DAY 2

PARIS - It’s the end of a long Day 2 in Paris, and my feet are killing me! Today is our big trip to the Maison & Objet trade show, which is usually the highlight of the trip. It didn’t disappoint this year – the show was spectacular.

One of my companions on this trip is Heidi Barry, a colleague based in China, art directing our Hangzou textile studio. Heidi really knows this business and I always seem to learn something new from her – and she loves to laugh so we find humor in most everything.

The entire show has seven halls, and we walked through them all. It seemed more crowded this year. We focused on the textiles, bedding, bath and tabletop areas for color, pattern, fabrications and textures, but we also made sure to breeze through the furniture, lighting and accessories areas to see how trends translate all across the board.

Metallic treatments in both hard and soft goods is still strong. Lots of fabrics printed with golds and silvers, along with lamps, chairs and accessories.

Florals were everywhere. We saw large-scale florals printed or dip-dyed to look hand-painted. They were beautiful. Toile prints are coming back, much more organic that the traditional Parisian scenic toiles. Damask prints and scroll motifs are still around in black and white as well as some brighter, more daring pinks, reds and greens.

We saw unusual mixing of print fabrics (like the patchwork chair pictured), pattern on pattern techniques where leaves were appliqued over another printed fabric (like the picture of pillows). All very eclectic. Embroideries were new and sophisticated on decorative pillows (See the pillows in the shelves). Feathers were all over lighting and pillows, and bird motifs are still on fabrics.

Knitted throws with yummy textures caught my eye. I saw lights that are made to look like jellyfish – something I could picture in a New York City restaurant.

Circles are still making the trend rounds (such as in metallic lamps), and we spied different laser-cutting
techniques, on a red rose tray, for example.

So now with all this new wonderful cutting-edge trend information crammed in my head, and an exhausting day of wandering this massive market, tomorrow we’ll hit the stores to see what’s new, first here in Paris, then it’s off to London.

Read About Day 1
Read About Day 3
Read About Day 4
Read About Day 5