Editorial

A three-year pause has proved the ideal chance for reinvention, and Stockholm Furniture Fair has seized that opportunity, with a slew of fresh initiatives and even a streamlined name.

Whether it was sustainability, references to nature or even a little healthy hit of maximalism, a sheer diversity of surface choices was the defining feature of this year’s Surface Design Show.

Maison & Objet returned to Paris for its first edition of 2023, with a central theme, Take Care. This reflected broad, global drivers including the importance of self-care and care for the environment but also picked up on consumer demand for more meaningful, often craft-based objects.

Emerging from an enforced two-year hiatus, the return of Heimtexil was marked by an overwhelming sense of optimism for the future of home and contract textiles.

As spa-like themes lose their novelty, bathrooms look to the bold, colourful and optimistic energy of the 70s, or embrace an inner goddess aesthetic for a bit of unapologetic, cinematic glamour.

Recently, there’s been a definite move to the dark side, as a distinctly Gothic mood descends like a dense, bat-filled mist.

Nothing says glamour with a touch of drama like an animal print. From Hollywood to the high street, this is why leopard, tiger and zebra prints remain enduring favourites everywhere. Now these prints are infusing interiors with their big statement style.

As our world becomes increasingly digitised and complex, architects, interior designers and artisans are retreating from this overload, adopting a stone-age simplicity by turning their attention to the ultimate analogue material, stone.

As non-renewable resources become ever more depleted, the irrevocable, environmental and ethical damage synthetic dyes are causing is leading designers to rethink the future of dyeing by recalibrating their relationship with nature.