If you count yourself among gingham’s adoring fans, get ready to be wowed. A revival of these cheerful checks is emerging for tableware and décor that feel breezy and lighthearted. Assortments debuting at Dallas Market Center in June, and AmericasMart in July showed off a range of sizes, colors and applications. Ginghams popped up in […] Read more...

After years of focus on minimalist simplicity, consumers began to crave product designs with a different sort of character. Mixed media combinations were the market’s first response to that need. The next step was texture. And once consumers got a look at what texture could provide, they were smitten. Now textures are in the midst […] Read more...

For so many years fringe has been thought of (when anybody thought of it at all) as down-market. It had a reputation for being thin and scraggly, and it always got tangled in the wash. No wonder fringe faded from view long ago. But now fringe is back in a big way, and it has […] Read more...

Themes noted among the 389 exhibitor booths on the floor of the 2018 edition of Licensing International Expo were as varied as the product that represented them. They included the continued growth of collectible toy brands as licensed properties, merchandise with a message, properties tied to digitally distributed content (like streaming entertainment and online influencers), […] Read more...

The Summer Fancy Food Show is the largest specialty food-industry event in North America. Held at New York’s Javits Center, this year’s show provided a snapshot of upcoming food trends. Food and licensing expert Leigh Ann Schwarzkopf of Project Partners Network identified one of those trends as sustainability. Bringing the topics of “reclaimed” and “food” […] Read more...

What do you get when you combine a floral-trends expert with a home-décor trends expert? The answer: Grow With Us, a day of education and inspiration sponsored by Dallas Market Center, which took place on June 20th. Led by uBloom’s J Schwanke and The Trend Curve’s Michelle Lamb, this session was attended by retailers, designers and product-development specialists […] Read more...

Llamas may be on-trend, but dogs are not giving up their share of the whimsical-animal pie without a fight. At the High Point furniture market, dogs appeared in framed art and on trays, as the inspiration for the shapes and surface designs on rugs and embossed onto hardware for kids’ furniture. Dogs were appliquéd onto […] Read more...

FURNEX & The Home is the largest trade fair in Africa. Held annually in Cairo, Egypt, it hosts the top Egyptian furniture manufacturers, exporters and traders serving domestic, regional and international markets. This year, it was also host to a student exhibition called Soft and Hard. The challenge to students from German University in Cairo […] Read more...

I just finished writing Trend Album™: Christmasworld 2018, The Trend Curve’s trend report about the Christmasworld trade fair that runs about 80 pages and includes more than 150 images. Among the noteworthy surface-design trends for Christmas was dots. Dots are trending for Christmas because they are trending in everyday décor. And they’re going to be […] Read more...

Showcase was founded by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland 42 years ago. Today, it is among The Trend Curve’s favorite trade fairs. Why? Because most of the products found at this annual Dublin-based event are designed and made by Irish crafters, so the quality is high. Even better, these are products you can’t […] Read more...

Those who create retail assortments rarely get a full view of what happens to products they develop and select at the fateful point of purchase. Which items really made cash registers ring? Which in-store displays actually swayed customers to buy? Not knowing the answers to these questions can feel like sending a message in a […] Read more...

It seems that designs suggesting outer space can always be found in décor. But lately, they are being seen more often, and in a larger variety of interpretations. And although lighting seems to have a particular affinity for the topic, space-themed designs are also cropping up in a greater range of product types, from furniture […] Read more...

I recently finished writing a retail reconnaissance report, along with my licensing-genius colleague, Leigh Ann Scharzkopf of Lookout Marketing. While we have created an entire series of these store-check reports, called Taking Stock of Retail™, the subject of this version was Halloween 2017. Scouring through thousands of pictures snapped by our team at retail to […] Read more...

Dots started to attract The Trend Curve’s attention at the beginning of 2017. The reason they stood out was a new level of sophistication that made polka-dots look positively dated. At December’s Showtime textiles market, dots grabbed the eye again, this time because of a hand-drawn character that made them feel soft and approachable. They […] Read more...

Heimtextil is the biggest international trade fair for home and contract textiles, and because it’s the first trade fair of the year for its sector, it acts as a barometer for the new business year. Interestingly, however, the next edition of it (to be held from January 9th through 12th 2018) will emphasize space, as […] Read more...

One of the biggest trends for home décor fabrics features a hand-stitched look that The Trend Curve has been writing about for the past year. Whether woven in for upholstery or done by hand as an embellishment on items like cushions, embroidery and crewelwork looks are experiencing a pile-on of popularity, and there’s no end […] Read more...

Ultra Violet may be Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2018, but a quick glance around the Showtime textiles market in December revealed that Ultra Violet is not the only purple trending for next year. From amethyst to royal and from lavender to plum, purples made surface designs look fresh. Seen in both printed and […] Read more...

While most collections were exploring a Boho revival for décor (driven in great part by the success of Justina Blakeney’s book, The New Bohemians), an American West theme was quietly emerging at the Showtime textiles market. Showtime was not the first time a Western trend got noticed. Hints of this look were also visible at […] Read more...

The Light + Building exhibit is the leading world trade fair for Lighting and Building Services technology and the Spring 2018 edition of it is sure to become a hotspot for design. Running from March 18th through the 23rd, this Fair will be focused upon various styles, which incorporate the latest designs for the home […] Read more...

Although the majority of my time is spent looking far into the future, a portion of it is always spent at retail looking at what’s happening in the here and now. I believe that retail reconnaissance is absolutely vital to the business of trend. It provides a real-world view of how color, shape, style, materials […] Read more...