Christmasworld Trends 2019/20: festive decoration becomes poetic, near-natural, joyous and glamorous

Tender festivities, essential ceremonies, sweet traditions, luminous celebrations – four emotive styles embody the range of festive decoration available and provide the retail trade with an exclusive tool for creating their own selections for the upcoming festive season in 2019/20.

Whether soft, natural, joyous or glamorous – the Christmasworld Trends for 2019/20 ‘tender festivities’, ‘essential ceremonies’, ‘sweet traditions’ and ‘luminous celebrations’ show us what the hot properties of tomorrow will be. Just as with new fashions, festive decorations also excite customers with new colours and materials and thus encourage them to buy. At Christmasworld, the leading international trade fair for festive and seasonal decoration, to be held from 25 to 29 January in Frankfurt am Main, trade buyers will learn, from four emotively charged stylistic scenarios, how they can best appeal to customers in the future – with up-to-the-minute knowledge of trends, exciting products and irresistibly staged presentations. This dedicated special show is developed and devised at the request of Messe Frankfurt, by Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano. This time, it forms the centrepiece in Hall 11.0 and boasts a concentrated and inspiring selection of exhibitors’ products.

‘The four thematic scenarios of the Christmasworld Trends reflect the important influences of some major designers and their preferences for materials, colours, and shapes.’

Annetta Palmisano, designer, Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisanoAnnetta Palmisano, designer,
Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano

All products featured will be identified with the exhibitor’s name and stand number. In addition, a set of Trend Cards will be available, free of charge, for all wholesale, retail and international trade buyers. Both the Trend Zone and the Trend Cards provide practical help with ordering and helpful suggestions for creating modern and lucrative selections as well as for ways of presenting goods. To accompany this, a number of talks give information about current trends in fashion and product design, which can all provide additional stimulus for sales in visitors’ own shops.

Christmasworld Trends become the centrepiece in Hall 11.0

“The Christmasworld Trends will be finding their way to the centre of our inspirational Hall 11.0 and will thus be close to the range of products and services on offer from our exhibitors. It is in this Hall that they will be presenting their high-quality product mix of Christmas and seasonal decorations, together with floristry supplies and garden decoration, as well as suggestions for sales displays. Making the Christmasworld Trends the centrepiece will concentrate more intensively on providing unique experiences for shoppers. Ordering becomes simpler, as we offer, in a central location, an effective aid to deciding what to include in the selection for a given range of goods,” adds Eva Olbrich, Director of Christmasworld, Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH. With the new hall layout, the Director is seeking to top the results of the last visitor survey: in the final analysis, the last Christmasworld was considered to have showcased the key ground-breaking trends by 73 percent of them.

Christmasworld Trends 2019/20

Hand-worked items and ideas imported from nature remain a key focus. Alongside poetic and sensitive designs are glamorously styled settings and some really original decorative ideas. “The four thematic scenarios of the Christmasworld Trends reflect the important influences of some major designers and their preferences for materials, colours and shapes,” explains designer Annetta Palmisano from Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano.

tender festivities: festive decoration has a clean, reductionist impact, playing with unusual shapes and surfaces. The colours range from pale pastel and neutral, purist shades to a cool gold.
tender festivities: festive decoration has a clean, reductionist impact, playing with unusual shapes and surfaces. The colours range from pale pastel and neutral, purist shades to a cool gold.

Moon, moonlight, stars and stardust are the inspiration for these festive decorations, which create a clean and reductionist impact. “Moving structures, delicate transparency, amorphous forms and reductionist designs conjure a festive, poetic and modern fairy-tale atmosphere,” runs the Trend Bureau’s description of this style.

Colours: the delicate colour spectrum ranges from pale pastel and neutral purist shades to a cool gold. Light, reflected light, misted visual effects and haziness underpin this look. In addition, we find natural colourways that flow over materials such as stone, mother of pearl and paper.

Inspiration: New shapes – modern, clean-lined and amorphous – are what characterise this almost unreal, other-worldly style. It includes delicate glassware, often with soft reliefs, mirrored or double-skin effects. Ultra-smooth and high-gloss surfaces are combined with matt finishes, stone effects, creased, folded and pleated surfaces, as well as high-quality, often natural papers.

essential ceremonies: natural and authentic

essential ceremonies: naturalness and modernity meet raw, rustic aspects. There is a predominance of earthy, warm tones and a matcha green
essential ceremonies: naturalness and modernity meet raw, rustic aspects. There is a predominance of earthy, warm tones and a matcha green

This is a style full of emotion that combines modernity with natural colours and rustic materials. When it comes to festive decorations, hand-made and natural items are what catch the eye.

Colours: an earthy colourway reflects a close connection between naturalness, modernity and rusticality. This is achieved by the meeting of calm, cool and purist neutrals with warm, burnt tones and a matcha green. Matt, raw and untreated finishes underline this unfussy look.

Inspiration: Dry to the touch, rough, broken surfaces, crackled textures and distressed surfaces are all about getting close to nature and plain simplicity. There are some striking, creatively experimental approaches to the use of materials, as well as an artisanal and rustic aesthetic. The result is unpretentious table decorations for festive occasions – but also for those special moments that one wants to enjoy in everyday life.

sweet traditions: joyful and effervescent

sweet traditions: decorations bubble over with wit and charm; shades of ginger bread, peach, nougat, bittersweet colours, strawberry ice, rum and raisin, coconut and evergreen whet the appetite for ever more colour.
sweet traditions: decorations bubble over with wit and charm; shades of gingerbread, peach, nougat, bittersweet colours, strawberry ice, rum and raisin, coconut and evergreen whet the appetite for ever more colour.

“This is a trend that sets great store by cute, witty details and an extremely youthful appeal – pretty little decorations bring joy and charm skipping into living spaces,” says the designer. Seldom are classic items so youthful and uncomplicatedly jaunty.

Colours: gingerbread, peach, nougat, bittersweet, strawberry ice, coconut, rum and raisin, together with evergreen, create a recipe in which even traditional Christmas red and green have a vibrant and enlivening impact. Surfaces are reminiscent of icing, sugar pearls and glistening caramel.

Inspiration: There is an eclectic use of materials. Opaque white glass, coloured clear, milky glass, as well as net and latticino patterns in the glass are used for intricate ornamentation of vases and candle holders and find themselves in the company of knitted items and imaginative paper artwork. The patterns are creative, the motifs cute and pretty. There is a brightly-coloured mix of Norwegian patterning, repeats, checks, diamonds, edgings and trimmings, hand-written patterns and drawings. Stylised, naive motifs and traditional ideas implemented in unconventional and striking ways, create eye-catching focal points.

luminous celebrations: glamorous und unique

luminous celebrations: vibrant colours, combined with elegant dark tones run into one another – together with iridescent surfaces, they create a spectacular setting.
luminous celebrations: vibrant colours, combined with elegant dark tones run into one another – together with iridescent surfaces, they create a spectacular setting.

A scenario full of party-time glitz and glamour, futuristic music, sparkly effects and iridescent Christmas garb, starring vibrant colours and glamorous surfaces.

Colours: These are based on a vibrant base colour. Beneath the elegant, dark nuances there is a mix of striking, intense colourways. Changing metallic colours and shade gradations bring out an exciting “colour melting” effect.

Inspiration: The materials achieve dramatic effects through glittering opalescence and coloured, polished metallic surfaces. Use is made of sequins, sparkly discs, lamé and lurex effects, ultra-glossy finishes, shimmering feathers and velvet. Typical, too, are crystalline rock textures, marbling and metallic sheens in bronze and gold, which contrive to create striking, iridescent glassware.

Trend Talks

The experts from Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano will be giving Trend Talks every day during Christmasworld and will be there to explain the four style scenarios – from 25 to 28 January 2019 at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., as well as on 29 January 2019 at 12:00 noon. Trend Cards will be available to visitors free of charge and can be obtained from the Christmasworld Trends information desk in Hall 11.0, Stand C 40. That way, the whole industry will always have details of the relevant colours, shapes, materials and designs at their fingertips.

Designers Claudia Herke, Cem Bora and Annetta Palmisano from Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano, derive their trend forecasts for Christmasworld from current trends in fashion, society and interior design. Photo: Michael Zellmer
Designers Claudia Herke, Cem Bora and Annetta Palmisano from Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano, derive their trend forecasts for Christmasworld from current trends in fashion, society and interior design. Photo: Michael Zellmer