Harbingers of things to come?
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, January 6, 2002
It's interesting to see how things are shaking out — in the design community, with consumers and their homes, and in the marketplace in general — after several months of talk about Sept. 11 and its aftermath.
Perhaps one of the best indicators is the hundreds of fabrics being introduced both at Showtime in High Point and Heimtextil in Germany.
Very little red, white and blue is to be seen, and few flags or other patriotic symbols made their way onto fabrics for furniture, windows or beds. The few that did are destined for home products such as decorative pillows, perhaps a shower curtain or two and even a throw.
What is most interesting is the prevalence of humor and whimsy from American fabric producers who, in the past year or so, have been rediscovering the latent potential of a category called "novelty" or "conversation" patterns.
A growing number of American companies are going after this category full bore, some even calling the design approach "edgy" or "over the top" in comparison with their regular offerings.
Of course, this is a product category the international community has embraced forever, and one that influences the direction of color and even design themes in more conservative design segments.
Then, with a 180-degree turn, there has been an abundance of luxury fabrics, exemplified in innovative constructions, rich new color combinations bringing new life to the omnipresent neutrals, and more and more use of luxury fibers, from Egyptian mercerized cotton to mohair to silk to mixes of fibers to new looks in yarns, creating matte-sheen effects and iridescent multicolors.
These directions are more evident in fabrics not intended for furniture, but who knows what will happen a little further down the road?
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