Tableware Trend Analyst
Donna Ferrari
Now-fashioned
tableware
In this issue, our trend analyst Donna Ferrari explores innovative approaches to consumer markets in the tableware industry, including trailblazing collaborations, inventive upcycling, culturally-inspired designs, new takes on a classic motif, perspectives on colour, and the latest look at florals… Donna Ferrari has worked in magazine publishing for over thirty years. As a consumer magazine editor she specialised in the tableware, homeware and bridal markets, and styled and produced stories related to bridal gift registry, wedding reception design and at-home entertaining. Personally, she has eleven different sets of dinnerware and closets dedicated just to tabletop accessories; she says she loves not ever having to set her table the same way twice.
Serax
Nymphenburg
Creative collaborations and innovative conservation
Royal Copenhagen
Collaborations aim to bring fresh ideas. Some of the latest are shaking things up from concepts to conservation Royal Copenhagen engaged the Danish/Italian GamFratesi firm to design the Royal Creatures dinnerware range. The collection’s winsome creatures, including the Starling, Octopus, Blowfish and Dragonfly (shown), among others, were in part inspired by scientific drawings re-envisioned into fanciful renderings detailed with the brand’s classic design elements. Serax collaborated with Marni, the Milan-based luxury brand focused on challenging traditional codes of fashion to create the Midnight Flowers dinnerware range. The 120-piece collection features several inter-mixable hand-illustrated, nature-inspired designs with slightly asymmetrical shapes and a view to the trend for offbeat yet sophisticated design. Nymphenburg partnered with Dutch designer Hella Jongerius to create Generation T, an inventive marketing project to reduce waste and transform traditional dinnerware. Consumers can submit their Nymphenburg dinnerware pieces, per guidelines and a fee, to have them individually and uniquely repainted using the addition of either of the two schemes offered — Weeds or Dripping (example shown). Wedgwood’s creative director Alice Bastin’s vision is to position the heritage brand as a creative hub where artistic trailblazers and innovators can express themselves; a cutting-edge concept to bring renewed interest and excitement for tableware products. Bastin invited London-based designer, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, known for his gender-fluid and disruptive stand on fashion, to reimagine iconic jasperware in Wedgwood a limited-edition collection of radical designs on conservation-minded, upcycled pieces — each hand-decorated by the designer.
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