13 Sep New York Fashion Week: From the runway to your home – how couture and home fashion come together

Photography by, and with permission from, Responsive Textiles and BLANCO.

With New York Fashion Week upon us, it’s exciting to see what the hottest trends will be for 2017. When it’s high fashion time on the runway, we can usually predict in the home furnishing industry that this year’s runway styles will make its way into home decor by the following year.

But in the meantime, I can’t take my fashion-envy eyes off of the striped knitted skirt and top (above) by RESPONSIVE TEXTILES, a brand I love by Kristine Rodriguez. Kristine will be debuting her line for the very first time at NYFW. It pairs so strikingly with the timeless and aesthetic beauty of BLANCO sinks and faucets. Especially their latest launches – the IKON apron front kitchen sink and ARTONA faucet.

Many savvy interior designers and luxury brands are way ahead of the curve and take their cues long before design hits the runway and tradeshows.

And interestingly, there’s some changes going on right now in New York’s Spring/Summer 2017 fashion week, with several major brands bowing out of doing the runway altogether, and other brands offering ready-to-wear fall 2016 styles in smaller private settings, instead of the runway, to please consumers.

So imagine how challenging it becomes for brands to keep up with the trends and get their forecasting spot on – not just on the runway, but in the home too.

Being a textile artist myself, I’m always interested in the quality of craftsmanship and the color options available not only in my work, but design finishes throughout the home as well. Just like any homeowner, I love a beautifully designed kitchen space with state-of-the-art appliances and products like BLANCO, my go-to brand for sinks, faucets, and even composts.

Photography by, and with permission from, BLANCO.

The IKON Sink – the first Apron Front Sink made from granite composite, and the ARTONA Faucet – a “livable” kitchen faucet in six on-trend colors to color-coordinate with your sink.

Photography by, and with permission from, BLANCO.

The release of these two on-trend products is not surprising coming from such an “Ikonic” luxury brand as BLANCO. (In German, “iconic” is actually spelled “ikonic”).

“They (apron-front kitchen sinks) are simple, stylish, back to basics design.  Classic, simplified design isn’t ever really out of style.”  – Jeanne Chung, Interior Designer, Owner of Cozy-Stylish-Chic.

Sleek and modern, BLANCO offers SILGRANIT colors that are shaking up fashion in the home and on the runway. Take for example this Metallic Gray finish. Look at how many home furnishings work with this finish.

The ability to color coordinate your kitchen faucet with your sink, your cabinets, your lighting, your countertops, and even your living room furniture, well, it’s remarkable! Nothing gets any more fashionable than BLANCO – color coordinating our sinks and faucets with our home furnishings, and I might add, our next stylish outfit!

Take it from me . . . because I know about coordinating outfits.  While I have not done it yet with my kitchen (because it needs to be remodeled first), I was so matchy-matchy in my youth that I (Okay, are you sitting down? Cause this is kind of embarrassing) I matched my stud ball earrings with my socks in the 1980’s. Shocking I know!!!

Don’t judge! Cause you never know if you too will catch the faucet and sink color coordination bug . . . because it is SO on-trend now! I mean look at all these color options! (Top to bottom, left side: Cafe Brown, Truffle and Metallic Gray. Right side: White, Anthracite and Cinder).

You see the kitchen isn’t tucked away anymore behind walls. In fact, it’s been out in the open for decades now.  So that has really steered products to be more fashionable, to fit in seamlessly with open floor plans and for entertaining.

“As the kitchen evolves, comfort, in the form of soft furnishings, textiles and sophisticated color palettes are offering an elegant transition from the kitchen to other rooms.” – Susan Serra, CKD, Susan Serra Associates, Inc., founder of Scandinavian Made.

Photography by, and with permission from, Susan Serra.

The kitchen is truly the hub of any home, the central place where people congregate when you’re entertaining. I know from personal experience. They all pack into our small 12 x 12 kitchen, when just in the other room is a massive living and dining room with high ceilings.  But there’s just something about the kitchen that draws people in, and it isn’t just the food.

As interior designer Laura Muller puts it,

“Today’s clients embrace the “open” space plan.  Gathering spaces are once again “all in one”, where we find “living” in the kitchen a popular design-build trend.”  – Laura Muller, Designer, Owner of FOUR POINT DESIGN BUILD, INC.

It’s the fact that it’s an inviting, comforting place to be, where we prepare our food and catch up on the day’s events with our families. But it also can come with beautiful counters, cabinets, appliances, and the mostly used of all kitchen products – sinks and faucets. You might be having a conversation at the bar counter in your kitchen and your sink is right there for everyone to see.

The ARTONA faucet complements all of these diverse colorful and textural design elements in the home, like the ones in this image below.  A fabulous gold-finish, modern geometric pendant and Danish and Austrian vintage ceramics from Cozy Stylish Chic, the new luxury design center in Pasadena owned by west coast interior designer, Jeanne Chung.  And a brown striped handmade Scandia rug from the brainchild of kitchen design pro, Susan Serra, CKD, also founder of Scandinavian Made.

Photography by, and with permission from, CozyStylishChic.

So not only do we HAVE to consider functionality when selecting our sinks and faucets, but fashionable beauty, color options and texture have become absolutely paramount.

Till next time, XO PG

Note: This post is sponsored by BLANCO.

Photo credits: All sink and faucet images are by BLANCO. Product images are by Susan Serra and Jeanne Chung.