The relationship of fashion and interiors has long been a courtship made in heaven. Dating back to the 1800’s, as ladies’ fashion became more elaborate with side bustling and cages, chairs lost their arms to allow us to actually sit.
Of course, these days the congruency of fashion and interiors has less to do with practicality and more to do with aesthetics. As all of us in the interior and home accessory business scramble to find our proverbial crystal ball and put our psychics to work on predicting and forecasting what will be hot for the next three seasons, it should be noted that virtually all of those decisions might have already been made by a select few on Fashion Avenue in New York.
If we really want a glimpse into the future, we should clamor for the September issue of Vogue, widely accepted as the fashion bible. Anna Wintour has been consistently spoon-feeding the world their wardrobe for years. It matters not if you care for fashion or buy couture, the decisions made regarding color, pattern, silhouettes, etc. will be emulated, duplicated and mass-produced. If Vogue touts animal print fashion you can bet the farm, the following season we will be seeing it everywhere in home décor, accessories and furniture. You won’t lose the farm on that bet, because buyers and consumers will be racing to purchase it.
Often the transition from a runway to a hallway is not completely literal. A year ago, the fashion world was going crazy for yellow. The runway was littered with saffron frocks mixed with browns and blacks. Fast forward a year, this Spring the pages of Elle Décor and Home Accent Today are filled with bright golds, yellow, and even chartreuse golds mixed with ivory and black. There are contemporary photo spreads with minimal white furniture and bright canary yellow walls and graphic black and yellow pillows following a full color spread of a traditional parlour full of Edwardian era inspired furnishings in gold and black upholstery.
Now that we have established the correlation between the worlds of fashion and interiors, I suppose the only thing left to do is pick up a copy of Vogue, and try to figure out what’s coming next!
