The Chelsea Flower Show, held May 19 – 23 was a visual delight. Color always leads the way at this Royal Horticulture Society event, and this year was no exception. Nonetheless, along the Main Avenue show gardens, there was an overwhelming sense of green. Towering trees, quiet under plantings and foliage of many kinds seemed […] Read more...

The fourth annual Guimarães Home Fashion Week was held June 26 and 27 in Guimarães, Portugal. At this year’s fair, ways to minimize the impact of home-textiles production rivaled interesting materials as top innovations. Fátima Sousa, Commercial Manager for Domingos de Sousa & Filhos, revealed that retail customers worldwide are insisting on sustainable practices. Taking […] Read more...

One of the newest trends in wood, seen in accent furniture, kitchen products and decorative accessories over the past year or so is Shou Sugi Ban. This ancient Japanese technique involves charring, cooling, cleaning and finishing with natural oils as a way to preserve wood. This process results in a textural character and a deep, […] Read more...

A long-time subscriber to The Trend Curve wrote to me a couple of days ago to ask my opinion of Farmhouse collections going forward. I told her that I haven’t seen Farmhouse as a trend for some time. Farmhouse is a core look. The same is true of Mid-Century Modern. It’s a basic, not a […] Read more...

Nature-inspired shades of green and blue always attract attention in outdoor assortments. That said, not all green and blue hues are on-trend. Some of them are core colors. This designation doesn’t take anything away from the basic shades. Instead, it clarifies that they can be counted on day-in, day-out for years to come. Core colors […] Read more...

With just a few days before Heimtextil 2019 opens at Messe Frankfurt, there’s once again optimism in a new year. That’s in spite of economic volatility and political unrest globally. One reason is the theme for the 2019/2020 design trends, always one of the most anticipated presentations at the annual international trade fair for home […] Read more...

Since moving to Southern California from Minneapolis a few months ago, I have discovered that many elements of décor remain consistent across the miles, yet some things are different. Take Halloween decorating, for example. It turns out that kids here in SoCal love decorating their homes just as much as those in the Twin Cities. […] Read more...

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...