Gary Friedman has gone shopping. RH has quietly acquired a trio of trade-focused brands: Dennis & Leen, Formations, and Michael Taylor Designs. The deals, all recently finalized, are the Corte Madera, California–based company’s first reported acquisitions since 2022, when it announced the purchase of upholstery powerhouse Dmitriy and Michigan-based furniture manufacturer Joseph Jeup. Financial details were not disclosed.

Though they are very different businesses, all three companies swim in similar aesthetic waters: high-end furniture and decor that tweaks antique forms for a modern audience. That throughline is no coincidence. Friedman, RH’s chairman and CEO, says the acquisitions are part of a plan to develop the company’s next big aesthetic, which he sees as the successor to 2015’s RH Modern and 2022’s RH Contemporary.

“People ask me, ‘Where do the trends come from in our industry?’ I like to say they come from the dead,” Friedman tells Business of Home. “Generations pass away. Their belongings go into estate sales. The estate sales feed the high-end antiques market, which then feeds the high-end interior design market, which then feeds the high-end reproduction market, and it trickles down from there.”

In the same way that Italian design of the 1970s inspired RH Contemporary, Friedman is betting that the next wave swinging back into style is the eclecticism of the 1980s and early ’90s, a look that combined antiques and traditional detailing with the occasional contemporary twist.

“I think we swung the pendulum pretty far with Modern, pretty far with Contemporary. When we look at our assortment today, there’s just not enough classic,” he says. “Most of the architecture in North America is traditional, but there’s not really any really cool, hip, traditional designs out there. It’s something that we have a name for, we have a concept for, we’re going to build freestanding stores with—and we think it’s going to be the biggest thing we’ve ever done.”

All three of the acquired companies helped develop a version of that look in its heyday. Friedman’s hope is that by bringing them into the fold, RH will be better positioned to execute on the aesthetic. “[Part of the appeal is] understanding how to make goods at that level—these are really intricate and beautiful products, and they’re harder [to fabricate] than modern or contemporary,” he says. “[It’s] being able to take that design aesthetic at that level of detail, and teach factories who can scale them.”

Dennis & Leen and Formations go together. The latter was founded in 1986 as a Los Angeles showroom by three interior designers: Daniel Cuevas, Richard Hallberg, and Barbara Wiseley. Over the years, it has evolved into a full-line brand (spanning outdoor to lighting) that is repped in showrooms across the country. In 1989, the trio bought Dennis & Leen from its founders, Leo Dennis and Jerry Leen.

While the Formations look has shifted here and there, it hews traditional, and the company has always been known for its ability to translate historical forms into a contemporary context. Though Dennis & Leen launched three decades earlier, its approach shared a similar appreciation of history, often mining the world of 17th-century French antiques for inspiration.

Today, the two businesses operate out of conjoined showrooms on Melrose Avenue, and are a favorite of L.A.’s upper-echelon designers. (The Formations website is peppered with testimonials from the likes of Martyn Lawrence Bullard and Mary McDonald.) Friedman says that the businesses will continue to service the trade.

Michael Taylor Designs is a little different. Launched in 1985, the company was co-founded by Taylor himself alongside veteran furniture executive Paul Weaver as a vehicle to produce original pieces by the iconic decorator. After Taylor’s death in 1986, Weaver purchased the business and grew it into a formidable player in luxury furniture on the back of historically inspired hits like the Diamond table, the Jennifer sofa and the designer’s spin on a classic Klismos chair.

Weaver eventually sold to a San Francisco Steelcase dealer named Lee Pierce in 2009. The company’s current presence in the market is difficult to suss out: There are no dealers or showrooms listed on its website, its social media accounts are inactive, and Pierce didn’t respond to requests for comment. However, Taylor’s original pieces still command good prices on 1stDibs.

For Friedman, a personal fan, the appeal of the acquisition is Taylor’s legacy and the accompanying intellectual property. “It’s investing in a level of design, capability and authenticity,” he says. “The antiques are going to be selling at crazy prices, [but] we’re going to have the exact same quality, the exact same design—it’s going to be the Michael Taylor Klismos chair. It’s going to be the Michael Taylor Diamond table.”

These three purchases come amid a busy time for the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware. In weeks, RH Paris—one of the linchpins of Friedman’s European strategy alongside outposts in London and Milan—will open its doors. Expectations are high. Meanwhile, a stagnant housing market and tariff uncertainty complicate the picture stateside.

As always, Friedman is focused on the future. “We think this is going to be a really big idea,” he says of RH’s next look. “We’ve gotten to a place where you think, ‘Hey, let’s really lead a trend.’”