Heimtextile Featuring Festhalle

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 12/12/2005 12:00:00 AM

Frankfurt, Germany — —

Frankfurt, Germany — In a move to attract even more high-grade editeur exhibitors and visitors, Messe Frankfurt will feature Festhalle, an exhibit in an adjoining building designed to stimulate excitement in the upper-end sector during Heimtexile here next month from Jan. 11 to 14.

American interior designer Jamie Drake is responsible for the concept that “will focus on vitality, excitement and newness,” he said.

The hall, Drake related, is formerly a 1906 concern hall at the perimeter of the Messe Frankfurt compound. The presentation, entitled “global,” is designed to “present a worldly experience in a global environment,” he said.

The environment — a giant circular room with 60 foot high walls and a centerpiece suspended from the ceiling — will include fabric-covered “planets” sponsored by Heimtextil exhibitors, he explained.

Trend rooms will be featured adjacent to the building, Drake said. The Trend Forum and Trend Satellites will be organized under the direction of Gunnar Frank. The Netherlands design specialist will oversee a design team that will present the Trend Satellites for individual product groups. Patterns from leading design studios and manufacturers of home and commercially used textiles — exhibitors at Heimtextile — will be featured.

In a pre-Heimtextile discussion, Frank predicted, “Everything will be blue — blue is the inspiration.” The colors for 2006/2007 develop from warm shades to cold, clean colors with a blue overtone.

Frank added a new trend “Materials — Heart and Soul” that puts emphasis on materials that are featured in four trend themes: Emotions in Wood, focusing on wood and rattan; Reflections in Metal, highlighting metal and glass; Elegance in Textile for fabric and leather; and Dynamic in Plastic for plastic and rubber. Each theme, he emphasized, is to become more focused on color and design.