Cobalt blue and white: the actual concept of the exhibition by Kirill Lopatinsky

– Kirill, let's talk about the history of the creation of a new concept. How was this idea born?

– We are now talking about the trend zone "Beach Club". I serve as the creative director of the TEXTILE&HOME project. My responsibilities include the creation of visual images that should help the participants of the exhibition in promoting their product groups. It so happened that I have been raising the ratings of exhibition projects for about 30 years. Every year I analyze current trends and trends and adapt them to our Russian reality. Sometimes these trends easily "sit down" in our reality, and sometimes adaptation is required.

The first thing that was created as creative director was the new style of the TEXTILE&HOME exhibition project – the letters "T&H". There is material that relates to branding, and now we have the next rather serious step – creating a visual image that can be "touched with your hands". This is a kind of exhibition showcase. Accordingly, since the exhibition is held in the spring, and we work on short-term operational forecasting, we talk about the summer season at the spring exhibition, create an image that helps promote goods in the summer. Based on these assumptions, the image of a beach club appeared. In principle, this concept has been receiving close attention for a long time, and the world experience in this regard is quite extensive. Because a serious struggle is being waged for the "resting client" – positive emotions are associated with rest, and when a person is resting, he, in principle, easily parts with a certain amount of finance. It was with this premise that the idea was presented to create a "Beach Club", integrate the product matrix of our exhibitors into it, create and show an image that reveals how their capabilities can form into a visual concept that will help them sell.

– But home textiles are a much broader field than just a collection of "beach things".

– We used towels, bathrobes, changed the drapery of the chairs, put a beautiful summer tablecloth, hung summer curtains, added attributes related to water and beach holidays to the design – for example, pillows sewn in the form of starfish. We used outdoor furniture and awning systems to show the "marine decor" on a large scale.

All this can be added to the design of the exhibition space. How high will our capabilities be? For example, we have a lot of waffle robes. This is also an attribute of a holiday, a beach club. Of course, we will try to show the "Beach Club" with such a "decorative" part.

– You say that this topic is well-established and popular in global practice. What is the uniqueness of our exhibition?

– Our uniqueness lies in the fact that, for my part, I want to conduct some kind of experiment. We have a color combination set – cobalt blue and white. It's a nautical classic. A few more shades of red, like our beautiful viva magenta. That is, a few red shades, just a little bit: for example, striped fabric and a red starfish in the form of an accent. If we take a kind of figurative disclosure, our gzhel is well revealed in this color combination, but not a splint one, but a redesigned one to a modern motif. And now the idea of a "Beach Club", which is already popular in world practice, acquires its own features at the exhibition, based on the Russian visual code.

– How does such an idea respond to manufacturers? Did they accept it willingly?

– In fact, a focus group was held, and many manufacturers said - we have exactly like this, we made exactly such a summer collection.

– Yes, for example, Avangard planned a presentation of the marine collection before you proposed such a solution.

– And this suggests that we are in the same visual working field and breathing in the same direction. Someone said, of course, that they wanted something else. It's no secret that this year the trend is a beautiful peach down, but in the TEXTILE&HOME Trend zone I want to make an image that strongly tends to summer, the beach, the sea and relaxation. On the visual code and on the code associated with Russian fisheries.

But here it is important to understand that there are trends and trends that are sharply fashionable, and this is a surge in "in time". And there are classics, and the marine theme belongs to it and does not go out of fashion. This is a game of "heavy artillery", which is absolutely working, perceived adequately by the target audience, with parentheses – a win-win. And we need exactly such a message for the TEXTILE&HOME showcase. Everything that is on the cutting edge of fashion is not perceived by everyone, and someone may, for example, not have time to prepare a trend collection, because debugging processes are stretched out enough in time - to introduce this product into their assortment matrix in color, shape, texture. A lot of work needs to be done to do this. We have the opportunity to implement this by the summer.

– The exhibition will open very soon. Do you already feel satisfied with the work you have done? Or are there any doubts?

– Like every designer who is having a project, and any project is like your child, you worry anyway in the process of work. Even when you have all the possible tools to see what is planned in proportions, there is still a thrill. But I am sure that we will definitely find a positive response from our audience.