4 Trends From Heimtextil 2021: Is There Such a Thing as 'New'?
After the pandemic we'll change the way we think about consumption, and rediscover and mix what we already have
It’s what everyone in the design scene is wondering: what trends will appear after Covid-19? Germany’s Heimtextil fair offers some answers. The leading trade show for home and interiors textiles, scheduled for May 4th to May 7th 2021, presented the textile trends for 2021/22 in a video seminar. They showed us – surprise! – nothing new.
The fair’s motto, ‘Nothing New, Everything New’, suggests that our constant desire for new finds and more and more products no longer fits the Zeitgeist. Instead of continuing to hunt for new trends, season after season, we will be satisfied with what’s already there. Finally!
The fair’s motto, ‘Nothing New, Everything New’, suggests that our constant desire for new finds and more and more products no longer fits the Zeitgeist. Instead of continuing to hunt for new trends, season after season, we will be satisfied with what’s already there. Finally!
“Issues of sustainability have never been more important,” says Till. “We are now using 1.75 planets’ worth of resources every year, so we are living way beyond our means. The fashion industry has had some incredible innovations happening in the past couple of years and has really woken up to the challenges that we face in relation to the impact of our current systems of production and consumption.
“And now the interiors industry is really potentially lagging behind … According to the Environmental Protection Agency, nine million tonnes of furniture and furnishings are ending up in landfill every year. There is this emerging mindset among people wanting to live more sustainably.”
The idea of using resources more responsibly is the uniting theme of the following trends.
Keen to make more sustainable choices in your home? Find an interior designer near you on Houzz for expert advice
“And now the interiors industry is really potentially lagging behind … According to the Environmental Protection Agency, nine million tonnes of furniture and furnishings are ending up in landfill every year. There is this emerging mindset among people wanting to live more sustainably.”
The idea of using resources more responsibly is the uniting theme of the following trends.
Keen to make more sustainable choices in your home? Find an interior designer near you on Houzz for expert advice
Trend 1 – Repurpose: Out of the Moth Balls
What it’s about: This trend centres around the idea that no new products are created. Instead, we dig deep in our materials chest and create new designs from the existing pieces and items we find. In music, this is called ‘sampling’.
“‘Repurpose’ is really about going from creation to curation,” says Bisgaard Gaede.
Colours: This trend focuses on familiar colours that are not too dominant, such as marine blue, reseda green, copper, marigold, or pastel colours including dusty pink or sky blue. Colour blocking is used as an aid when repurposing.
Patterns: Think well-loved old patterns such as chequered fabrics, stripes and small, romantic florals.
Examples and designers: Colour-blocked creations from Netherlands-based studio, Simone Post, or the clothing trend of printing new patterns and symbols onto old textiles.
Trend 2 – Reinforce: Playing it Safe with Minimalism
What it’s about: Longevity and Scandinavian style, which has proven itself to be a guarantee of lasting design and functionality. “The key statement for ‘reinforce’ is that we really want to take on going from short-lived to longevity,” says Bisgaard Gaede.
What it’s about: This trend centres around the idea that no new products are created. Instead, we dig deep in our materials chest and create new designs from the existing pieces and items we find. In music, this is called ‘sampling’.
“‘Repurpose’ is really about going from creation to curation,” says Bisgaard Gaede.
Colours: This trend focuses on familiar colours that are not too dominant, such as marine blue, reseda green, copper, marigold, or pastel colours including dusty pink or sky blue. Colour blocking is used as an aid when repurposing.
Patterns: Think well-loved old patterns such as chequered fabrics, stripes and small, romantic florals.
Examples and designers: Colour-blocked creations from Netherlands-based studio, Simone Post, or the clothing trend of printing new patterns and symbols onto old textiles.
Trend 2 – Reinforce: Playing it Safe with Minimalism
What it’s about: Longevity and Scandinavian style, which has proven itself to be a guarantee of lasting design and functionality. “The key statement for ‘reinforce’ is that we really want to take on going from short-lived to longevity,” says Bisgaard Gaede.
Colours: A familiar colour palette with a variety of greys, off-whites such as buttercream, grey-white, dark green and black with brown tones. It is about shades that have been on the market for a long time and have proven their longevity. These colours are used in monochrome palettes.
Technologies: This trend centres around robust materials with a firm structure. Additional stuffing becomes superfluous. Think tight weaves and strong, high-quality textiles that can guarantee long use.
Examples and designers: The Bouncing Patterns 3D textiles from Juliette Berthonneau (pictured here on the right), minimalist furniture by Swedish manufacturer Massproductions and Brutalism.
Browse beautiful Scandinavian-style interiors for inspiration
Technologies: This trend centres around robust materials with a firm structure. Additional stuffing becomes superfluous. Think tight weaves and strong, high-quality textiles that can guarantee long use.
Examples and designers: The Bouncing Patterns 3D textiles from Juliette Berthonneau (pictured here on the right), minimalist furniture by Swedish manufacturer Massproductions and Brutalism.
Browse beautiful Scandinavian-style interiors for inspiration
Trend 3 – Re-Wild: Nature as a Resource
What it’s about: This trend is not only about the rediscovery of natural materials, but most importantly about genuine, wild, native materials. “We’re looking at the materials that nature is giving us, and using them in a contemporary way … we’re rediscovering all of these materials that are actually just in front of our nose,” says Bisgaard Gaede.
Appropriately for this theme, a second edition of the Future Materials Library will take place at Heimtextil 2021. The collection, curated by Franklin Till, displays innovations in sustainable materials.
Colours: True natural colours with many green, beige and brown tones. Accent colours can include grey-blue or warm orange. With this theme, textiles are dyed with herbal dyes; everything is reminiscent of classic camouflage, all is tone-on-tone, and there is no colour blocking.
Examples and designers: The wall hangings by Rebekka Nielsen, seagrass textiles from Convert, low-tech design from Julia Watson, fabrics out of the mulberry tree from Buro Belén.
Trend 4 – Revive: The Process Defines the Look
What it’s about: It’s a visual manifestation of youth activism on the state of the world, with creativity as self expression. The end result is less important – what matters is the process, how something is created. The trend is defined by layering, structures and distorted patterns.
What it’s about: This trend is not only about the rediscovery of natural materials, but most importantly about genuine, wild, native materials. “We’re looking at the materials that nature is giving us, and using them in a contemporary way … we’re rediscovering all of these materials that are actually just in front of our nose,” says Bisgaard Gaede.
Appropriately for this theme, a second edition of the Future Materials Library will take place at Heimtextil 2021. The collection, curated by Franklin Till, displays innovations in sustainable materials.
Colours: True natural colours with many green, beige and brown tones. Accent colours can include grey-blue or warm orange. With this theme, textiles are dyed with herbal dyes; everything is reminiscent of classic camouflage, all is tone-on-tone, and there is no colour blocking.
Examples and designers: The wall hangings by Rebekka Nielsen, seagrass textiles from Convert, low-tech design from Julia Watson, fabrics out of the mulberry tree from Buro Belén.
Trend 4 – Revive: The Process Defines the Look
What it’s about: It’s a visual manifestation of youth activism on the state of the world, with creativity as self expression. The end result is less important – what matters is the process, how something is created. The trend is defined by layering, structures and distorted patterns.
Colours: This colour scale is much more lively than that of the three other trends, with bright yellow, medium pink, dark burgundy, emerald green, khaki and lavender. The colours can be combined in any way.
Technologies: It is about the creative process of cobbling together and repairing. Patchwork will become a potent method for creating new things. Material offcuts and shreds will be combined to form new surfaces. Here there are no bounds to the joys of experimentation.
Examples and designers: Digital patchwork from Tim van der Loo, ‘hacked’ textiles from Julie Helles Eriksen, paper textiles from Henriette Tilanus.
Your turn
Which of these four themes captures your imagination? Tell us in the Comments below, like this story, save the images, and join the conversation.
More
Are you up-to-date with the latest in global trade fairs? Read 9 Things We Learnt About Our Homes From Designscape in the UK
Technologies: It is about the creative process of cobbling together and repairing. Patchwork will become a potent method for creating new things. Material offcuts and shreds will be combined to form new surfaces. Here there are no bounds to the joys of experimentation.
Examples and designers: Digital patchwork from Tim van der Loo, ‘hacked’ textiles from Julie Helles Eriksen, paper textiles from Henriette Tilanus.
Your turn
Which of these four themes captures your imagination? Tell us in the Comments below, like this story, save the images, and join the conversation.
More
Are you up-to-date with the latest in global trade fairs? Read 9 Things We Learnt About Our Homes From Designscape in the UK
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“Now is the time for a new perception of new itself, as both consumers and the industry are beginning to change existing systems and ways of working in different ways. Welcome to ‘Nothing New, Everything New,’” reads a release from the fair.
“It’s all about changing the perspective on the narrative of the textile industry and actually putting in a new perception of new itself,” says Danish trend expert Anja Bisgaard Gaede of Spott Trends & Business.
“Our clients had to rethink their businesses … our clients are fibre producers, textile producers, finishers, but also machine makers and research labs,” says Anne Marie Commandeur of the Stijlinstituut Amsterdam.
“There are companies urged to become more affordable and accessible, but clean up their acts at the same time … Now through this very hard cut [of the pandemic] we were forced to change … [Digitisation] is for many businesses a leap into the unknown.”
Commandeur and Bisgaard Gaede join Kate Franklin and Caroline Till, of London studio Franklin Till, on Heimtextil’s Trend Council. They have collected the trends for the coming year in a trend book.