Colourfully mixed and well networked into the home-textile future

‘Green’, ‘Mix Mash’, ‘App’, ‘Regional’, ‘Colour Blocking’ are terms that every exhibitor or visitor must have heard at one time or another during Heimtextil 2011 from 11 to 15 January. The words ‘upswing’ and ‘plus’ were also to be heard on many occasions during the world’s leading trade fair for home and contract textiles. The extraordinarily lively and, in some cases, euphoric atmosphere was not only to be seen in the excitement of the four busy days of the fair. It was also reflected by the statistics.

Even before the doors opened, the fabric show could boast an increase of five percent in exhibitor numbers.

Four days later, it was also possible to quantify the buoyant mood at the fair – three percent more visitors than in 2010 travelled to Frankfurt for the international trade fair and inspected, discussed and placed orders in the home textile, household textiles and service halls.

During the fair, I spent a lot of time looking around all the exhibition halls and special shows, as well as listening to several lectures and speaking with many participants. Here are my personal impressions:

In the future, manufacturers will hardly be able to avoid the subject of ‘greenness’ or ‘sustainability’. Many companies have already put environmental friendliness and social compatibility on the agenda and are helping to make ecological ethics the business standard. Closely related to this is a new trend focusing on essentials, a trend that is reflected by functional, long-lived textiles made of robust, ecologically compatible fibres.

On the other hand, there is still plenty of room for ecological luxury and an unrestrained blend of exuberant and colourful folklore and historical patterns and fabrics – with a rich combination of colours from the lilacs, reds, turquoises, oranges and blues of this year’s women’s summer fashions.

The fact that no creative or business person can ignore the current technological revolution is shown not only by the futuristic fabric designs and the new communication standard set by iPhone & Co but also by the onward march of globalisation during this age of unlimited digitalisation. Anyone who wants to remain on the ball needs real-time information and a personal network. By taking part in Heimtextil 2011, you have done your best for this.