Messe Frankfurt goes real and deep with trends release for next festive season
Christmas is coming and retailers are gearing up for the big event fast but publishers and suppliers are already looking ahead to next year.
With many 2025 festive card collections well into production ready for release at the spring trade fairs, Messe Frankfurt has released its take on the trends for its Christmasworld show in February.
“The three styles Deep, Real and Ease are united by a guiding principle – be responsible and connected in your dealings with nature and optimistic about the future,” said Annetta Palmisano, trend expert from agency Stilbüro Bora.herke.palmisano.
“This idea particularly provides additional meaning to the festive mood and results in creative impulses, handcrafted techniques and new material creations.”
Messe Frankfurt has the international trade fair for seasonal and festive decorations running alongside the Ambiente home, interiors, gift and stationery fair over 7-11 February at Frankfurt Am Main in Germany, while the Creativeworld hobby, craft and artists event finishes a day earlier.
Having been sales manager for the festive show since 2018, Stefan Schopp has now taken over management of Christmasworld and Creativeworld, becoming show director in place of Eva Olbrich who has retired.
Annetta and the team have scouted out the key trend ideas, potential and sustainable solutions for the coming seasons of Christmas, Easter, carnival and Halloween which provide structure to the whole year, and she believes they encourage people to reflect on the positive things in life.
For each style, nine colours with eight micro-colour themes enable individual focal points that can be changed and reinterpreted throughout the year.
The concentrated colour stories offer buyers, product designers and collection managers numerous design options for staging showrooms, shop windows and product presentations in a varied and surprising way.
Connectedness and a profound feeling describe the essence of Deep, where the flow of nature, whether water droplets or clouds, becomes permanent. Tried and tested craft techniques and natural materials teach us to perceive the here and now and not to lose ourselves in thoughts of the past or the future, creating tranquillity.
Transform the home into a cosy retreat, shiny decorations defy the grey skies in winter and the festive season shows what is really important. Nature’s resources are treated with respect and great goodwill. The designers create perfect craftsmanship and the harmonious unity of material effect and form. The simplicity of the objects is only apparent. Behind the scenes, they call for reflection and create a closeness to a spiritual experience.
The introspection is supported by a colour palette with nuances borrowed from nature. Familiar nocturnal blue, soft eggshell colours or alabaster white with its warm, calm radiance are all part of this character. There are also darker metallic nuances such as matt silver or gold lustre, which reflect the light through textured surfaces and create a festive shimmer.
Real explores new visions in which designs, materials and technologies are created that have a positive benefit for society. Durable products, practical features and resource-saving materials define the festive season. New visions explore designs, materials and technologies that have a positive benefit for society.
Durability is a key starting point for designers, while practical properties and suitability for ecologically sound recycling principles are also becoming increasingly important – everything aims at improvement. Minimalist shapes fit in with the modern lifestyle, which stands for sustainable values and exceptional quality standards. Digital technologies also create expressive tactile surfaces that appear handmade.
The colours of this style evoke associations with longevity and authenticity, which are also reflected in the design. Their opacity is sometimes reduced, making the material colours appear transparent and luminous. In addition, there are colours with decisive signal power.
Alongside festive green, the symbol of growth and hope, the nuances of fine woods and a soft, less intense beige create a connection to nature. The message of sustainability and environmental awareness is expressed here and evokes emotional associations such as attention and love for a festive design with impact.
The best of digital craftsmanship, arts and contemporary design inspire each within the Ease style, where unconventional playfulness alternating with lively patterns and imaginative, innovative creations provide festive cheer. Recycled and reusable materials emphasise the message of turning familiarity on its head to surprise as creativity triggers change and creates new awareness.
The familiar bauble on the Christmas tree is transformed into a new, visually vibrant garment. Unconventionally designed patterns and surfaces are joined by collages of a wide variety of materials in which an experimental free spirit unfolds. The textile design also takes great liberties, for example with further developed working methods for embroidery thread. The interpretation of lightness and playful joy is as omnipresent as the curiosity for development. This results in timeless creations and radiant beacons of hope for a bright future.
With fresh sky blue, lemon or plum, the colour world of Ease unmistakably conveys bright joy in life, open-mindedness and variety. At the same time, the colours stimulate the imagination in a clear, tasteful way. In a decorated room, they multiply the charisma of the festival of love and joy with their lightness and modern poetry.
