When Interior Design meets Fashion: 4 trends seen at the IMM 15

It’s about time to publish this post. After visiting the leading German interior design show IMM in Cologne, I directly went to the BAU show in Munich where I gave trend talks and once back, we started straight away with preparing a film production that is not even finished. It’s been a good kick-off to the year but I am bit behind with certain blog tops such as this trend report.

Actually, the reason is not exactly the timing here but I wanted to give it a different angle, have been thinking it over and did source a bit more. There was not a lot of news in Cologne. It is a very good fair and I spent this year quite a bit time on The Stage listening to different speakers and taking advantage of getting personal opinions and point of views of other experts.

You know, the way I am visiting now international shows has changed. It’s not so much any more about getting the most of pictures by combing through all possible pavilions in a quite frenetic way, but I see less and make sure I visit interesting conferences that are offered and talk more to people on the stand. Kind of everything in my life is getting more personal now:)

I started realizing about a couple of years ago that fashion is playing a bigger role now in the interior world, and trends are adapted much faster than they used to. There is almost no color that discovered on a catwalk is not somehow applied the following seasons which makes me focus now more on fashion. Same applies to textiles and certain shapes. Bounded and pleaded are other trends from the fashion world that are adapted by a few interior labels.

You see, I had always a genuine interest in fashion. Several years back, I was supervising the German Mango stores and worked for a few years in Berlin. Those days we were very much trained on the last trends. That interest stayed with me but just on a personal note.  Now, I am kind of getting back to observing catwalks and reading fashion reports to see how they will be adapted to the interior world. So we are going to see two colors and 2 fabrics styles today.

1// KLEIN BLUE

Moroso | J.Crew

Instead of telling you all the novelties from the IMM, which were not much but rather a confirmation on the 2014 trends, I’ll stress just on a few points where you can observe how close the two disciplines have become.

Vitra | Roberto Torretta

2// COGNAC

Blue is evolving and we have seen so many shades in the past seasons. The latest discovery is french artist Yves Klein’s signature which is Klein Blue and translated by trendsetting brands Vitra and Moroso. If you need a statement piece, that would probably make it.

Gubi | Chloe

My highlight was seeing cognac as an upcoming trend color, very few brands are working now with it and my forecast is, we are going to see more in AW15/16.

Mambo | Franziska Mueller

If you are on Pinterest, you might have noticed a larger amount of leather tanned sofas (how about this beauty or this one?) being pinned. It’s a warm shade that goes with everything, suits nicely any skin tone in the fashion world and fits into all homes. Don’t you agree?

3//TARTAN

Buzzi Space | Tsumori Chisato

It’s interesting to see how much trends depend on the markets itself.  Last winter I spotted a lot of the criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colors in London (basically in deep green and navy blue though) whereas in Spain that’ s not quite something that is having any impact so far. It might get stronger the following Autumn season.

Buzzi Space | See by Chloe

4//TWEED

In the fashion world, I like the reinterpretation with unexpected colors and a move towards a less classy style. On the interior site, Buzzi Space who is based in Antwerp, Belgium was already into tartan and I am really curious to see who comes next.

Zeitraum | Thakoon

The uptown classic is back. Once the domain of Chanel, tweed now comes frayed and fringed in fashion and slightly starts to see light in the interior world as well with upholstered chairs, armchairs and sofas.

Zeitraum | Maiyet

Zeitraum is one of these companies that is very much into artisan work and they have wonderful solid wood furniture, one of my favorite labels indeed! I could furnish my entire home with their pieces, and I never miss visiting their stand. They understand quite a bit about fashion and did not doubt a moment to apply muted pastels on former collections.

So, I hope you liked the different approach today with a little longer text than usual, I just felt I wanted to dig a bit more into the topic. Let me hear your thoughts. I would really appreciate! G, x

For those readers who were not directed through the newsletter to this post, please note I am sending on Wednesdays information about trend shows I visit, other trend reports and moodboarding tips for business. Some posts are not published on the blog being exclusive. I will shortly announce as well my Expert Trend Board contributing this year for subscribers only. Feel free to join the community today!