Design Week Trends Report
This past week our Art Curator Nadine Khoury made an exciting trip to Europe that was essential for the Capsule Arts Research and Development team. The first stop was Milan where Nadine attended both Salone del Mobile and HOMI Milano. The next stop was Paris, to visit Maison et Objet, a fair that the Capsule Arts team love to attend regularly to keep up with trends and new suppliers in the industry.
In between networking and gaining essential information on new suppliers for the team to style in a variety of upcoming projects, Nadine spotted some trends at the fairs with sustainability and pastels standing out the most, along with textiles and artisans!
Sustainability
As you walked around the fairs a sense of sustainability was in the air and was certainly a refreshing trend. The booths and seating areas were all made from wood and there was greenery everywhere. In addition, a lot of the suppliers displayed products from their collections that were made from recycled materials. This showed a shift in the world of design, that is much needed, especially as we are seeing environmental issues being brought to our awareness more and more in the recent years.
In previous years Maison et Objet had many booths that were solely focused on fake foliage, however with the trend of sustainability across the fair, we saw many booths working predominantly with dry flowers.
Pastels
The color trend this year at the fairs was definitely pastels. This trend was found across furniture, accessories and art.
Textiles
In addition to the pop up exhibitions on furniture at Salone, the fair featured an exhibition of designers from various creative backgrounds such as product design or textiles. This was a chance to learn about a variety of international designers, including some Arab representations.
In Milan, textiles came in the forms of artisanal handcrafted pieces of art, to mass produced carpets and were featured in various booths and pop up exhibitions.
Artisans
This was the first time Capsule Arts visited Salone in Milan and it was so exciting to meet a wide range of Italian based manufacturers and artisans working with an array of materials from glass to ceramics and wood. While in Milan, Nadine made her way to HOMI Milano, which was also targeted toward artisans and decorative accessories.
Similarly, at Maison et Objet the Craft section was a wonderland of European artisans that have mastered skills in their material of choice and created sculptural masterpieces that were mesmerizing to look at and learn about.
To see more of our favorite booths at the fairs, follow us on instagram and click on our highlights section in addition to our reels.
