chapter 1

Maison et Objet took place in late January of this year, and no, sadly I was not able to go. I tried! Helser Brothers, the drapery hardware manufacturer, had a contest  (!)  to go to Paris, all expenses paid, and be their “field blogger”. ! Now, I ask you, how FANTASTIC is that? I wrote my “proposal” and why I thought I should be the one to do this.

    hmmmmmm: seems many other people also felt they deserved the honor, and seat on the plane!

    As you can see, I did not win this contest… tant pis, as they say (“too bad”). I mean…I speak French, I’ve been to the show, I (sort of) know my way around etc.  But yes, a most deserving interior designer, Rebecca Deming Rumpf, won and did, I think, a really beautiful job of reporting. She obviously enjoyed every minute of it, took lots of pictures, and wrote about some great details of all aspects of the show. 

I loved these pictures of some passementerie: 

Here is part of what she had to say about colors:

“As far as overall color trends go, purple was everywhere at Maison et Objet 2010, especially smoky plums and deep eggplants in combination with taupe and gray.  I predict that, within a few years, purple will become the New Orange in the U.S. – the color no one wanted that suddenly we can’t get enough of.”
 

Now, if you will recall…. no, I’ll help you recall…I did a story on purple from the previous M & O show in September, beginning with :

    “What I DID see here that was NEW was the color PLUM.….or mauve or amethyst or fig”                See here for the story.

chapter 2

Hermine Mariaux is a trend watcher extraordinaire and reports for Home Textiles Today in a blog that covers the shows. Her reporting and analysis of Maison et Objet is superior! And then, to bring it all home to us, she gives a presentation of her findings, filled with tons of pictures, at the IFDA in New York. As luck would have it, I couldn’t go in due to one of those pesky, enormous snow storms we have up here in the Hudson Valley. 

But you can read her reports here: there are five parts to this, so keep clicking.

Here’s part of what she says about color in general:

“Color always rates highest in interest to design professionals, and what we are seeing are increased percentages – a strengthening of directions – which emerged over the last year but have come clearer into focus.”

And this, about those blues we’re beginning to see everywhere: 

“Blues continue their march away from green-cast turquoise into the true blues, a development which began almost a year ago and continues full strength at this show. Azure, hyacinth, and heliotrope blues are companions to a new rich glowing ultramine, a color miles away from navy.”

Photo: courtesy of Hermine Mariaux

And here is Red, used as an accent:

Prints were large scale:

“Large scale designs predominate for florals as at Canovas, Lelieve, Nobilis, and Sahco.”

“FutuRustic, Mother Nature Rules,Heritage & Tradition in Transition”:  read more about these, as interpreted by Hermine.  In conclusion she says “No revolutionary changes were observed, merely evolutions of design directions previously noted.”  

    So where does this lead us? What will be at the NEXT M & O show in September?  Hold on to your seat: I’ll be there!  Maybe I should run a contest too, with NO  expenses paid, but charming company, an “eye for detail” to guide us, and an overwhelming love of Paris! Want to come?