Furnishings Follow Fashion

Deb Barrett, an award-winning designer, editor and strategist, travels the world becoming familiar with colors, fabrics, accessories, furnishings, lighting and other home design trends. For more than 30 years, she has been a presence when it comes to keeping abreast of design innovations. That presence was felt when she spoke at the Winter 2015 Las Vegas Market last month, the most comprehensive furniture, home decor and gift market in the United States.

“In the past, design trends tended to be evolutionary and it took time for something to catch the public eye,” she explained. “But that has changed with all the new technology that is out there. Within the industry, especially the United States, designers mirror their customers and customers are getting older.

“Recent statistics show that some 70 percent of practicing designers are over the age of 40, just like their customers. However, it’s an entirely different situation in Europe where trends become popular immediately.”

Barrett said European designers are more fashion-forward and on the cutting edge of design. Yet, those same designers can be seen leafing through fashion archives and reissuing something old to be new again.

When she is at international design shows, Barrett sees representatives from major U.S. retailers, such as Restoration Hardware, Bed Bath & Beyond and Target, prowling the show floor for new ideas that usually appear in stores within 18 months.

Shawn McNeace is owner of SRI Design Group and design salon director for Las Vegas Design Center at World Market Center. She echoes the belief that home furnishings follow fashion.

“We closely watch the fashion industry,” she said. “If it comes out with something frilly or maybe something that is more elegant, then the furniture industry will eventually do the same. And it’s similar with colors. If fashion dictates black or white, then it will be black or white in furniture design. What’s popular now is contemporary and modern with a focus on industrial with its clean and minimalist lines.”

McNeace knows that Las Vegas is an international city with an eclectic look; however, it is not a trendy fashion city.

“Las Vegas has become more relaxed and that can be seen in our homes,” she said. “The city is transient so there is no one look or style. And we know that many of these homes are a second or third home with the owner living somewhere else. There is a little slice of everything here in terms of home design but, in fact, home design is about being comfortable since the home is a sanctuary.”

According to McNeace, today’s homes have the indoor-outdoor feel where rooms and people flow from one to the other.

“This has been brought on because new residents moving here, especially from the East Coast, discover how nice the weather is and discover a different sense of scale,” she said. “They build homes with large windows with stack back sliders that open up a room to the outside. Because of the sun, home furnishings have cleaner lines and a casual elegance.”

When it comes to furnishing a home, Barrett believes people buy according to their personal culture and history.

“There are several universal behaviors when looking at home design and those behaviors are usually emotional that resonate via shape, feel or fabric,” she said. “Another is that the person is looking for something that has value or may solve a convenience issue.

“But when looking at trends, we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that says once we have food, water and shelter, we move up the pyramid to self- actualization and then progress to other things such as following trends.”

Holy psychology!

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a theory proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943 in his “A Theory of Human Motivation,” observed that once a person achieves his or her physiological needs (food, water, shelter/safety, love, self-esteem, self-actualization), then that person can function properly and begin shopping for that special pillow or end table at Target or RC Willey and later move on to other innovative and beautiful accessories.

And speaking of accessories, Barrett said they are an integral and important part of home furnishings since not everyone can change their home’s interior design every 10 years.

“Most of us are on a budget so it’s smart to buy a sofa with a neutral palate that can last a long time and be periodically changed out to make it fresh,” she said. “It’s easy to change a look with a colorful pillow or throw or area rug. It’s an inexpensive and quick way to give the room a facelift and that has become a popular trend. It’s human nature to want something new, but instead of buying a new sofa, accessorize it.”

McNeace said her clients enjoy adding “Vegas bling” or attitude to their rooms. She suggests pillows with fancy trim (crystals) or unique lighting fixtures and chandeliers.

“Strip high-rises have created smaller living spaces and my clients there want sofas that are lower so as to not impede the view of the Strip,” she said. “Also, you won’t find any heavy window dressings in these units. And everything is a neutral color to reflect the Las Vegas desert with its browns, grays, tans and clay.”