As this issue hits the newsstands at the end of July, I’m hoping we’ll still be in the throes of high summer. Many of us will be enjoying holidays on far-flung beaches or, if you’ve stayed closer to home, perhaps exploring beautiful, lesser-known areas of the UK.
While we’re all making the most of some rare moments of relaxation, it’s the perfect chance to do what we do best here at ELLE Decoration: look forward to what’s next.
Most notably, this is our first opportunity to give you our considered assessment of everything we discovered and absorbed during Milan’s momentous design week back in April. So, to kick off, you’ll find an in-depth examination of the key pieces, and the trends linking them together. Expansive sofas, clever uses of glass, luxurious lanterns and over-the-top texture are just some of what is heading our way, and we’re so excited to tell you all about it.
What's everyone reading?
Milan design week is also the only time annually when anyone who is anyone in the design world is in exactly the same place at exactly the same time, so it’s the ideal occasion to talk, discuss and debate the hottest topics affecting the industry and the wider world. We seized the opportunity and quizzed some of the biggest names on the most pressing subject on everyone’s minds: what is the role of AI in design and how does it relate to that human touch we all value so much?
The comments are insightful and have made me rethink my feelings around the issue. A while back I was told ‘AI won’t steal your job, but someone who knows how to use it might’. This very much still guides my approach to this day, and while I am concerned about the negative aspects of AI and how rapidly it is moving, the only way forward is to embrace it and educate ourselves about it, so we can understand how it can be used (and how it shouldn’t). A head-in-the-sand approach would be just plain foolish.
Of course, newness and innovation aren’t only found at Milan design week. I’m so proud of the ELLE Decoration team and the way we navigate the Zeitgeist, spotting themes and patterns, joining the dots and noticing shifts in aesthetics and habits. So, this month, we bring you various insightful features.
There’s the rise of listening rooms – a new way to enjoy music that doesn’t involve sweaty clubs or temporary tinnitus afterwards – where interior design plays a huge part. We’re also heralding the return of a 1980s icon, the Venetian blind; I’m thrilled, as they do a magical thing with this late-summer sunlight. Then we also have a shoot celebrating the most modish of metal finishes. Chrome, steel, platinum and silver are all the rage, and they’re taking over from the warmer metals – for a while, at least.
Finally, this month’s featured spaces are an eclectic bunch, from a sun-drenched Greek-island hideaway, to city pads in Paris and Milan, a pretty-in-pink east-London home, a breathtaking, bulging architectural beauty down under and a very un-American apartment on New York’s Park Avenue. The owner of that property says she ‘wanted people to walk in and see her personality, perhaps get to know her better’ – which, to me, seems the most wonderful way to approach an interior. As ever, we hope we can help you do just that.
