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?

Bookmark

Live blogging the Home and Housewares Show in Chicago, exhibitors have decidedly and overwhelmingly used color to offset these recessionary economic times.

The theory is manufacturers and retailers must give the consumer a reason to buy and color can immediately outdate a product and make it necessary to purchase on the basis of color.

Color has always been used, though generally cautiously by most housewares manufacturers and retailers, i.e., Target…Wal-Mart, but without question, color is now THE statement. Case in point is Whitmoor, above. They’ve taken an ordinary ironing board cover and used great eye popping colors to enhance its utility.

I can tell you I don’t need an ironing board cover, but this is an inexpensive (relatively speaking) purchase that is going to make me feel good. That dull green (that I purchased a few years back in hopes of updating my everyday routine) can now be replaced by a HAPPY COLOR.

Other show trends are focused on cooking (as a large percentage of consumers have decided fine dining is expendable); so celebrity chefs are here, and gourmet cooking utensils now rule.

Lauren Greenwood, my pr contact at the show, also pointed out when showing me through the media rooms selected products, that manufacturers have also responded to these recessionary times by creating products and offerings to enhance a new DIY sensibility…..where you may have farmed out the cleaning to a maid at one point in time, you are now doing it yourself and manufacturers are enhancing that everyday utilitarian product.

My favorite of these is ALICE Supply Co., a self described hip housewares company who is putting fun into home chores by using HAPPY COLORS and designs (stripes and camouflage) on plungers and hoses and dustpans and broom handles, oh my!

Maria Barnes and Raili Clasen are the brains behind ALICE Supply Co.. Friends since college, Maria and Raili both came out of the fashion industry having worked for Roxy and Quicksilver. Using those connections and those sources, ALICE Supply Co., now all of two months old, is bringing that same hip cool formula from the surfer world and making waves in a formerly staid part of the housewares industry. You can find their product currently at Fred Siegal in Los Angeles and Lisa Perry in New York. Their website is www.alicesupplyco.com but is in the process of being designed so is coming soon.

As to the GREEN category it’s still alive and well but it looks to have receded to some degree in importance (with the exception of water bottles which proliferate at this show) while manufacturers decide how best to define themselves in the green/sustainable environment. There is a focus on more durable long lasting product as opposed to throw-away disposable products. This in itself can be defined as part of the green movement. But I can tell, overall, the lingo of what is green and what is not or where a product falls on the GREEN SCALE (a term I’ve coined) is yet to be clarified.

In an effort to help not only the consumer but other manufacturers clarify their position on the sustainable movement, I’ll be using Aladdin and Eco Gen (I blogged about Eco Gen launched at last year’s housewares show) as the best of the best when it comes to walking the walk.
Check back soon for the details.

Bookmark

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!

Bookmark

This line of product, reduce, is from basebrands and I found them to be particularly creative, nice and helpful regarding these items and their claims of environmentally friendly materials….also quite solution oriented.

The first is called Melaboo (isn’t that clever?) and is made up of 60% bamboo fiber and melamine compounds. This makes it 100% biodegradable……primarily because of the bamboo, but also because the melamine compounds themselves will break down in the environment, it’s just that the bamboo makes it break down faster and in landfills……then there are the colors we can talk about, which is a pretty wide range to choose from. They were particularly careful to choose colors that worked because the bamboo had a tendency to lighten what colors they used, but these still came out fairly saturated to me, and the dyes which came from the melamine are FDA approved.

Next, WaterWeek, the reuseable water bottles created to address the overuse of plastic water bottles use a material called SAN and are BPA free so you have no leaching of the material into the liquid which is what makes them reuseable, over and over. And if any of you out there are House (the irreverant Dr. House) freaks, like I am, you saw the show where the guy was poisoning himself because he was drinking from plastic water bottles and refilling them repeatedly everyday; because of the type of material the plastic water bottles are made of, you can’t do that……..too much bacteria buildup, as well as the toxins from the BPA leaching. ICK! The reduce bottles are dishwasher safe, made to slip over one of the spindles in your dishwasher and you are good to go. These can be purchased in 5 day packs so you can fill one up for each day and take with, and keep refilling. Fill, chill and go!

Hey, it’s a step toward reducing the over 30 million bottles of water that are thrown out everday. In case you haven’t seen it, I did a post on this devastation in landfills per the CondeNast Portfolio story on photog and artist Chris Jordan’s show “Running the Numbers.” If you haven’t seen it, I strongly encourage you to visit…..it’s an interactive slideshow so you’ll have to be a little patient with it, but the rewards are beyond words, literally. Jordan, in this case image number 2, Plastic Bottles, photographed 400 plastic bottles he had in his driveway over and over and over until he reached the 2,000,000 number which are the number of plastic bottles used every five minutes, and that’s just in the U.S.. When you look at his image from far away it’s hard to break down what it is, but use the reset button in the top right hand corner and you can zoom in to see that these are plastic bottles…..a picture is worth a thousand words on this one. It’ll make you want to buy a WaterWeek five pack for each member of the household.

Bookmark

Sarut Group (pronounced sa roo) who owns the Pylone Stores, (pronounced pee lone) four of them in Manhattan (Grand Central pictured top) but with a website and distribution in thousands of specialty retailers, catalog and chain stores. However, seeing all of it in one place is nothing short of a thrill.

New York Soho location

It’s a U.S. division in partnership with a French company….need I say more? I kept wanting to understand their design aesthetic better because it is not falling into any of my neat little trend descriptors. Is that because it is French? Because it is not retro….it is not this minimalist contemporary aesthetic…it is not referencing the Japanese Manga movement, so it is kind of going against the tide so is it ahead of it?

Fun, kitchy yet cool, and very clever. Clever. That’s my final word. Oprah named one of their items in her must have list, the umbrellas; and overall the press has loved the company, being referenced in In Style, O Home, and others….looking at it, I felt happy, it was a happy visit in their booth. And while the gents in charge were in and of themselves cool dudes, they were, dare I say, nice? A sort of French “Charles In Charge.” Ooh la la.

Tell me you wouldn’t be happy popping toast in those first thing in the morning (better than sugar, less fattening, less sweet and yet the results are the same…..a lift!).

They also have the answer for hip happening lighting, desk and ceiling.

But, they also have very cool kitchen utensils. You can see much more than I’ve represented here on their website, Sarut.com.

Bookmark

The standout themes of this show were sustainability (and the definition and education of same), materials innovation, and color.

This last one, color, is of no surprise to my readers as that is what I earlier stated as one of the top 5 2009-10 top trends (color cornucopia), and for that matter sustainability will be of no surprise to either my readers or my clients–the fact that housewares companies stepped up their game for all of the above is surprising though as aside from tabletop a lot of the housewares companies stick with their same programs for as long as they can. In other words, innovation has NOT been a hallmark of this industry, but I will say that this show in Chicago has most definitely and finally changed with the times.

That said, there are stand-out companies who have exemplified the attributes of these themes above and beyond, and that is how I hope to personalize each of the aforementioned themes (trends if you will) of the show.

Bookmark

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.

Bookmark

Color Palettes and what the color trends are for 2009, 2010, and beyond is a hot topic right now among design and product development professionals round the world.

I’ve come across something that defies a color palette trend per se….the trend is more like asking the question, “How shall we define color?” and then coming up with an answer. That is what Melbourne-based artist Samantha Parsons did by coming up with the “Book Screen,” (above image) a room divider made from vintage hardback book covers that span the chromatic scale. For enquiries on how to purchase this, contact www.formatfurniture.com, or you can email me and I will be happy to give you the sales managers direct email address. Parsons has hit on two solid ideas…..crafting a room divider that is useful as well as artful, and using a color palette that doesn’t end the color question but begins it.

You decide, and let me know what you’re questions are. The lines are now open.

Bookmark

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.

Bookmark

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.

Bookmark