Autumn Fair has announced that this year’s focus will be on home and gifting trends and sustainability, with dedicated days for each.
Visitors to the show, taking place from 3 to 6 September, at NEC Birmingham, are invited to attend trend workshops with TrendBible, sustainability sessions with Products of Change, and presentations offering advice for new businesses, how to navigate challenging economic times, and motivational masterclasses on the Inspiring Retail Stage and Moda Catwalk in Hall 8.
Monday 4 September, sees Autumn Fair put the spotlight on trends. Naomi Pollard, head of publications at TrendBible will deliver 2024 Home and Interior Lifestyle Trends, showing how consumer behaviours and lifestyle choices are set to underpin product and design trends for the home over the next year and beyond.
Naomi said: “How consumers choose to build and maintain their domestic worlds is becoming democratised, spurred on by a number of different shifts across society. The modern householder will need the home to do and be so much more. It’s a place to heal, escape, deal with the realities of domestic life, and to help us shape our many fragmented moods and mindsets.”
One of the key trends is Space to Heal, which highlights how the self-care movement has matured after years of burnout and exhaustion. Naomi commented: “With new humanitarian crisis after crisis emerging around the world, rather than an indulgence or privilege of being your ‘best self’ and attaining ‘wellness’, Space to Heal is about stress reduction over self-optimisation. Simplicity and frugality set the pace for a gentle and slow sense of purpose. This is minimalism, but an expressive form of minimalism – reducing visual stress without losing personality or meaning.”
On Monday afternoon, Naomi will present 2024 Gifting and Celebration Trends, offering visitors insight into the key trends impacting celebrations. Against a backdrop of global unrest, celebration offers the respite needed in 2024. An escapist desire dominates, but is coupled with a search for authenticity.
Naomi commented: “A new generation of non-conformists are deliberately ditching tradition, pushing past a decade of homogeneity to celebrate however and whatever they want. This ignites a rebellious and unapologetically indulgent approach to celebration for 2024. As crisis becomes a steady state and the exhaustion of modern life takes its toll, a nihilist attitude comes to the fore. This acts as a survival technique for many individuals grappling with rising levels of compassion fatigue and feelings of apathy.”
A pursuit of pleasure defines the trend for 2024, with celebration offering the opportunity to indulge in a hedonistic lifestyle with no inhibition or shame. Lavish dinners and extravagant parties, with decadent décor and fun.
Naomi added: “Embrace the wild, hedonistic spirit of this trend which invites customers to let go of their emotional luggage for a moment. Celebration is found in freedom from social norms, indulging without guilt and embracing the basic human coping mechanism of humour in difficult times.”
Autumn Fair also continues its partnership with Products of Change and Tuesday 5 September will be coined as a Day of Purpose. Join Helena Mansell-Stopher from Products of Change on the Inspiring Retail Stage and Moda Catwalk for two sessions focused on sustainability.
Products of Change aims to bring actionable change to the ongoing Power of One Campaign, educating visitors by highlighting small daily actions and opening the conversation on systemic business transformation. Using the comprehensive Pathway to Sustainability white papers launched early this year, visitors will be able to access bite-size sections of the papers and scan a QR code to download the full papers at the show from the Products of Change Hub.
The Inspiring Retail Stage and Moda Catwalk will also welcome the return of Therese Oertenblad from Small Business Collaborative, who will present a practical workshop on ‘How to Approach your First Trade Show’, and Ami Rabheru from The Retail Business Hub will be looking into ‘Maximising Revenue During Tough Economic Times’.
View the schedule at Inspiring Retail Stage and Moda Catwalk – Autumn Fair 2023
