FOCAL POINT STYLING: Spring 2013

New York, London, Paris and Milan all host Fashion Weeks. These events usually feature trends, colors, and styles looking forward to the next season. Although these shows are primarily focused on the apparel industry, they are also a strong trend indicator to the furniture industry, the home decor industry and interior designers. A master at merging lifestyles such as apparel and home is Ralph Lauren, and going forward, you'll be seeing more and more of this relationship occurring in stores. It's what helps customers in their shopping experience and it helps to set a "lifestyle" brand.

The Gold Connection... links and accents..

Dipped gold accents...

Vertical stripes...

Gold from Chanel influences...

BLACK & GOLD

This weekend, the interior design industry will kick-off its "fashion week" of sorts: a bi-yearly event at High Point, North Carolina, where the focus this Fall will be on Spring Fashion & Decor. A group of select designers and design bloggers have been chosen to be "Style Spotters", where they will be tweeting, posting and pinning from the event about the styles and trends they see featured at the High Point Market. Although I'm unable to attend the market this year, I'm honored to be included in this month's blog link up with Olioboard and nine other design bloggers discussing fashion & decor. We all will be linking up today to share our version of "Fashion & Decor"... be it for a season, a holiday, a gender, or a trend. I pulled together some fashion and decor trends I think the style spotters will be seeing at High Point, and we'll be seeing for Spring 2013...

SPRING COLOR EXPLOSION!

This Spring will feature a color explosion, from patchwork to plaids and florals to stripes! For his Spring Collection, designer Thom Browne featured a madness for plaidness!

When I worked in visuals, one of the tasks I did regularly was to "tour stores" - both in our mall and around town in our area. I'd see what colors they were featuring, plus how they were combining patterns and colors in apparel & home. Littered with post-it notes, I'd also bring in the latest issue of Vogue or whatever home catalogs I'd receive in the mail and share the details with the management staff and store associates. Sharing this info helped keep our store stay crisp and kept us on our toes. Sure, we had direction from "corporate", but after their guidance was set, if we were missing an opportunity to pull together a trend, I'd go for it. Thanks to sites like Pinterest and Olioboard, even before the brick & mortar shops get their next assortment, trend forecasting can be done online. What a great way to test and try a few concepts or looks before setting in a store. These sites are also a great gauge for retailers to see what people are pinning, and for us thrifters, these sites are great to create our little shopping list of what to be on the look-out for...

SPRING 2013 - FLORALS & STRIPES

Wake up those stripes you may already have by pairing them with florals: from shoes & handbags, to sofas & pillows, or chairs to tablescapes...

Not every trend is for everyone or for every home. We don't all experience the same season or climate world-wide. Creating style boards to pull together fashion & decor looks is a great way for retailers to keep their assortment fresh. Even existing pieces or basics can look new again when refreshed in a new color pairing or pattern mix. For example, black & white stripes has been widely popular the past two seasons. Although they will continue to be strong, a simple change in stripe direction (vertical stripes) or even adding more color will be happening this Spring...

SPRING 2013 - COLORFUL STRIPES!

By no means are these all the trends we'll be seeing! And still to come will be the release of the color of the year from Pantone. This year it was Tangerine Tango - I wonder what it will be next year? From what I have been seeing pinned in fashion, I'm leaning towards the happy and optimistic yellow... but shades of jade have also been being pinned...

Rain or shine - This Spring's forecast seems to be on the sunny side!

Room Fusion - Merging Fashion & Decor - Spring Yellows

White usually makes a strong appearance after winter, and I've been seeing more black & white patterns. Some feminine details, like bows and lace are also sure to be making their way from the runway to our rooms in one way or another...

SPRING 2013 - BLACK & WHITE with LACE

The delicate lacy detail of a dress can be translated into a durable Marrakesh tile design or a sparkling chandelier...

Besides retailers, showrooms and industries merging fashion and decor, there are collections or displays we can already do in our own home style: we can display jewelry on trays, boxes, hooks, or on forms. Even a pashmina, a wrap, or a pretty printed scarf can be used as a table runner or bed scarf. Sometimes your husbands dress-shirt can have the perfect shade of blue, or maybe you've fallen in love with a dress print and color combo, and now you want to do it in your living room. Fashion & Decor is merging all around us. What are some ways you merge your fashion with your decor?

Room Fusion - Merging Fashion & Decor - Spring Blues & Greens

You can read about the upcoming High Point Market at Fashion Focus - High Point Market - October 13-18. To learn more about what the hot color trends will be called, see the Pantone Spring 2013 Color Report. And just in case you're wondering, "but what about the Fall color Trends happening right now?", you can also see the Pantone Fall 2012 Color Report.