August 2018 / Material Success Stories


Located throughout the world, the Trendease Team continues to deliver our subscribers around the globe must-know market information and inspiration straight to their computer screens.

Innovation is all around us and life is changing exponentially due to the latest breakthroughs in technology. However, if we look closely at what the movers and shakers are working on, what projects are gaining traction in the market and starting to sprout up in greater number, you will see that human connection is at the heart of it. Creatives are calling for a greater awareness of unused/misused resources; new economies are emerging, and the relationships between source, resource, product and user are being reexamined. Get inspired with the August edition!

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REPORTING TO INSPIRE,
Jennifer Castoldi,
Chief Creative Director

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Features and Articles

Biella, Italy

Jennifer's August Amusings

Biella — This month’s edition of Trendease formed itself in a very organic manner. While reviewing information we have gathered, and delving deeper with our research, it was crystal clear that one of the strongest topics across the design disciplines today is material innovation, for hard and soft goods, and everything in between. Human connections, new economies, and special attention to the utilization of resources ranked high in the “hot topics”.

Fabric Ingredients for Success

Milan and New York — Circular economies are a hot topic that so many businesses are trying to implement, and this is great. From small independent companies to mammoth international powerhouses, there are some inspiring innovations taking place. One day we hope that movements such as these will be commonplace. Now, your pre-loved clothes and textiles scraps from production can become the raw material for your next floorcovering or furniture piece. Learn more here.

Natural Ingredients for Success

Milan — Almost everywhere we turn today we see designers cooking up new recipes for material innovations. Somewhere between natural resources, abundantly available ingredients, craftsmanship and technology the designers and companies featured in this piece have looked at natural materials like wool, hemp, wood, leaves, algae, and fungus to develop alternatives to plastic and fiberglass to be used for room dividers, cushions, furniture, lighting, and decoration.

Plastic Ingredients for Success

Multiple European Cities — Our impact on the earth is undeniable; progress takes time. Some of the innovative approaches to plastic may seem mundane or even naïve, but the main point is that these risk takers are moving forward to stimulate new ideas for processes, applications, and resource allocation. The ubiquitous shopping bag, production leftovers, and even silly items like the once trendy Loom Bands can all be catalysts for positive change.

Reclaiming the Kitchen

Multiple European Cities — Good design goes beyond a certain aesthetic and function. Good design is thoughtful. Thoughtfully made, which ought to stimulate thoughtful consumption. Unfortunately, as a society we have become hyper consumers and have come to a point where we disregard what we put into our bodies, not to mention our furnishings, or landfills. Thankfully there are some creatives out there that are not ready to let the products within this world off of the hook without consideration.

'Self Portrait'

Rippling Material Waves

London — How do we connect with nature, the people around us, the items in our environments, and the makers of the objects within our settings? Do we even ponder such thoughts? Here are some furniture, fashion, and home accessory designers who contemplate these links and poetically master wood and paper-based materials to form pieces that transcend mere function.

Dip Casting by Francesco Feltrin

Modernizing Slip Casting

London — Trendease has come across projects that analyze ways in which traditional slip casting methods could be updated in a manner to suit contemporary tastes. One method allows for multilayered and multicolored effects at a more reasonable production price, while another procedure brings individuality to every piece in mass production by inserting a layer of fabric into the process. Chinese and Italian designers now based in London are shaking and shaping up the industry.

Touch & Children’s Interior Playscapes

Multiple European Cities — Tactility is the responsiveness to stimulation of the sense of touch. In the late 1990s the apparel and soft home furnishings industries said that the internet will never be a popular platform to sell textiles because these needed to be felt before purchase. Boy were they wrong. This, however, does not belittle the importance of feeling a fabric’s texture.

NEWSLETTER #615 - Trimmed with Culture

London — This week’s newsletter emerges from researching some of the graduate work that we reviewed last month further, to go beyond aesthetics and learn the raison d'être for each. The common thread being that they all displayed novel concepts of decorative trim, tying into our material success stories this month. Subscribers can delve into a slew of examples, with influences stemming from Canada, Bangladesh, England, and Flanders.

NEWSLETTER #616 - Pee for Textiles/Ceramics

London — In talking with colleagues and associates on this “contemporary and futuristic” topic, I find it crazy how taboo it has become, when centuries ago families in Italy and England would collect their liquid waste to use as a mordant to set fabric dyes. In this week’s gallery see some masters graduate work that collects, filters, and distills human urine to explore new pigment options for textiles as well as a glaze for ceramics.

Installation by Dimoregallery

NEWSLETTER #617 - Womack Color in 2019/20

Brussels — In this week’s newsletter MoOD trend coach Niek De Prest talks about the theme of Womack that will be presented next month in Brussels, Belgium. The color pallet "Womack" designed for MoOD is aimed at the artistic globalist. Subscribers can see the Pantone color palette and supporting imagery here.