Formex spring 2012 part I

Friday, January 20, 2012

Formex spring 2012 part I

FORMEX is still going on in Stockholm, and we will be taking another tour today. The trends seem to be splitting a little for the spring, which is very much welcome. It seemed to be more and more ethnic, like batik above. Batik is beautiful - we may associate it mostly with the inexpensive beach wear we buy from India, Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia, but of course it is a true art form, as well. One of the very known batik artists is Dato Chuah Thean Theng, or just Teng, who is said to be the father of batik in Malaysia. When living in Malaysia, I had the great chance to visit his gallery in Penang. Unfortunately I haven't found images of his work which he had there, as it was pure fantastic!! His son was present during our visit, and was able to tell us a great deal about batik painting, as he is continuing in his fathers footsteps. If you would like to know some more, a couple of good links are

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik
http://www.joaniemitchell.com/

More trends? Some rust, well, a lot of rust :). The industry style is clearly moving to the falling-apart industry style...I love the authentic, but making new production and then banging it with hammers and having it outdoors for it to rust...hmmm. The style was extremely obvious in Tendence during the fall, and was now coming to Scandinavia, as well.

Personally I am more Tolix and Jielde kind of person, and I love the new TVs, radios, cameras and cars in an old package so to say. Olsson&Jensen had a beautiful cabinet with glass doors at their stand - romantic industry style is what you would call it, I guess. They had 20 pcs, and had sold out every single of them during the 1st hour of the fair!! I promise you will be seeing this piece in the home decor magazines during the spring.

What else caught my eye? The unbelievably beautiful home textiles by Fabric Copenhagen. I always appreciate when the owners or founders themselves participate the major fairs. We had a nice chat with Annette Egholm, the textile designer behind the brand. The textiles are produced in a family business in Northern Vietnam. Having lived 4 years in my childhood in Vietnam, they really brought a big smile to my sisters face, as well as mine. The softest soft Vietnamese silk, some velvet, and those wonderful buttons or knots which are so special for Vietnamese clothes and textiles - a perfect combination.

Here a couple of images of Vietnamese silk products