Branching out: Spotting Trends at the Las Vegas World Market

It’s all about relationships

As usual, this year’s Las Vegas Market has been incredibly exciting — and productive! It’s always lovely to get a chance to reconnect in person with my current vendors and product reps, some of whom I’ve known for nearly 30 years, and also wonderful to learn about exciting new products and touch base with new vendors, creating new relationships. One of the primary lesson’s I’ve learned in this business is that it’s all about relationships, maintaining the old ones and forging new ones.

One of the best reasons to attend the Market is to spot trends. The Market showcases only the highest quality products in the home furnishings and decor industry, all putting their own twist on the latest in design trends. As I peruse the showrooms, I start to see similarities among the products. The products themselves are unique but their designs are definitely influenced by the current zeitgeist, so, over time, a keen eye will notice that certain trends emerge. We have completed two days so far and are beginning our third. I thought I’d take a moment to highlight one of the dominant trends I’ve noticed thus far.

Branching out

The first  theme I noticed was the combination of natural elements such as wood with “industrial” elements like steel and chrome, silver and gold. The juxtaposition of the two can be quite lovely. One of my favorite and long time vendors is Global Views. I tend to return to their showroom several times over the course of a show. This year, many of their products incorporated twigs or branches as design elements that carried through to multiple materials. Very lovely!

As I toured other showrooms, I started to notice a trend. The use of wood, specifically branches, into all manner of furniture, accessories, wallpaper, as structural elements, and even gilt with silver and gold! Here are a few of the more novel examples of the incorporation of branches and or wood as design elements that I came across.