Interior design fair Formex is the first of the Scandinavian fairs in 2024. The fair served patterns, colours and a good atmosphere. As all other fairs, this too is struggling but finally we got to see some colours and prints.
I haven’t found any official numbers from Formex for 2024 but the numbers from August 2023 are on their website. Formex in August brought 363 exhibitors and just under 10 000 visits (9 663 visits).
The conversation on the floor at Formex, was the same as in all other fairs. Why isn’t brand X here? And again. Lets focus on what was here.
Formex looked really nice. Airy, colourful and plenty of inspiring installations. For me, Formex is always a good fair to find new, emerging talents and this year I was really happy to see some nice craft too.
Is Formex relevant? Of course it is. It becomes more and more local. And that is fine. As long as there is business, then there is a need for Formex. And the majority of everyone I talked to made money. But of course, people are comparing to Formex prepandemic when it was really competing with Maison&Objet. And now it is a different fair. Yes, local – but still business and still inspiring.
One of the major installations at Formex was from Studio Lisa Bengtsson. Her whimsical, colourful and creative pattern set the tone for the whole fair. The way to work with pattern on pattern is very much on trend.
I loved her new pillow with bows so much that I named it one of my favourites.
At the entrance hall, there was also a huge installation made for the fair by Dennis Valencia.
But the fair itself was a feast of colours and shapes.
There seemed to be a lot of red and yellow tones at the fair.
Textiles from Boel & Jan and interesting new materials at Jakobsdal.
As always I find interesting sustainable products at Formex. Here from Wasa Textile. I love how they sort the recycled textiles by colour and avoid adding new colours. Also nice touch with the retro feel.
Same colour sorting and add your name or place. Fun.
Sustainability. Loved these schawls and textiles made of natural dyes. By Spirit of Threads.
Speaking of retro. Yes we see a lot of retro in our interior design now. Here coffee cups from Norway.
Also vintage looking ceramics from Jakobsdal.
And I loved how they used new technology. Here 3D printed ceramics. Still at Jakobsdal.
Internationally I see a big trend with straws and hay work. Here some examples at Affari.
But as mentioned – super glad to see excellent craft coming back to Formex. Here by Jonas Lindholm.
And these simple shapes in metal. Perfect for out- and indoor. By Rum och Flora.
Who deosn’t want a flower installation made of steel (hence the rust).