14 Highlights from Déco Off 2024

Even the rare appearance of snow and slush in Paris couldn’t dampen the high spirit at this year’s Déco Off, which took place January 17-21. Fabric and wall covering manufacturers opened their showrooms on both sides of the Seine, displaying an optimistic mix of strong colors—blues, rusts, orange, and browns in particular. An emphasis on interesting (and sometimes unexpected) textures and exuberant patterns was evident throughout the presentations. C’est magnifique!

Explore Must-See Highlights from Déco Off in Paris

Dedar Collection 2024

A geometric take on the typical animal print, drawn in the manner of a maze. The interplay of its neutral ground and plush pile give it an exciting rhythm. Vroom vroom.

Le Couturier Collection by Arte

Two patterns from Arte’s new Le Couturier collection, inspired by haute couture craftsmanship. The seeds of La Perle’s pomegranates are its namesake pearls, painstakingly applied; Franges is a zigzag jacquard with loose threads that add a subtle 3D effect to the wall.

Laser Eco Collection by Kirkby

Looks good enough to eat. (And it’s vegan to boot!) An unusually soft hand and texture in an eco leather, produced using a special PVC that uses far less fossil fuels to produce than the traditional version. We’ll take it in every color.

Wild Bouquet Collection by Sahco

Taking its cue from late 18th/early 19th century Neoclassicism, the collection includes oversized florals and leopard prints, playfully paired in ways you never imagined. We saw—and loved—this kind of confident juxtaposition all over town during the show.

Oceanside Collection by Samuel and Sons

Talk about a fringe benefit: This tassel fringe goes practically anywhere—indoors or out. Made of solution dyed acrylic and polyester, the bright colors are made to evoke the ease and carefree spirit of coastal living.

Superstars Collection by Zinc Textile

We saw a lot of groovy 60s and 70s-inspired patterns this year in Paris, but this one was hands down the best. Named after Warhol’s pet name for the people he surrounded himself with, the collection has a retro nostalgia but definitely looks to the future.

Mural Collection by Elitis

Made entirely from paper pulp, and inspired by mid-century murals, Hanji defies categorization. It’s raw but sophisticated, bold yet calming. We love the way a handful of neutral tones combine into something that’s anything but neutral.

Carnets de Voyage Collection by Pierre Frey

This print by artist Emily Jackson stopped us in our tracks when we saw it in the showroom window. Jackson says her work is an exploration of shape, color, and pattern—and she wants people to feel invigoration, optimism, and joy when they see it. Mission accomplished.

Sabi Collection by Holly Hunt

The Sabi collection takes inspiration from arid landscapes around the world. The interlocking shapes and range of colors of Pipe Dream’s large, two-panel mural is a non-literal evocation of desert iconography, including time-worn rocks and ancient dwelling places.

Imprint Collection by Lori Weitzner

A handmade panel constructed from mulberry, with an irregularity that allows it to be a kind of chameleon, able to adapt to many different applications. It has an open-panel construction (a signature of Weitzner) that allows the underlying surface to be part of the action.

Passementerie from The Vale London

Sizzle Tape’s wavy form is embellished with hand-beading and raw flax threads—so it cleverly straddles the decorative and the down to earth. We think it’ll look smashing on couches, pillows, or even curtains.

State II Wallpaper Collection by Jim Thompson

This stylish and poetic take on the city skyline combines elements of geometry, surrealism, and early black and white films. Even more intriguing is that the mural is on 100% sisal grasscloth, which adds yet another texture.

Harlequin Reflect from Harlequin

Textiles that appear to be one thing from far away and another up close add dimension to a space. The precision of the felt appliqué placement suggests buttoned-up order, while the wool hexagons have a crafty vibe that feels more relaxed.

Drusus Tabor Collection by Schumacher

This group of joyous fabrics is from Chip Dort of the New York-based block print textile company Drusus Tabor, who was inspired by his travels in Europe and North Africa. They capture the subtle irregularities of hand-printed fabrics in playful repeats on linen grounds with low-impact inks.

Highlights from ‘Threadwork: Women Redefining Fabric Art’

The digital realm is an increasingly reliable platform to exhibit and even experience art, but what about mediums that hold three-dimensionality and texture in their DNA? The skyrocketing popularity of textiles within the art sector in recent years prompts curators, organizations, and collectors to seek a range of means to present the most recent and experimental in the practice. This duality encouraged Saatchi Art associate curator India Balyejusa and assistant curator Siting Wang to organize the group exhibition “Threadwork: Women Redefining Fabric Art” on their online platform.

“Saatchi Art has always been an online gallery, way before the pandemic,” Balyejusa says, noting the rise in virtual exhibitions since 2020. “After 13 or so years, the technology has improved but we still work with our exhibiting artists in the same way, most importantly making sure they photograph their work as detailed as possible.” This crispness in detail is particularly crucial for the 17 women artists exhibiting at “Threadwork.” They explore the methods artists engage with textiles today under the influence of technology, climate awareness, and identity politics. “Textiles tap onto a straddle between two and three dimensions,” Balyejusa adds, “they are so tactile but they still can be exhibited on a wall.”

The main thread (pun intended) throughout the show is the material’s prominence as a historically female-identifying means of self-expression. From defying fiber’s association with craft as an inferior practice next to high art to the possibilities that technology has granted artists in production methods, the show’s participants engage with contemporary textiles in fresh ways. “It has been with the feminist movements that fiber art started to be considered fine art,” says Balyejusa. Tapestry, sculpture, needlework, knitting, as well as works that refuse direct classification appear in the online show.

Scrolling down the exhibition website, the visitors encounter works by the likes of Jeeyon ‘G’ Roslie, Susan Smereka, Amadi Greenstein, Puja Bhakoo, Femke van Gemert, Carmen Mardonez, Andie Grande, Vanessa Valero, Thera Hillenaar, or Demi Overton. Breadth in geography is perhaps the show’s biggest advantage. From Japan to India, France, the Netherlands, United States and United Kingdom, artists with studios in various parts of the globe unite in the inclusivity of the digital realm. Unconventional materials on the other hand constitute another important element of the check list. Plastics, leather, or acrylics, for example, are among the mediums artists explore in ways that include 3-D printing with fabrics.

Female Fiber Artists Showcase Their Work in Saatchi Art Exhibition

Thera Hillenaar

Female Gaze

The Dutch artist is a recent addition to Saatchi Art’s platform but she was one of the first artists who grabbed Balyejusa’s attention when she began exploring the artist pages on the platform for the show. “Seeing that she works with leather as a medium was very exciting,” says the curator. Densely assembled, various cuts of leather interject other soft materials such as felt in this energetically abstract wall piece. Hillenaar captures a mantra-like mystery in her arrangement of colorful fabrics in a tight configuration.

Andie Grande

Summer of Dreams

Another newcomer to the platform, the French artist Andie Grande intrigued the curator with her “decompositional” approach to weaving in a way that flirts with sculpture. Working with discards wrappings, she orchestrates intricately chaotic compositions that in the case of this work drapes from its frame. The material’s past life and role in the environment crisis meet with Grande’s elegant handling of different colors and cuts of plastic.

Susan Smereka

Harbinger

An energetic serenity inhabits Smereka’s woven monotype on paper wall piece in bright pink. The artist uses various forms of paper, including family photos, letters, and found printed media, to cut in various shapes and print monochromic colors on, followed by her process of machine-sewing the pieces together. Layered and textured, the abstract work holds traces from the materials’ past lives.

Carmen Mardonez

Imaginary Topographies

Discarded pillows and bedsheets provide the base for Mardonez’s three dimensional work which also features yarn, cotton, and fabric. The intimacy embodied in bedding materials is enveloped by colorful threads that eventually yield a mysteriously corporal work that resembles intertwined bodies as well as colorful mountains. The inspiration that the Chilean artist finds in California where she lives is reflected in homages to natural landscapes and light associated with the west coast.

Leili Khabiri

Silent are The Ghosts of Stones

The Iranian British artist’s practice of hand-weaving is not only a productive curiosity but also a meditative exploration of history, lineage, and the self. Using elements from poetry, dream journals, and oral histories, Khabiri weaves both figurative and abstract elements together, blending the immediacy of written words with subtlety of drawing. Minimal and intimate, lines of yarn unite in works such as Silent are The Ghosts of Stones, which operates like a visual poetry or a sketchbook, yet written in fabric.

Jeeyon ‘G’ Roslie

Aquarius

Vibrant colors dominate ‘G’ Roslie’s energic tapestry that replicates a sunrise backdropped by a pink sky. A lush greenery which also resembles a waterfall accompanies the dawn, or maybe the arrival of the sunset? It is this bright mystery that energizes her tapestry which hangs from a wooden beam. The artist’s play with colors and forms salutes the genre of painting and pays homage to artists who pair nature’s own forms with abstraction to juxtapose their own spiritual visual lexicons.

Puja Bhakoo

Fragmented PB/FM-01

The female form finds its direct representation in Bhakoo’s fiber painting of a woman. Portraying the figure fragmented, partially with the lower half of her face and shoulder lets the Indian artist grapple not only with complexity of the self but also hints at notions of process, patience, and meditation which are all associated with the practice of weaving. Balanced with a pointillist abstraction with the other half of the vertical tapestry, the female figure inhabits the fiber surface with confidence and precision.

Vanessa Valero

Topography

A potpourri of textures and colors renders Valero’s wall-hung work as irresistibly vivacious. From powdery pink to earth brown and alluring red, vibrant colors radiate soft textures, including tassels that sprout from the work’s fuzzy surface. The Colombian artist’s composition has a topographic feel, like lakes or fields observed from a bird’s eye view, with the tassels accentuating the surface like gushes of wind or a summer rain. 

Heather Chontos Showcases 12 New Paintings in Solo Show

Ferrari Embarks on its First-Ever Multinational Collaboration

Since the 1950’s, Ferrari aficionados have taken the wheel and customized their cars. But the Italian manufacturer has really hit the gas for the Ferrari Roma, a one-off collaboration with the style arbiter of all things auto, Cool Hunting. The project began when the online publication’s founders Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten met with Ferrari Tailor Made chief design officer Flavio Manzoi at the automaker’s New York showroom. After a brainstorming session, Cool Hunting proposed bringing in Japanese connections they had made on several research trips studying that country’s traditional artisanal crafts.

So, when formulating the exterior paint, the team sought inspiration in Japan’s classic indigo dye processes, in the hopes, Rubin says, “of finding just the right shade, but also creating a new shape for the aluminum fleck that brings a viscous feel to the metallic paint.” For the car’s interior, they worked with Tadaaki Hajime, a weaver at Hajime Shoji, a seventh-generation family textile mill, to create a new, high tensile–nylon upholstery fabric based on vintage kimonos originally produced at the mill. Tsukamaki sword-wrapping techniques found their way to leather-encased door handles. “We pushed the boundaries of what could be done in terms of personalization,” Ferrari’s head of color and trim Silvia Cavallaro adds. For gear plating, the team looked to Kyoto’s copper tea canisters. Finally, eighth-century roketsu wax resist-dyeing was merged with Italian intreccio weaving for the headlining, completing the globe-trotting voyage for a one-of-a-kind car.

Estudio Campana and Paola Lenti Team Up to Eliminate Fabric Waste

In a nod to the power of transformation, Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana of Estudio Campana have teamed up with Paola Lenti to eliminate fabric waste. “If it stimulates the imagination, then it still contains an element of life, so how can it be considered landfill material?” Lenti says of the collection’s genesis. The Campana brothers couldn’t agree more. Sifting through a box of textile scraps Lenti sent them, Metamorphosis began to take shape, resulting in five caterpillar-like seating pieces, filled with recyclable polyethylene foam and upholstered with fabric and cord offcuts sewn onto recycled PET felt, plus a vibrant rug, all inspired by the natural world.

“Paola expanded on what we considered materially possible,” Humberto Campana says of Lenti. And just like in nature, no two are alike. But diverting landfills isn’t the only mission here: The creations are handmade in partnership with a tailoring atelier in Como, Italy, that offers work opportunities to migrant women. It’s renewal all-around.

7 Products to Add a Pop of Color

These bold hues brighten contract spaces.

Simon Legald

Simon Legald’s Bit stools in low-density polyethylene industrial waste by Normann Copenhagen, through Allsteel.

AdMix

AdMix resilient flooring in 100-percent homogeneous solid resin by Patcraft.

Turf Hues

Turf Hues color palette for PET felt acoustic solutions in 32 shades by Turf Design.

Charley Harper

Charley Harper’s Beguiled by the Wild wallcovering, in digitally printed matte-finish cellulose-latex-polyester substrate, and upholstery textiles, in performance polyurethane, by Designtex.

Arden Studio

Reveal customizable writing board in 4-mm Fineline glass by Arden Studio.

C.F. Stinson

Polygon fabric in bleach-cleanable vinyl with polyester backing by C.F. Stinson.

HON

Tangram modular seating in 27 configurable shape and size options by HON.

Clarence House Draws on Seminal Art and Architecture Movements in New Collection

The textile titan’s spring collection, 20th Century, plumbs the seminal art and architecture movements of the modern era—from Art Deco and Fauvism to Cubism and Futurism. Designer and brand artistic director Kazumi Yoshida considered and captured the visual output of the time period as well as various artists’ philosophical approaches to nature versus technology, and their ability to turn topical events into timeless expressions. The 20 patterns include Harlequin, a 55-inch-wide cotton-polyester upholstery available in three colorways; the Arts & Crafts–inflected Pomegranate, a neutral-toned botanical with a beautiful drape; Zermatt, a Bridget Riley–esque composition of lines overlaid with optical squiggles in viscose-cotton velvet; and La Moderne Print, a linen-cotton for bedding, window treatments, upholstery, and more that nods to Sonia Delaunay canvases.

Catherine Martin Debuts Fabrics Inspired by Elvis Presley for Mokum

Designer Catherine Martin’s newest textile and wallcovering collection for Mokum, the Royal Menagerie, is inspired by her sets for the new movie “Elvis.” Bold textures and patterns such as velvets and animal prints are an exploration in 1970’s maximalism. They cleverly reimagine aspects of Graceland and the suite Elvis stayed in during his Las Vegas residency. 

Some highlights. Monarque is a dense viscose velvet with a soft drape, in solid jewel tones. Bengal Tiger has the look of cut velvet with its wild embossed tiger stripes. Monkey Business, a wallpaper, incorporates the monkey figurines that dotted Elvis’s beloved green shag carpeted jungle suite. Royal Peacock, a drapery fabric and wallpaper sparked by Graceland’s stained-glass peacock windows, repeats the bird that was a talisman for Elvis amid lush botanicals. Then there’s the wonderfully dimensional Panthera, in which an embroidered lithe leopard stalks its way across a solid ground. (That one references the King’s embellished jumpsuits.) Colorways run from “whisky-tinged blush,” as Mokum design director Stephanie Moffitt puts it, to dark teals and burnished gold. There are plain weaves and solid hues, yes, but the power is in the decorative offerings. “As a child of the 70s,” Martin notes, “I have an affinity for pattern.”