After an inspiring week visiting both Los Angeles and New York, meeting our North American distributers and researching retail trends, I headed to a mild Frankfurt to visit Heimtextil.

Today, Tuesday, was our first official day at the fair visiting Indian, Italian and Turkish weavers. The day prior we arrived in Frankfurt and headed straight to the fair. Like our New Zealand and Australian competitors, we like to gain access to trade fairs before they open and get the jump on the competition by meeting with our top suppliers. We spent Monday afternoon with key Turkish drapery mills, catching up on our current developments and looking for new constructions.

It was really satisfying to see today, that after a long hiatus, a large number of high-end Italian upholstery weavers were back exhibiting at Heimtextil. These mills are from the Como and Prato regions in Italy and are key suppliers for the Mokum brand. They also supply the very best high-end editors from around the world. These mills have been absent for a number of years and their return hopefully signals a growing confidence in the European market. In regards to current trends, Heimtextil builds on existing key themes that have been visible for the last 12 months.

• Tropical patterns – palm leaf florals are still very dominant in prints and also available in woven constructions.
• Antiqued/painterly prints – tonal, water coloured abstract prints were also strong, very much a sophisticated take on tie dye printing, along with Japanese shibori patterns. These designs were predominantly printed onto linen base cloths and further enhanced with tumbled or enzyme finishes for an even more aged/antiqued handle.
• Tribal/ethnic influenced patterns – either printed or woven, Eastern and African inspired prints are still very visible and coloured in multi-coloured earthen tones.
• Lastly, the rise of digital printing is extremely prevalent. Either available from mills dedicated to printing or as an additional string to the bow of upholstery mills, digital printing is very much going from strength to strength.
• Colours today were very mineral based, which very much suits the New Zealand palette, featuring greyed off blues, teals and greens, along with a broad base of light and dark neutrals.
• Soft pinks and acid greens were key accent shades. 

Tomorrow I continue to meet with Italian suppliers then head to the trend hall for further inspiration.

Heimtextil is taking place in Frankfurt from January 12-15. More information on the fair here.