Trend Flash is delivered only to Members of The Trend Curve’s subscriber family. Doug Thayer, Editorial Correspondent, has been at the semi-annual Atlanta Rug Show. Here are the market’s top trends.
COLOR
- Icy blues remained in the forefront
- Greens did the same
- Intense reds gained interest as accents
- Retro gray combined with pink in duos evocative of the Eisenhower years
- Bright, intense hues went away from sari silk, yet grew stronger in importance
- Purples were reinvigorated
- Black and white softened to charcoal and ecru
MATERIALS
- Texture was critical in all constructions
- Finer machine-mades continued to emulate hand-knotted looks
- Yarns added treatments: aubrush, space dyed, ombred, marled
- Hygge-inspired mega-large roving yarns worked into cozy cable-knit looks
- Dual-level surfaces, such as cut/loop, pile/flat, two levels of pile got more play
- Faux fur masqueraded as cowhide
PATTERNS AND MOTIFS
- Interest in more traditional native designs was renewed: Anatolian, tribal kilims, Central Asian
- The great contemporary organic abstract, with areas of small readable colors, stayed in lead as the pattern of choice
- Suzani motifs were updated with tonal colors and simplified, almost floral interpretations
- Blocks, grids and squares, deconstructed organically, appeared as patterns and shimmering backgrounds
- Khotan or Turkestan, presently in Western China, offered one-of-a-kind antiques, with idiosyncratic motifs like vases, pomegranates or vines (look here for future inspiration)
- Diagonals, usually decomposed and organic, got traction in transitional designs