New York International Gift Fair splashed with Pantone's color of the year

(courtesy of Pantone)

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It's hard to tell if color expert Pantone really anticipated the trend or if designers just reacted very quickly to the prediction released last year, but Pantone's color of the year, turquoise, could be found all over the New York International Gift Fair, wrapping up February 4.

From tableware to bedsheets and wall paint - interior design editors on-site in New York all report the color's dominance this season. Some media also wrote that orange and brown were worked into many of the items.

ShelterPop wrote that color in general is "definitely in for 2010. Gone are the sedate, refined collections of years past."

The same blog listed some of its most noteworthy up-and-coming designers exhibiting at the fair, including Bailey Doesn't Bark, Nick Munro, Thorsten van Elten, and Scintilla Limited.

As for other trends, the Examiner talks about an abundance of pillow designs: "We spotted some new pillow trends at the Gift Fair," the editors wrote, describing them as "handmade, punk and glam luxurious, authentically ethnic, and graphically bold and surprising."

Confirming first impressions at Germany's imm Cologne in January, media reported that the general mood was "upbeat" and that designers were returning to authentic, often organic materials as well as drawing on nostalgic references, sometimes making new furniture look 'old' or used on purpose.

The New York International Gift Fair attracts is one of the biggest interior fairs in the US, with a more commercial and mainstream approach than, for example, the Saloni in Milan or the imm in Cologne. NYIGF's organizes announced a restructuring for the fair this week, which will organize items into the new categories Home, Lifestyle, Handmade and New York's Newest by 2013.

http://www.nyigf.com