KIM COOK
The Trend Curve

Running August 11-13/18 at Metropolitan West—the old H&H bagel factory, now a spacious, hip event space on Manhattan’s west side—Shoppe Object was New York’s newest independent home and gift product trade show. Launched by gift/home/personal accessory agency Aesthetic Movement and fashion trade show firm Capsule, Shoppe Object featured a curated roster of 100+ progressive makers and brands. Per AM’s press release on the launch:

“With a firm belief that the New York home and gift market is long overdue for radical evolution, SHOPPE OBJECT seeks to reimagine what a trade event for our community can look and feel like. As the market season’s grand finale, and as a global epicenter of creative output, New York should offer a pared-down showcase of exactly who discerning retailers need to meet, and of what they need to see, know, and buy.”

It’s easy to know that trends are hitting home when show visitors can be heard wondering out loud why nobody had thought of doing this before; At this inaugural Shoppe Object, that was a common refrain, both for the goods on display and the show’s concept. Below are a few of the trends that got buyers excited.

Color: Earthy Tones Held the Spotlight
The lion’s share of designers in the handcrafted maker market fully embraced a palette dominated by muted mineral hues. Colors had names like oil, slate, powder blue, putty, ochre, chalk, feldspar and rose quartz. Vegetal and fruity hues like peach, berry, moss and leaf reinforced a natural mood.

None of these colors looked technical or manufactured. Instead, they conveyed an inherently organic sensibility that is exactly what artists, craftspeople and especially buyers say they find increasingly attractive.

But way, at the other end of the aesthetic spectrum were a few designers celebrating the overtly manmade. Alexandra von Furstenberg’s booth was abuzz with buyers clamoring after new iterations of her signature neon Lucite tabletop pieces. A striking new design: concentric circles à la the Time Tunnel television series from the 1960s, on nesting plates and bowls. www.alexandravonfurstenberg.com

And Helene Ige was affixing vibrant sapphire and gold shapes onto muted linen and cotton…but more  about that later.

Soft Materials: Origin Fibers Had Top Billing
What are the origin fibers? Wool, cotton and linen.  All of these were out in force at the show.  There was range in both source animal and skein weight in the wools represented at the show.

Sheep, alpaca and llama wool had been spun, pulled, knitted and laced into items that either celebrated the variety of textures (think fleecy little puffs, rough strands, or shaggy pompoms attached to loomed or knitted pieces) or celebrated the softness and fine quality.

Woven cottons were made into all manner of rugs, wall hangings, pillow covers, table goods and bedlinen. www.bloomandgive.com

The bedding was especially interesting because it wasn’t your traditional crisply tailored sheeting, but rather, a more relaxed version. It was meant to be used fresh out of the laundry in its rumpled state. The organic hues of the linen (coffee, leaf, butter, charcoal) reinforced the natural vibe. Pieces are meant to be sold separately, not as bedding sets, so mix-and-match color options intrigued buyers. www.biancoperlaitaly.it

While there was a ton of washable linen, the other trending material was voile. Think of voile as cotton, wool and silk’s soft little sister. There was nary a fabric-goods booth without some form of it, and buyers were happily hugging and stroking the pieces.

That’s because voile is super lightweight and has a beautiful, gentle hand. It lends itself well to overstitching, fringing, pin tucking and dip dyeing, all of which were on display at Shoppe Object.
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Hard materials: A Very Potter’s World
Ceramicists and concrete artists were experimenting with architectural forms; several offered pillar, ziggurat, coiled, faceted and postmodern shapes as vessels.

At Vermont’s www.farmhousepottery.com a forest of stylized stoneware, hemlock, spruce and balsam trees enthralled passersby. Whether  arbleized or ombré-tinted and geo- print painted, both unglazed and glazed pottery looked especially interesting. See www.virginiasin.com and www.andrewmolleur.com

Pattern: Southwest Continued to Ride High
It is the nature of the handmade aesthetic that inspiration is drawn mostly from down-to- earth, back-to-roots icons like cabins and bonfires, woodland creatures and Southwest patterns. The compelling authenticity found in these motifs and images showed no sign of losing traction with buyers.

So, along with interesting modernist quilts like those at Thompson Street Studio www.thompsonstreetstudio.com, there were plenty of Wes Anderson-esque illustrations of tents, foxes, arrows and other images on soft goods, as well as on home fragrance packaging and storage items. www.coralandtusk.com | www.littlekorboose.com

Some designers really played with topographic and tribal motifs. There were textiles printed with map and geographic patterns, but reconstructed to the point where they became an arrangement of geometric shapes. Minimalist table lamps made out of wood and stone evoked the peaks and valleys of a mountain range without a hint of kitsch or overt reference. www.TantuviStudio.com

Strong, clean graphic design and typography adorned pet food dishes, home goods packaging and wall art. In wall art and cards, one designer noted buyer interest in phrases and sentiments that were self-disparaging, or referenced the chaotic uncertainty of today’s zeitgeist.

Home Fragrances: Scent Stories Got More Sophisticated
Several booths offered candles and fragrance burners labeled to evoke a sense of story. This approach was far more complex than in the past, when calling a home scent ‘sea’ or ‘sun’ would have been enough.

Farmer’s Garden or Forager’s Woods might bring certain scents to mind, but what about Poet’s Garret, or Circus Girl’s Trailer? Bear’s Cave or Dolphin’s Fiord? San Francisco’s Austin Press had buyers intrigued by their extensive array of small- batch candle pots blended with essential oils and perfumes like patchouli, balsam, tangerine, spring lily and chocolate, packaged with 19th century letterpress art. www.austinpress.com

At www.hausinterior.com, cotton wax blends included School Haus (oak and applewood), Brick Haus (amber and bay laurel) and Dock Haus (birch and cypress), and at www. shopnightspace.com, little ceramic pots with vented lids held Warm Earth, available with a blush-hued lid (grass and bamboo leaf) or forest-hued lid (Swedish pine, violet, vetiver.)

Whimsy: Tongue-in-Cheek Was Back
Los Angeles designer Helene Ige showed her new fanciful pillow collection, in which she foil printed metallic unicorns, lips and saucy words onto tapestry and toile. The transaction of pop culture and traditional pattern had a fresh edge. www.igedesign.com

Thomas Paul’s Siren Song collection included marbleized paper patterns from fine antique books. The surprise came from seeing them printed on melamine. Again, the yin and yang of new and old was playful, yet beautiful. www.sirensong.info

Finally, At Domada Designs, they took vintage Turkish, Persian and Moroccan rugs and cut them into cowhide shapes. This represented another way of rephrasing the traditional-and-contemporary dialogue in a very stylish way. www.domadadesigns.com

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