I am doing eight (8) fairs during the first four weeks of the year. This site will be full of reflections of the design industry and where we are going. I will do my reports one by one. First out Heimtextil.
The next big thing in textiles. Heimtextil is the international textile fair in Frankfurt. All kinds of textiles. For furniture, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc, etc. Anything but for clothes. Heimtextil used to have a strong wallpaper section but that is really small nowadays. 2400 exhibitors and 44 000 visitors.
It was a good fair. My overall grade is pretty high. First day was a bit slow, but second day was really busy. The fair is about half the size it normally is, so fewer halls ment that the ailes felt busy. Everyone was obviously nervous. This was the first proper fair after the pandemic and with a recession around the corner – would business be back? But it was really good. People were happy.
Like many fairs also Heimtextil host a trend exhibition, and as I have said before – this is possibly the best in the industry. Best of ALL fairs. It is innovative, creative and daring. One year they had huge mansize foil balloons flying over the fair grounds. Trends in textiles? Maybe not – but super fun and innovative.
This year the main focus was on different areas of sustainability. Materials, colouring, repair, etc, etc.
It leads the way to an overall introduction to what was at the fair. I will talk about colours below, but there were a lot of sandy hues. I was a bit suprised. Everyone talks about strong colours but in textiles we apparently want it sandy.
At the trend installation you could also see these sandy, grey colours together with blue.
Trend 1 – 3D look on top of textiles
One of the most noticeable things at Heimtextil were these textiles effects. Like you have sawn on a thread or string onto existing fabric. All kinds. On curtains, pillows and bedspreads. Here a more chaotic pattern.
Maybe a more Art Deco inspirered pattern on a curtain.
It could be just a string, or more worked as on this pillow.
Even woven baskets had this.
More curtains.
Delicate, fine and poetic as in this case.
Or more quirky and fun.
More Art Deco.
Trend 2 – graphic patterns
We have had a long time with very little patterns and focus on tactilty or even colour blocking. But slowly our interior design world will be filled with patterns. I saw a lot of black an white prints at Heimtextil. Perhaps not so much at the other fairs – but apparently on textile.
And notice that the patterns clash a bit.
Not only strong prints, but also pure lines. But very graphic.
Trend 3 – gold
There wasn’t so much gold as I thought it would be. There were some… But I wasn’t drowning in gold. Maybe too soon and we will see it more next year?
Trend 4 – shapes on shapes
Not sure this is a 50s, retro trend, but my gosh, there were a lot if these prints and patterns with shapes plainly just put on other shapes.
Even almost monochrome.
Trend 5 – colour
It shouldn’t be any suprise to anyone. Yes, colour is back. And big time. Looking at my pictures I am trying to figure out a common theme or thread. First picture is from trend installation and we can see the whole repair thing. And mixing vintage, new and different patterns.
Also from trend installation. A bit of flirt with the vintage aesthetics, I would say.
A close up on the crochet pattern I really like.
Strong and bold colours.
Also for bathrooms.
Fabrics for furniture.
Clash of patterns and colours.
The neon details are here. And personally I think they work better in details than too much.
I guess everyone (!!) will get a pillow for the sofa with these strong colours. There is an endless list of pillows.
There are even colourful mushrooms in this trend…