I can’t help but take notice of fun items, designs and concepts, even when I am focused on trend spotting color. Sprinkled among the great hues I saw this week in London were a few interesting pieces that tickled my fancy so much that I wanted to share them.
Boy or Girl shaped candles at Zara Home
Zara Home is attached to Zara’s apparel stores in three London locations. At the King’s Road shop packs of birthday candles for kids included the typical colored assortment that all of us put on our kids’ cakes, but were fronted by three boy-shaped candles or three girl-shaped ones.
At 12 and 19, my kids are way too old for this concept. Too bad! Changing assortments meant that the ones I saw were marked down to only 3 pounds. Oh! I forgot for a minute that 3 pounds is just over 6 dollars at today’s exchange rate. I still would have bought them!
Opaque & transparent vases at Conran's
Conran’s had vases on display that seemed to give as much attention to stems as blossoms. That’s because these one-of-a-kind appearing vases in two sizes combined opaque and transparent color in a way that created a window into the vessel. Texture also played an important role in these designs. The transparent glass has a lower level, as though the opaque glass was cut away to reveal it.
Also at Conran’s: decorative bath soaps shaped like animals. So cute! But the elephant and a dachshund I picked up were each priced at 14.95 pounds.Does a $30 price tag seem just a bit high for a single soap? I thought so, but none of the packages had any dust on them at all (usually a sure sign of a slow-moving item), so perhaps I am the only person who considers the price unreasonable. Or maybe the Conran’s staff spends much of their day dusting merchandise.
Cat-shaped pencil sharpener at Scribbler
Scribbler is always a favorite stop of mine in London. Their assortment of greeting cards and wrap always has something new and noteworthy. This time, however, it was a cat-shaped pencil sharpener called “sharp-end” that got my attention. The picture at left tells it all.
Heals featured cat or dog designs on mugs. They came in a Black-and-White posterized sort of look that played well against brightly colored grounds. But these mugs weren’t my top item pick for the store. That honor went to oil burners made of clear glass and shaped like a one-piece candle and candlestick. What a great play on form and function!
Some of my London images (I took hundreds!) will make their way into The Trend Curve™. If you don’t already subscribe, you can request a sample issue by sending an email to Janice. You can also subscribe online by going to www.TrendCurve.com and clicking on the Trend Store link.
Others images will show up in my seminars and presentations. I am on my way to Denver tomorrow and will speak at the Denver Design District twice on the next two days. The following week I will be in Denver again, presenting at the Hunter Douglas International Alliance Conference. While I will not necessarily use pictures I took in London for either of those events, I will certainly begin including them in the next two. Look for some London pics in my Trend Watch Live! seminars in Las Vegas on August 1, and in New York on August 12.