Color Trends

   Many of these lifestyle trends were already evident in early 2001, but after 9/11, they became firmly established. 

   There is a marked decrease in expensive resort vacations and global excursions.

   Family time and involvement is on the rise, as is home entertaining.  Celebrations of holidays and happy events are becoming more elaborate and are primarily occurring in the home.

   To some industries, these lifestyle changes signal great difficulty, but to our industry, these and an increasing focus on home life signal great opportunity in the days ahead.  

What does this all mean in terms of style and color?  

Many trends from last year are continuing to strengthen this year and will become firmly established by next year.    We’ve already had several big markets this year for textiles and furniture. .  And we’ve already had several big trend reports from the color marketing group and from the group at the Trend Curve Magazine.  So, obviously, there is a lot of information available.  This new input coupled with current sales data show the following:

The return to opulence and luxury is gaining momentum.

Traditional styling, especially English traditional, French traditional (expressed primarily in toile prints), and Spanish Traditional, represents the biggest growth area in home furnishings and fabrics—even with people in their twenties and thirties. 

High value is being placed on vintage and heritage looks and items.

Luxury will be the key but it can be the luxury of traditional opulence or understated contemporary elegance. 

Cultural fusion is influencing style and color now more than ever—right now the primary influences are English (and accompanying England of course, is India), but look for Spanish and Asian influences to begin appearing.

Retro looks are back in a big way—seen in the return of vintage tropical and beautifully drawn authentic Hawaiian floras.

Contemporary style is being greatly influenced by the retro looks of sixties op art affects—lots of circles and lots of wave patterns.

Non-retro tropical and African patterns are also increasing—think palm trees, jungle botanical and safari looks.

Already popular animal themes have expanded to include camels, Indian elephants, and jungle dwellers—especially monkeys.

How do all of these style trends apply to fabric?

Luster, sheen, elegant weaves, and refined textures became very important last year.

This renewed formality is expressing itself in the increase in popularity of lustrous jacquards, especially those that are multi-colored.  In fact, there is a huge resurgence in the popularity of brocades and lampas fabrics.  These fabrics, along with emberlines and cross-dyed damasks will gain market share in the coming months. 

 Embroidery continues to strengthen.  Newest looks are embroidered taffetas and crewelwork embroidery, especially on silk.

Silk and faux silk are becoming increasingly popular—the rage at Heimtex was power-loomed dupioni (making it flatter, more lustrous, with fewer slubs), shantung, and especially taffeta.

In general, print product is still under a lot of pressure from wovens in capturing consumer dollars. Two big areas of exception are: toiles and printed jacquards.

Crushed, pocket, and puckered weave effects have already been popular with our customers, but they have now become the big story at the furniture markets.  This will enforce the popularity of these goods especially in upholstery-weight product.  The newest looks will be in goods with a great deal of sheen.

Plaids have been popular for a while, but look for a strengthening in dressy plaids—large-scale and balanced plaids will be especially important in the coming months.

All of these new, more formal looks don’t fit every interior, so the markets acknowledge that chenille is still extremely popular, but the newest looks mix chenille with lustrous yarns and weave techniques that promote sheen.  Consumers will be loath to give up the tactile pleasures of chenille but desire the addition of luster to create more surface interest

Woven multi-colored paisleys are showing a resurgence in the market.  The newest paisleys are done on jacquard looms and have very finely detailed “drawings”.  Woolen looks are big and fit the more casual definition of luxury.

The biggest sensation at the European markets was realistic faux fur
The animal expression of the luxury trend.

Color is still the most important criteria in selecting fabrics for interiors.  In general the newest color stories will be as complex as the woven stories are.  Here’s what the experts and the markets say we’ll see:

·     Two colors have re-emerged in Europe and are considered fresh again—look for peach and teal to be back.   

·   Purples continue to strengthen—look for them in every tint and shade.  Newness is the way they are mixed with other colors, such as orange.

·   Cooler, richer, deeper colors will become more important (because they are safe and symbolize security and longevity).  This will lead to a return in the importance of jewel tones.

·   Silk is having a huge impact on color in general. Look for strengthening in the colors of precious metals such as bronze, antique, and copper.

·   Cultural fusion and the Latin influence are reinforcing the mineral colors with those of coppery browns and skin-bronzer shades.

·   Green strengthened surprisingly.  The way it is combined with other colors keeps it new.  Especially strong is the green, purple, taupe combination in every category of product.

·   Teal, as mentioned above, is really a greenish blue and will enter the home primarily as an accent.

·   Reds will increase in importance in the next 2 years.  They are cool now—in fact they are violet based reds.  But look for some infusion of warmth from Latin reds and Asian reds in 2003 and beyond.

·   Orange is gaining ground in the USA for the first time in decades.  Oranges that are influenced by cool reds are the most popular, especially in contemporary looks.  As mentioned above, look for peach to return to the palette.

·   Black is back, especially as an accent—it had very high visibility at market and has been mixed with every color family.  Toile prints are largely responsible for this.  Black-ground floral prints are becoming very desirable. 

·   Neutrals were also strengthened by toile prints.  Linen and cream are the strongest now and will strengthen going forward.