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To Trend or Not to Trend

We're going to talk about now color and design trends what's hot what's not so it's really more about what's hot because as I said earlier there's almost nothing that's not hot anymore now yes, something is to get overexposed and overused and you know, a lot of us think of never see chevron again it'll be susan and some people are saying I just figured out what that was last week on I really like it so you know, there's all kinds of different points along that trend lifecycle that people find themselves and we were saying designers leap really soon in a trend and maybe by the time it trickles all the way down to the public where you're seeing it everywhere maybe even towards the end of the actual trend life cycle and you're thinking it's just ah fresh in it. So I just returned on sunday from high point north carolina for the furniture market, which is the biggest furniture market in the design industry it's huge is like seventy million square feet basically an entire town, not just one...

building with a town of furniture, showrooms and new ideas and so the the absolute latest and greatest things in the furniture and design world are there it's like going to new york fashion week for the design industry and so a lot of these ideas although I've been seeing things trends gaining momentum it was fun to take a look at them just a few days ago so that we see what's really hot at the moment but first of all let's kind of go back to that idea of of a trend and whether or not it's something that we want to bring into our design so this is I love this it's a general direction in which something is developing or changing maybe it's a fashion or its origin comes from the english part of the language we fear a word smith if you care but it's just it's a direction in which something is moving so colors even trending lighter on the wall like we talk about that is a trend or it might be a specific color or a specific motif for a specific medal or all sorts of things that become popular so it's not as much about just what's hot but it's about the idea of a movement or a change within the design industry that I think is the most interesting part about it and hopefully that helps you also again maybe not be so afraid of a trans just like you're not so afraid of color now because it's not like it's ah hard fast rule and if you don't have it you're dated or you're not cool or not in the know it's really just noticing when things are experiencing a popular a popularity or sort of a resurgence or not and they definitely revolve, and they rotate, which is what really a trend means a trend cycle, things cycle in and cycle out, and so we're seeing things that now a lot of the things I'm seeing are trending back from the eighties on we always hear that idea of things maybe trending every twenty years or so, maybe thirty but it's interesting tow watch and then with color in particular, I think the cycles get shorter and shorter and shorter are even non existent. So in the break, we were sort of talking about how in two thousand eight, we were seeing purple in my work and some of your work, and I'm about to shit about to show you that to that purple is actually experiencing a resurgence again, and it almost felt like it never left, like, hasn't it been around for a while? So the interesting thing about that is, as the trends cycles, get shorter, it almost appears as if they're longer because they start and stop so quickly, like you think, well, that's been in for the last ten years, which in a sense, it has so that's. Why you don't have to worry so much about its not like project runway, where one day you're in and the night you're out of me, that is true, but the next day you're back in again. So that's, the good news is, you know, it's it's, not scary it's, not something that you have to rush to dio but it's probably the question that I am most often ask behind what paint color should I use is what's on trend right now, what's on trend ah, and that's what people think designers are the experts on and of course we are because we're looking at that all the time. So, um, if you're considering bringing a trend into your home or to trend or not to trend here, some questions that we can think about ah on whether to qualify if a trendy purchases right for us? S o because transcript investing in a train can be costly, right? Like it, especially depending on what it is. If it's changing every light fixture in your home because you're going from, you know, nickel to brass, that could be really expensive, so so really understanding, sort of and asking yourself these questions can be important, and the other thing that's interesting to think about is it's so much easier to embrace a trend in fashion or related things like you can change your hair color every month if you want to her every day, I guess you could you can change literally change your nail color every day, but again you're probably not gonna change your entire home color palette more than every few years right? S so it becomes even a little bit more important to ask these questions and sometimes it becomes frustrating because you've committed to something and you're sort of stuck with it for a little while so let's look at some of these ideas so do I really love this trend? Do I like the way it makes me feel so that's backto our mood that we were talking about this morning? Is it something that I really want to bring into my daily life and into my home? Because a lot of the other interesting thing is fashion used to be way ahead of interiors and interior several years later would follow fashion, but now they're really sort of on the same path the same trajectory. So my two you want to bring whatever it is that you're looking at into your wardrobe as opposed to in your home or is it something that you truly want to look at every single day on a daily basis? That's a big question so um and then we get you on the verge of falling back in some of those into some of those fears if we scare you to death no, I don't want to look at this every day, so of course depending on how you bring it in and how much the percentages and where and how you use it can also play a role in this whole idea also is this as I was just saying, is it just an accent to an existing design or am I really using this to base an entire were important so a lot of times a pattern or a little pop of color is an accident but sometimes it's jumping off and leaping into a huge color palette or even a wall color if you decide okay, I'm going in totally and I'm putting that that bright coral red on my entire wall that can really be a big difference than just adding a couple of new pillows. So what is your motivation behind it? Is it just an accent or is it much bigger than that and a bigger commitment? Uh, ok. And then is this trend one that has classic or even ancient roots, which we will address a little bit more on on day three when we talk about the history of designs so you may not totally know but that's really what's going to start to give it that more of a timeless of hill are is it truly a look of the moment and what you find when you really do the research is almost every trend is rooted in classic elements it's some reinterpretation like chevron that we're seeing now you can see and beautiful tile work in morocco. Yeah, I was in marrakech about a year and a half ago and gorgeous chevron everywhere, like they were on on trend and it was hundreds of years old, so people create a lot of these motif ifs and design ideas from things that have a historical reference, which is a good thing because it doesn't mean that it is something that is not always going to potentially be timeless. It will if it has those roots and, um, his historic architecture or historic design. So that's a good thing, but I think it gives you confidence if you know that to know whether you want to embrace a trend and then obviously, like we talked about earlier, one of the best ways to know if you really can be successful with the trainers, look, two designers and other tastemakers and people who were starting to use thes in their own work. So there and that's a way if you want to be really trend forward, if you're really watching some of the people that you start realizing our really setting the curve instead of following it that's a fun way to leap ahead and be on the front end of something as opposed to the back. Um, and then number four um, cannot afford to invest in a high quality item or product that will incorporate this trend. Or will I be working on the cheap? Those are two totally different things. A cz well, so if you know, maybe you pick up a couple of pillows at a local discount store and you're out, you know, thirty bucks that's, no big deal. Uh, if you're going to put in a tile backsplash in a chevron pattern or greek key motif that's a lot bigger investment it's a lot more permanent, andi and all of these can be good things. And, um so it's not that anything that's a trend you should just do in a short, quick, inexpensive sort of way, but more just being mindful. I prefer quantity quality over quantity personally, and I also love and look to trends that have those very specific historic roots, because if I love it, whether it's trending right now or not, I will still most likely always love it. And it will have some a point of reference, usually to the rest of my design style. So it's going to flow and be cohesive with my entire home for years to come, not just right now, when everybody else seems to think it's very exciting and popular of course some of those things that you do on the cheap cost less for good reason and they're not a good interpretation of it and a lot of times by the time we see things making it their way all the way down to a discount store uh like we said and they're on the back end of a tran they lose a lot of they're scale and proportion and all the things that made them great to begin with because a lot of times like I said earlier we were looking at those green chairs the geometric shares a lot of times when trance first come out it's the higher in companies that are willing to leap and do that and that's when they were at their most beautiful a lot of times not just because they're expensive but more about the quality on the time it took in the care that they're made with and a lot of times when people start trying to cut cost they cut some of the most important parts and pieces of the trend so they sort of dumb them down or water them down all the way down to the lowest common denominator I'm so asking yourself that question like do these still have the great qualities that I've been loving in the trend or is this sort of a not so great knockoff version of it and in that case you probably want to pass of course, paint as we've talked about a lot today, is a great way to incorporate certain trends because it could be really inexpensive from painting things on the wall using a stencil pattern, paying a border, you know, in some kind of a motif, all sorts of options for creating designs, cut and color combinations with paint and that's easily changeable without, um, really affecting the rest of your your furnishings, so it could be a great way to do this in an inexpensive way. So we've talked about this just a little bit how to trends and home interiors relate to trends in apparel and fashion, and they really have become almost synonymous with one another they they've gotten on the same cycle, which is fun because we used to look at fashion to dictate and really influence what colors we would put in interiors, and now you even see it happening in reverse sometimes, which is exciting from as a designer that we aren't so far behind the fashion trends anymore. They're really the same part of this, maybe because so many fashion icons have crossed over into the home category, and so a lot of this is kind of being melded and blended together as well.