Susan SchultzI am a self-professed pattern junkie and I found plenty to be excited about at this year’s NYC design shows. Following are some of my favorite finds from NYCxDesign, the umbrella name for everything design-related that happens in NYC during and around ICFF, the original NYC design show that takes place every May.
Fabrics
I love the sly wit and dark drama that says “House of Hackney” to me, so the collaboration between HoH and William Morris was a perfect fit. I fell hard for Artemis in black, which the HoH team described as “Victorian-esque feral flowers with a touch of Diana Vreeland’s Garden in Hell.” Pretty much sums it up, right? Available in five colors and offered in both velvet and a linen/viscose blend, this pattern is also available as a wall paper—if you really want the full Diana Vreeland effect, but alas, not in red. A lighter, but no less stylized, look, is Babylon, a weeping willow column design with a distinctly Art Deco feel, on cotton/linen, but also available as a wallpaper.
Another Art Deco look I loved was Garden of Eden by Aux Abris, a line of fabrics and wall coverings developed by a New York–based team with a background in fashion. This particular pattern is on raw silk, but other looks can be custom-printed metallic grasscloth, raw silk, art canvas, and Japanese papers, giving each item a truly luxe look and feel.
I was blown away by Oh La La, a design by artist Kiki Slaughter, based on a triptych of her paintings. She layers, pours, scrapes, drips, and manipulates paint—and all of that texture translates remarkably well to print. Available on cotton or linen, in blue or sand, it also looks amazing as a mural wallpaper. It was one of only several fantastic designs in the Paint Effects collection from Feather, an independent artist collaboration out of Scandinavia.
Megan Blossom was one of several new florals from Boeme and it’s a bit lighter, in both color and mood, than some of the company’s previous looks. Available in one color on cotton/linen.
Offering exclusively cotton velvets, Anjali Hood takes her inspiration from feathers and plumage and actively supports BirdLife International, a conservation organization. Her patterns include both dizzyingly complex layers as well as simpler geometric looks that reference Islamic art tiles.
Not fabric, but film: the hand-drawn line art that characterizes the Miss Print line of wallpapers and fabrics has been translated into window film. Eleven patterns are currently offered, but the company can create film from any pattern in their collection. Each film is offered in both clear and frosted versions of the pattern allowing for varying degrees of openness.
Wallpaper
I’ve spoken about Meystyle before in my seminars, how they were one of the earliest innovators in integrating tech and design for wallpapers in a truly beautiful manner. They introduced their Conductivity collection this market, designs inspired by the concept of how subatomic particles interact to generate light and power. It sounds “sciencey” but the results are lovely, a line of wall coverings with LED lighting integrated in cascades, concentric circles, and fractal patterns, accentuated with metallic accents of gold, silver, or copper. Shown is Golden Resistance.
The venerable firm of Lincrusta presented several contemporary designs, such as Neo, that were very well received, but I have to say, I’m a sucker for the classics, like Aphrodite!
Then, two completely different takes on wall coverings caught my eye. One was Conduct, an interactive wall covering installation by Flavor Paper and UM Project, where specific tiles, printed with conductive ink, triggered sound, light, and motion effects when touched.
The other was Everbright, a Lite-Brite for adults designed by Alan Rorie. A grid of adjustable color dials that each capture a wide spectrum of colors, the user twists them to create the colors and designs of their choice (or pre-programmed designs can be run) and all can be reset with the touch of a button.
Loved, loved, loved the mural wall coverings from Woodchip & Magnolia, both the banged-up oil painting effect of Countryside Bimble and the “Come up and see my etchings” look of Holy Cow.
