Let the fair season begin. This weekend I have been to Danish interior design fair Formland. With over 500 exhibitors this is seen as one of the most important fairs in Scandinavia. I was here to look, scout and participate in four (!) seminars. Here is my overview report of the fair.
The mood at Formland was very optimistic. Retail is dropping. Official Swedish numbers point out that retail has dropped 7% compared to last year – and this in a peak economy. And shops are closing. It has been said before – approximately 10 000 shops are expected to close in Sweden within the coming seven years.
But despite dark numbers the fair felt very optimistic. Buyers were shopping and brands were showing new things.
Formland in August is different from Formland February. Winter version has more focus on newer and younger brands, while this version has a whole separate hall just for dining and then including brands like Georg Jensen, Royal Copenhagen, Stelton etc, etc.
As I said in my trendreport at Stora Trenddagen in January, this is a year where we will talk more about the colours rather than the designed objects. Formland confirms this. There aren’t that many new kinds of objects. There are still pillows with structure, ceramics and pottery with structure, some glass but not a lot etc, etc. But all focus is on the colour scheme.
Beige, brown, sand, eggshell, apricot, dusty pink and mustard. About ten invited guest were invited to make a selection of the fair and this is my selection. Eggwhite jug and vase by Spring Copenhagen, apricot mugg by Dottir and brown vase by Louise Heisel.
More selections. Yellow vase by H Skjalm P, dollhead by Madame Stoltz, candle holder by Lars Rank and round glass vase by Cozy Living.
More ceramics from Louise Heisel. And now lets talk about colours. Mustard yellow with earthy, brown hues.
Almost pastell, but yet not really. Here from Tina Marie Copenhagen.
This and top picture from Hauw.
But we also see this colour scheme slightly shift and mix with something darker. Terracotta. Notice the minty blue that we announced in a trend talk to be “colour of the year” for next year. This from Aspegren.
The combo of terracotta and sandy colours with this newer blue colour can also be seen in these throws.
So, terracotta red and nude earthy clay tones. By Ania.
Almost the same colour palette… Every journalist and trend hunter I talked to went bananas over this new Danish brand. They import plastic cases from Turkey. The cases are classical in their shape and form but what is new is the way they work with colours. Super nice. Three sizes. 19 colours. Simply called Aykasa.
So we are slowly moving away from yellow hues to more red.
My friend Holly‘s selection for the fair. Check out more at Decor8.
Danish brand By Wirth got the terracotta even redder. Looks good with the nude and darker blue.
Something I felt was new was the how some brands started to work with white metals. Here an installation at Broste.
This is a picture from the trend installation and I will walk about it later but the use of white metal is pretty present.
Georg Jensen always works with white metal but now they are launching some really nice new things – by Swedish Monica Förster.
And I love this new vase from the archives of George Jensen. Designed by Sigvard Bernadotte.
So grey… And structures. A lot of that on all ceramic surface you could see.
Candle holder in white metal by ON Interiör.
I just thought it was funny and obvious that EVERYONE now is using black candle. Here from Stoff.
Black is still around.
Love this by Muubs. They made a whole collection of leaves from the maize plant.
Finally we do see some blue and green at the fair but not to the same level as yellow and terracotta.
Speaking of green. This is the passage to the installations at the fair. There are lots of them. Very easy to get inspirerd. Here a whole section with only greens.
There are also plenty of well executed restaurants with various themes. Here a Japanese restaurant.
A more Danish restaurant.
A bohemian restaurant.
And a “freaky” restaurant next to the trend exhibition.
And this takes us to the last part of this report – the trend installation. Build and designed by Studie Fly + Helsted. For me this was a total eyeopener and I loved it. Do we dare to talk about “the death of Scandinavianism”? This is the opposite of minimalism and grey hues.
To me this is absolutely a reference and blink to what Gucci has done in the fashion world. It is bold, daring and extremely loud. Mix and match.
But over all this is about having a personality. There is a lot of talk about “colour coming back” but I am more interested in “personality coming back”.
There is a lot to say about the “high and low” from this exhibition but the importance is how they encourage you to find your own way.
This colour mixing could be fond at some exhibitiors. Bold colours and mixing and I can absolutely see the colour orange as a driver. Here by Verti.
Mix and match with colours and orange in a slightly “nicer” way.
So, to summarize. Formland – it is all about the colours. The atmosphere is good. I love how the fair works with restaurants so you easily can grab a friend or collegue and sit down. Also I think the conference part was very interesting and totally sold out with over 2-300 people in the audience on Friday. Slightly smaller audience in Saturyurday but still busy.
I get to hang out with Pejgruppen, a lot of Danish brands, obviously Danish press, some Swedish buyers, some German bloggers and of course superstar Holly Becker from Decor8.
great photos. short texts.
well done, stefan!