Form-fitting, removable, washable, universal-sized slip covers for lampshades, FROCKZ allow a consumer to transform an existing lamp into a design statement by simply slipping a FROCKZ over their lamps existing shade. FROCKZ saves lampshades otherwise destined for landfills.

“As long as the frame is good,” says co-inventor/founder Shelly Dick, “it doesn’t matter if the fabric has long since rotted or if it’s torn, faded or dented. If the frame is OK, Frockz will give new life to it.” The idea was born out of a friendship between Ms. Dick, an attorney, and Wanda Guadarmud, a business manager (now the other half of the Frockz team) for a network of physical therapists and their shared frustration for a lack of contemporary and modern lighting resources near their homes in Baton Rouge, La..

Frockz ™ patented stretch fabric process for covering any sized lampshade.

Available in 2 shapes, drum or cone, and three sizes each, small, medium or large the designs are basically divided into four categories: traditional, animal print, modern and fun. Made out of a special stretch fabric, the covers conform to practically any shape and at prices ranging from $26.00 to $34.00 are an affordable alternative to buying a new lampshade. For more info or to purchase your very own visit Frockz’s website.

It’s an innovative idea to be sure, and, I’ve seen first hand, they work. Very easy to use and very colorful Frockz definitely fulfils a need. Wonder where it falls on my theoretical Green Scale?

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Analyzying the Google data on Trendbites dashboard was an interesting exercise this morning. I wanted to know what was on people’s minds not just for the month but for the whole year and then their patterns throughout the year. Of course you have to take different things into consideration but let’s use some lists to cut to the chase.

Top Searched subjects for 2008 on the Trendbites blog:

1) Tattoos
2) Eco friendly water bottles.
3) Sarah Palin’s Wardrobe, designers and where can get it
4) Suzanis
5) Fretwork

Each one of these search terms can be elaborated upon because people used various terms to find info on these subject matters plus I would say that there were related items that fell into a sidebar of those topics, such as in fretwork also came Asian ornamintation….cloisone, champleve, etc., and they searched Benjamin Crutzfeldt’s name or his porcelain which is based on 18th century Chinese porcelain techniques but modernized.

As well several of these were either spiked by the news media, i.e., Palin’s wardrobe and this summer’s newsworthy research on the chemical in plastic water bottles being unsafe for people.

The very interesting one is that the tattoo subject is pretty consistent (throughout the year) as is fretwork, and suzanis…..a more recent though I expect timely for several reasons is the new Spring pattern for Pfaltzgraff’s dinnerware, Fruit Bounty. The Macys/Rwanda Project is also a big search item for December.

The remaining five of the top ten had to do more with star power, i.e., angelina jolie (who had more searches than Brad Pitt, fyi) but most of those searches came when they were getting ready to have their twins.

Then there was Heidi Klum’s red dress by John Galliano for the American Heart Association and Coke Sweepstakes promotion during the Oscars….again news timing.

And lots of searches for different industry color trends, a few in general trends for 2009-2010, BTS/BTC Dorm info searches, and finally named designer searches i.e., Oscar del la Renta, Dior, Moschino, Ralph Lauren and Nau (menswear for 2009 and the color of orange was searched specifically). I had a few for the timourous beasties wall paper and Scott Hill furnishings, the wallpaper or even furnishings from the movie Lucky #Slevin, and a few for the artists Damien Hirst and Richard Prince.

These searches can all be qualified by #1, I write about these items, #2, these are the things on people’s minds either professionally or because the news has spiked interest (TREND), or, and this one is special just because I went through the same thing, #3, very little otherwise is written about them such as Mumenshance the mime troupe from Switzerland. So they are one of the top five consistent trends but I know that that is a very special interest topic, not a trend per se.

Those top five as I listed them above are worth your consideration. My own bottom line is that if I wanted to make this a blog just about color trends and color per se in many industry categories, I would do very well with the blog….but hey all you out there I do write trends about color in depth and that info can be gotten in a much more specific manner, i.e., I use acutal pantone numbers by industry or even can create palettes!

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This is something I expect to see more and more of if the world is paying attention especially to designers such as Janet Fernandez. Her work makes you feel as if you are holding something one of a kind in your hand…..oh wait, you are.

Janet’s studio, J.A. Design Studio, is based in Miami but her inspiration lies somewhere between there, Sweden, where she was born and raised, and Italy, where she lived for 20 years before coming to the United States in 1995. So imagine all of that influence hand painted onto your tablecloth and matching napkins (although each piece is hand painted so will be slightly different than the next), cushions and draperies….or whatever you want as you can also buy her linens by the yard.

Janet personally designs all the patterns and then paints them onto textiles herself. The products she creates are very exclusive because she hand mixes all her colors and also customizes the color of any of her patterns to match J.A. Design Studio’s clients’ needs. Also, all of their products are made with the finest 100% European linen (Belgium) and 100% silk taffeta (given it’s Beijing time, I couldn’t resist posting her painted Chinese symbol silk taffeta cushion above).

For more information visit her website, jadesignstudio.net, or call 305-858-2883. Too gorgeous!

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LOL. You all must realize how much I like color by now. A fun topic, it’s changing like crazy of late, which gives me much to talk and therefore write about.

Alas, its time to move on from red. So, where shall we go? From images of Maison Objet 2008 and the ever so creative and innovative Campana Brothers, it’s a little bit of everything with heavier influences of pink and purples which is putting the reds into blues and popping it with greens and yellows.

Campana Brothers Sushi Chairs: (above left: Sushi IV Chair) (below Sushi II Chair)

Maison Objet 2008 (taken from NY Times article) and Dior Fall 2008 (Style.com):

Maison Objet 2008 (Image taken from 3 Layer Cake blog):

New York Gift Show 2008 (Pablo Pardo, images from Apartment Therapy):

NY 2007 Gift Show: John Pomp Glass

I want to talk more about the Campana Brothers, because those chairs are from 2003 and produced in limited editions. They’ve come out with some more recent stuff that I think will also have a waterfall effect in home design (next post). If you are wondering where to find the chairs featured here MossOnline, ExtremeMoss, carries them or you can go directly to the Campana Brothers website.

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Webkinz. As Alison Zisko reported 2.11.08 for trade journal Home Furnishings News, “For the uninitiated, Webkinz, manufactured by Ganz, are small plush toys that come with a secret code that unlocks a secure Web site, enabling children to take care of a virtual pet online. It offers games, trivia questions and all sorts of ways for children to mind the health and well being of their pet, as well as create and decorate rooms for it on the computer. Webkinz are introduced periodically. Introduced in April 2005, they retail for around $12.95 apiece.”

The article further states ,”“We sold almost half a million dollars in Webkinz last year,” said David Calcaterra, vice president of Thrifty Florist, which operates 16 of the combined flower and gift shops in the metropolitan Detroit region. “People bought other things. In the month of December, it made a difference.”

So far what they are talking about is the selling of the stuffed animals, Webkinz, themselves. What about actual products that license them. Seems like a terrific boost to sales of anything i.e. bedding, tabletop items themselves, furniture, pajamas….lunchboxes, backbacks. It’s a thought, or more like a recommendation. I haven’t checked into licensing the product myself, not yet.

I will say that it is one of those things Moms are recommending to other Moms and is a topic of conversation between Moms….always a surefire way of seeing the beginnings of something very big.

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Lots of fab patchwork prints have come across my desk of late. All too good not to share. You’ll see what I mean. It makes you want to go to the nearest flea market and pick up a hodge podge of textiles and cut and sew away and voila! You’ve got yourself one of the coolest coverlets in the dorm, in the neighborhood, in your life. Check these out and tell me it doesn’t create a call to action.

From the style files. Shared Space is a project that Dutch designer Bertjan Pot did for Tent and Witte de With. Tent and Witte De With are two art foundations and exhibition spaces that share a building in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. In between their offices they have one mutual room of which they both have the right to use but up recently it didn’t really have a function. They invited Pot to come up with a use for it. Together with Frank Bruggeman he made it part office and part living room. For the living room part Bertjan created the extra large sofa which is filled with beanbag material and covers made out of a patchwork of fabrics he collected over the past few years. The secondhand carpet got an extra pattern of colored stripes made by melting colored duct-tape into it.

From Bloesm. Patchwork curtains, patchwork blankets, patchwork pillows…Marlies Spaan from the Netherlands creates these great items for your home. Have a look here at MeS.

From stye-files. Uono’s handmade bedspreads (top image) are unique. The very best geometric and abstract vintage 60s and 70s scarves are collected for the first side - each scarf is like an abstract painting. On the flip side is a solid-tone or tone-on-tone 100% hemp for a totally reversible bedspread. The hemp is a subtle, mod tone of palest sage/khaki green and works well with both traditional and modernist decor. Visit Uno’s website and/or Etsy shop for more information and to see all their beautiful designs. They also have a great pillow collection!

Even Urban Outfitters has gotten onto the craze.

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Hard to find, but I found a couple….my advice would be to try to design some a little more representative of the 60’s and 70’s. I searched all of the usual suspects: patchwork quilts come close, but Anthropologies Viceroy Garden duvet cover and pillows is a little closer. The wave duvet and pillow set is better especially if it came in a yellow and orange and brown combination but I can’t find the blue one even anymore. One from Urban Outfitters comes close to the period as well.

So, like I said, let’s design some especially for back to school and back to college 09-2010. Call me, I’d be happy to help.

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Back to school or back to college always presents challenges for retailers, parents and the back to school bound teen or college aged person…..

I say go retro, you can’t lose. Using this wave pattern will get you there in no time flat. This image is from a bedroom of a hotel in L.A, the Standard (213-892-8080). Elle Decor UK used this image as a part of their report on Hotel Style. Getting the most from this wave pattern the designers echo the graphic with the stripes in the curtains and the lighting.

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After grappling with how to say Happy New Year to Everyone, this is what I decided on: a sneak peek to my 2009-2010 top trends, as I see it, and as a way to help wrap up 08 depending on where you are in your buying, your product launches, your presentations, or your strategy planning.

1. Color Cornucopia: Eye Candy for the Color Maven’s Soul. Image from John Galliano for Dior Haute Couture Spring 08 Collection. Seattlepi.com.

2. Mother Earth Beats Her Chest: Science Popular.

“An armada of robot submarines and marine sensors are to be deployed across the Atlantic, from Florida to the Canary Islands, to provide early warning that the Gulf Stream might be failing, an event that would trigger cataclysmic freezing in Britain for decades.” Meric Srokosz of the Southampton Oceanographic Centre, explaining the purpose of the $31 million Rapid Watch system he is heading up, does just that, citing the plotline of “The Day After Tomorrow” - specifically the collapse of the Gulf Stream - as a potential occurrence that warrants further investigation. From Treehugger.com and The Observer.

3. Finishing Touches Birth Special Effects. Photo Yohji Yamamoto, Mens FW 08, Style.com.

4. High Tech High Touch in Living Breathing Action. Image from Nau.com’s trademark “webfronts,” which is their idea of recognizing how the internet has changed consumer’s buying behavior.

5. Cross Marketing/Collaborations in Unlikely Places/Partners Creating Phenomenal Hybrids. From Designspotter and Globus by Michiel Van der Kley.

These are but a few of the macro trends I allude to during my strategy sessions or across the year in trend newsletters, reports and product development/programming strategy sessions.

Let me know if you have questions about how the above references might effect your planning for 08-2010, any initiatives that Trendbites publisher, the kimbro agency, may help you support in ‘08 and/or if you’d like to subscribe to any number of Trendbites’ sister, Trendcites (rhymes with bites!), publications.

We do trend newsletters, customized trend reports, product development strategizing and implementation, marketing consulting,
color palettes and by request only, show reports.

You can reach me by email at kim@trendcites.com.

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It may be my imagination but I don’t think so. And if indeed Isabel Toledo got her inspiration from this painting of Mondrian, her interpretation is flawless. Ms. Toledo’s collection for Anne Klein Spring/Summer 08 was one of the strongest of the runway shows during New York’s Fashion Week.

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