Favorite Themes from Heimtextil 2020
Our Heimtextil special report just went live! Here is a round-up of some favorite themes spotted at the show.
Theme 1:
Conversation Pieces
Boundless imagination came to the fore in this exuberant theme: living creatures both real (birds and insects, beasts and humans) and imagined (phoenixes, dragons, gargoyles) joined cityscapes, pagodas and jungle scenes. Illustrative skill and fine printing techniques made these compositions shine. Rendered in bedding, running yardage and wall covering, most offerings were presented in bold multi-color, with a few designers choosing to pare back to a more graphic single-color palette. These bold designs fit into the ongoing maximalist trend.
A fantastical cityscape (depicting French fortress Montsegur) in wallpaper from Casadeco. I’ve been seeing lots of these building-scapes popping up, love them!
Looks
Complex colorways requiring skill in digital print and weaving
Charming illustrated motifs
Quirky subject matter
Animals both real and magical
Graphic or painterly renderings
Asian influences
Terrific detail in this beautifully painted animal toile print bedding from Tessitura Toscana Telerie
Belgian epingle mill Delabie presented a fantastical Asian Phoenix design in cut and loop pile.
Theme 2:
Tarnished Twist
Texture and character continue to attract consumer attention. Surfaces were covered in mottled motifs, often meant to add a look of age and patina. Crackled designs, camouflage and terrazzo effects joined graphic organic patterns and marbled looks in this easy-to-use category. Embossing, incising and matelassé techniques, along with items with a true wrinkled look, gave offerings in this theme a sense of dimension and time-worn authenticity.
Wallcovering from Rotex adds a metallic rainbow to a metal-leaf look. I love the terazzo-like layout.
Looks
Crackled and eggshell patterns, especially with a sense of dimension
Mottled finishes, often pairing matte with shine
Time-worn textures evoking rust, fading, and wear
Camo, moire and landscape patterns
Terrazzo and marbleization
Speckled and scattered layouts
Coverdec.one showed this super-textural 3D crackle design
A hip terrazzo design from Italian drapery house Lodetex
Casamance multi-colored jacquard fabric with an organic spayed appeal.
Theme 3:
Technicolor Texture
Textures and textured plains maintained dominance across the board, and the biggest development was the explosion of color. Bouclés graduated from ivory and natural shades to full spreads of color, and chunky weaves and knits showed up in saturated shades. Products that, a few seasons ago, would have used muti-tonal effects for depth are now becoming multi-colored, with accent hues popping off their surfaces. Heavy texture amplified the power of color.
Italian mill Bimitex created this texture, which gets interest from multi-colored space dyed yarns contrasted against a natural warp.
Wallcovering from Omexco marries layered texture with a rich palette.
Looks
Prismatic and rainbow palettes
Multi-colored space dyed and heathered yarns
Flecked and speckled color accents
Unusual pairings of substrate and color:
Waffles, bouclés and furs in strong shades
An absolute explosion of color in this silk Madka from Globe India. Talk about ROYGBIV!
Rainbow color combination towels from Hiyema, a division of Himatsingka that specializes in sustainability. These towels use fibers reclaimed from the factory during the weaving process.
For the rest of the themes, including “Verdant Gardens”, “New Angles”, “Flawless Finesse”, Pure Elements”, “Carefree Stripes” and “Folkloric Viewpoints”, check out the full issue. We went a bit nuts—the report is 150 pages long!!! The color report is included (of course) along with a look at Heimtetil’s published trends, and a round-up of the eco-innovations presented in the TrendHall. Happy reading!