Last week I made my semi-annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to attend the Las Vegas Market. The Las Vegas Market is the only major home furnishings market in the western U.S. offering a unique cross-section of suppliers and buyers spanning the home furnishings, decor and gift industries. It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to keep up with the ever changing trends in the industry, to catch up with the reps of lines I’ve had for years and to introduce myself to reps of the lines of new and exciting products I hope to carry in the future.
The specific goal of our trip this Summer was to identify products solely for online sales. As you may be aware, over the past few months we have been developing a platform for selling products online. The new site is live but limited in scope, yet even in its nascent state we were able to demonstrate that we are “the real deal,” enabling us to create many excellent new vendor relationships! Here’s an overview of some of the exciting things we found.
AFLighting was our first stop because they were our first account. Also, they’re great! They sat down with us and looked over our online store and gave us some great pointers and suggestions. They offer an incredible range of lighting styles, from whimsical, to contemporary to traditional, a style to suit just about anyone’s tastes.
We returned to the sister showrooms of Global Views and Studio A many times — and not just because they had one of the best lunch spreads at the show! As their name might suggest, Global Views offer a truly international array of products, offering high quality artisanal items from just about every corner of the globe. One of the things we love about both Global Views and Studio A is how versatile and interchangeable their accessories are. With a little imagination, a good designer can create a wide range of completely different looks using different configurations of the same items. Very economical!
A distinct trend that we noticed throughout the Market was the mixing of materials within the same vignette. Combining the natural warmth of an organic material like wood with the stark coolness of a “man-made” material such as chrome or glass can create a beautiful balance that is both unpretentious and welcoming while also maintaining an air of contemporary sophistication.
This juxtaposition reminds me of a recent New Yorker article that describes the Golden Forty-Year Rule: “The prime site of nostalgia is always whatever happened forty years ago.” The article presents several examples of this rule: In 1944 the most popular film was “Meet Me in St. Louis,” about a fair held in 1904; “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was a musical made in 1948 about a song written in 1908. Jump to the ’60s, the Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Your Mother Should Know,” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” affected arrangements and tone that evoked the “Roaring Twenties;” “The Sting,” in 1973 was set in America’s post-prohibition era of 1936; and let’s not forget the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” franchise of the 80s was set in WWII North Africa. Continuing this trend, one of the cultural touchstones of today is “Mad Men,” which debuted in 2007, is set in the hard-drinking, heavy-smoking era of the late-50s/early-60s, which was, you guessed it, approximately 40 ears ago. “Mad Men” and the era it evokes, is clearly represented by this juxtaposition of wood and chrome. What goes around, comes around.
The Golden Forty-Year Rule on display at the Las Vegas Market
The Las Vegas Market is many things. It is an opportunity to reconnect with loyal, stalwart vendors; it is an opportunity to develop new relationships and explore new product lines and it is a great opportunity to identify exciting new trends in the interior design and home decor industry. I know it’s still six months away but I’m already looking forward to returning for the Winter Market to learn about the trends that are developing for 2014!
Stay tuned.