced. And millions more to come, for sure.