PARIS — Inspiration of all forms is found on nearly every corner in France’s global urban mecca, and those same influences frequently make their way across the pond to U.S. consumers via numerous channels, including products for home.
Caroline Hipple, of Norwalk Furniture, regularly attends Maison & Objet to get a firsthand look at what’s capturing the attention of the European design community and marketplace. This past September, both Hipple and Chief Creative Officer Dixon Bartlett attended the tradeshow (their 21st visit), noting key influences they discovered, both at the show and on the street:
On our annual trek, we visit both directional spaces in the city and the aisles of the Parc d’Expostion. The department stores, the specialty boutiques, the designer mavens and the fabric houses provide a wealth of creative data that we can feed on for design inspiration for the next several years.
Sharing times with industry trend leaders and journalists to compare notes about what we are seeing is one important secret ingredient in our sauce. We are grateful for our design community’s input and those that are trying to find the clues that we are.
After retracing our routes every year for these 21, we can see both dramatic and subtle shifts that inform our trend and color work for Norwalk.
‘Granny’ Millennial
Grandmillennials have found their way to Paris. Think nostalgic mini-prints, such as Liberty of London, and Boho Chic channeling YSL in the 1970s and his Russian peasant period. There is most definitely a ’70s hippie vibe in the mash up.
Uber directional Merci launched “Chez Grand Mere” in a nod to this trend and fleshed it out with 1930s-’40s era nostalgia in dining and tons of “craftwork” (crochet, lace and striking yarn use) in both apparel and tabletop. Fiber arts in Dior’s windows also underlined that this trend is reaching both high and low price points. Etro, and Dries Van Noten, the kings of boho and mixing textures and prints, brought their nod in pattern play to this nostalgic mood. This is the next wave of cozy, nostalgic comfort post-COVID as we try to regain a sense of security in the topsy turvy world just now.
Colors showed up in cool pairings of citron, sherbert, jade, grass, raspberry violet, and lavender, as well as the perennial shades of mustard, and lemon with a touch of mint.
Organic shapes
Organic shapes and Matissian cut outs: Think Jean Cocteau, Gio Ponti and Matisse. Curves, shape and materials in a modern mood, but soft. It’s a mashup of mid-century and ’70s vibes. No right angles were present; every corner had a soft radius.
Terra cotta and white glazes seen in very elegant settings, like Frances Palmer’s displays at deGournay.
And colors are definitely becoming spicier: Coral, cocoa, toffee, vicuna, mixed up with blush and white, and a touch of citron spice to make it sing.
Green, black and white.
Greens of all shades were present. But the most eye-catching were the emeralds paired with bright white and charcoal or ebony.
Other hues that ranged from Spruce to Sage to Celedon were all well-represented in multiple home furnishing categories.
Pattern Play
The most photographed and posted imagery from Maison & Objet was the amazing installation and brilliant directional cube of inspiration by Elizabeth Leriche, The Pattern Factory.
She chose items from the show and assembled them in color and pattern moods. She also included a room showing how fabrics are “patterned” with wood block, silk-screening and shibori tie-dye. And a tiger or two. It was the must-see area of the show.
We are back home now and inspired to interpret this work into our fall 2024 program. And happy to say that the fall 2023 in Norwalk was right on cue, with our bold mash-ups and emerald-ebony-and-white.