It was October 2021, and I had just finished my first in-person trends seminar since the pandemic impacted all industry shows. At the end of the image-packed program, an audience member raised her hand and challenged, “Do trends even matter anymore?”
It was a valid question. The pandemic had disrupted business, upended supply chains, transformed education, revealed vulnerabilities, altered priorities, and unexpectedly claimed many lives. The question was tinged with cynicism. Pent-up pandemic frustration? Perhaps. Or maybe it was skepticism fueled by something that’s happening in social media: the irksome tendency simply to add the affix-core to a word, make it a hashtag, post, and presto, a new trend is born. Influencer and forecaster are not synonymous, and my reply was empathetic and swift: Of course trends matter.
I draw on multiple sources to create my home and gift trend forecasts for International Market Centers (IMC). They include: preferred news sources; magazines and journals; documentaries; sports; music, especially bands fronted by singer/songwriters; food stylists and commercial photographers; museums, especially art museums; paint manufacturer forecasts; Pantone View’s annual Home + Interiors forecast; and as many markets as I can attend.
My trend forecasts and the stories that inspired them are on display in a program unveiled at the winter and summer Las Vegas Markets called FIRST LOOK. In a series of product vignettes, my stylist, Addie Jones of Twine & Twill, and I create retail-ready scenes for on-trend products. It’s a unique challenge: represent a breadth of product categories that span everything from area rugs to upholstery, Christmas ornaments to toys, greeting cards to lip balm, and dinnerware to tote bags. For buyers, FIRST LOOK displays are a great way to spot new resources, especially for first-time exhibitors. FIRST LOOK displays also make a compelling case for diversifying a brand’s product assortment.
Can you grow sales by offering online exclusives that complement your in-store assortments? If your store is known for its array of tabletop and housewares products, consider the numerous personal care products, stationery, and gift-ready items that can complement your core offerings by way of scent and printed message.
Is there an underutilized area in your store that can support a new product category? Here, compelling candles or decorative accents come to mind as great solutions for add-on sales, sure. But they also create welcome color, pattern, texture, and fragrance.
Is there a new product category that can lay the foundation for an in-store event or pop-up shop? A tasting event of gourmet products sourced at market is a great way to encourage tabletop sales. Or, for customers who love to make and create, partner with an independent florist and host a make-your-own wreath/terrarium/centerpiece event. It brings great exposure to a new line of planters or ornaments you sourced at market.
As we move into the second half of 2023, I’m focused on how my recent forecasts are evolving as well as several new themes. These include travel and electronics, and how consumers will parse their discretionary dollars; new ways of expressing coastal style; traditional design elements that blend with modern aesthetics; intricacy and handiwork, and what materials are used to create these effects; defining, developing, investing in, and marketing environment/sustainability bona fides; retail strategies for maintaining customer and client loyalty, especially how retailers are aging their merchandising in order to age with their customers; empowerment and how it’s expressed across home and gift categories; design that whispers sustainability and comfort features that exclaim livability; garden accessories and floral trends; and AI-based design, the possibilities, advantages, and downsides. This is a theme I’ll continue to showcase into 2024; the first installment, displayed during the spring sourcing season, was a quirky immersive space that merged illustration, light effects, and illuminated color.
................................ Even when the pace of trends and newness decelerates, we crave stories. And we’re always creating stories; ones that are interesting, surprising, informative, heart-breaking, challenging, joy-filled. Trends are born out of our responses to these stories.
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Narrowing in even further, upcoming forecasts for 2023 will favor linear and abstract patterns; anything-but-ordinary lighting; decorative glass, especially designs done up in vibrant color; asymmetrical patterns; ’90s-era throwbacks, including sun-washed colors and textures; matte finishes; and warm neutrals evocative of sugary confections.
When I reflect on the vitality of trends and the guideposts they provide for buyers, I’m reminded of a painter’s palette. When it comes to introducing trends to retail settings, window displays, and client mood boards, approach the effort like a painter’s palette. You balance the board in your hand, you decide how much paint to apply to the brush, and you must believe in your process.
................................ Julie Smith Vincenti is the owner and editorial/creative director of Nine Muses Media LLC, a boutique media and communications company that specializes in custom content and trend forecasting for home furnishings brands. Prior to launching Nine Muses Media in 2009, she held editor, editorial director, and publisher titles in business-to-business media. http://www.ninemusesmedia.com
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