There will be a whole lot more than just seeing the trends at Heimtextil this January. This week, Heimtextil announced their new concept, new themes and a new kind of presentation. The centerpiece is the move of the trend presentations to hall 4 as part of the Heimtextil Theme Park.
An important part of the ‘Theme Park’ will be the ‘Material Gallery’, which includes a selection of the exhibitors’ fabric collections and offers an overview of the latest home-textile trends – categorized by the trend themes for 2015/16. There will also be a ‘Colour Pavilion’ showing the latest color trends. For the Pavilion, the Trend table will choose trend-setting products from the ranges of Heimtextil exhibitors and use them to illustrate the current state-of-the-art in textiles.
This isn’t the only thing changing – the trend book, long regarded as must- have trend and color handbook, is now interactive. Taking a page from early adopters, readers will be able to access detailed content with the help of augmented reality about not only fabrics and color, but lifestyle shifts and cultural changes affecting textiles.
THEME PARK
Under the heading ‘Experience’, Heimtextil exhibitors and visitors can discover the latest developments in the world of textile design in a more emotional, intensive and comprehensive presentation than ever before.
“We believe that people want to attach an emotional value to their actions. Consumers do not simply want to go into a shop and buy a product. What they want to do is enjoy the shopping experience with all their senses… customers should find a visionary setting that grabs them emotionally and takes their breath away. “
Bottom line: Heimtextil ‘s trend table understands that textile surface design trends are not changing as fast as they did in the past; partially because of the eco movement and partially because the real exciting stuff in textiles is happening under the surface in innovative materials, nanotechnology, and biomimicry. they also get the fact that design doesn’t happen in a vacuum and lifestyle, cultural and consumer behaviors are more than ever driving textile trends and innovation so they are hoping to wrap all of these things into an Experience.
I can’t wait to see it in person! I’ll be blogging from the halls, exhibits and booths from January 14-17, 2015.
Sneak Peek of 2015 Heimtextil’s trend themes:
Sensory: the well-being factor
Designers are creating new products for the home, which appeal to our growing interest in tactile and sensory impulses. They find solutions through science and are inspired to design textiles that increase our feeling of well-being. They use intelligent textiles with built-in responsive technologies that, for example, react to changes in the source of light. Inspiration also comes from the beauty and wellness industry. Super-sensory fabrics draw on the huge variety of tactile effects that excite our senses: light, feminine and transparent. As a sensory contrast, fabrics with polished surfaces or varnish-like lustre and uniformity are used together with paper surfaces and oily finishes to round out this theme.
Mixology: inter-cultural exchange
Diversity trumps all. Cultural fusion has given rise to a new modern ethnic heritage. From now own, experimenting, interacting and assembling different identities is the name of the game. Patterns, prints and colours collide almost chaotically with each other. African tribal design meets 3D rave motifs, retro with futuristic, digital with organic. At the same time, people are enthusiastic about recycling and product hacking. New applications are found for upcycling waste materials. The result is valuable design objects and – no less important – the feeling of independence from conformity of any kind.
Discovery: predicting the future
Designers more than ever are committed to sustaining our planet’s valuable resources. As alchemists, they look in their crystal balls to see what the textile future will bring through the study of innovative and high impact materials and their place in the new world. They look over the shoulder of astrophysicists and investigate and observe the properties and the fascinating dark strength of the cosmos and the micro-cosmos .Light plays a key role in this connection: it dazzles and illuminates, it sketches and plays tricks with the eye.
Memory: reflection and re-evaluation
People strive for a simpler, purer and more ethically correct way of modern life: away from consumption stress and rigid must-haves and toward favorites and a genuine feeling of well-being. The materials that decorate life in the home will be honest, useful fabrics like denim, wool and linen. Familiar patterns stimulate us to recall and reflect. Tomorrow’s designers will combine handicrafts and tradition with an innovative sense of what Modern means enhanced by their digital proficiency. Thus, handicrafts and technology join forces to create new timeless values.
“Fed up with consumerism and left feeling empty by social media
relationships that don’t fulfill, consumers now wish to prioritize personal
fulfillment and well-being. A good look around reveals that all the basic
ingredients for happiness are there, in objects we feel an emotional
connection to; we just need to identify them and place them in full focus.”
