Our trade fair twice a year. Our digital platform, MOM, and our social media presence all year round. Our newsletters each month and each week. Here at MAISON&OBJET, we connect with our dynamic and active international community every single day. These useful links have suddenly become crucial in light of the unprecedented challenges our industry is now facing. It’s on being physically separated that we come to realise just how much we all rely on each other. So, what are the trends today? Learning, inspiring, sharing stories, ideas, tips and, above all, keeping in touch.

Sneak a peek behind closed doors
Elle decor and Marie-Claire Maison in Italy, Elle Decoration and Nuevo Estilo in Spain, Ideat and Intramuros in France, AD in all three countries… and that’s just for starters. The leading home and lifestyle magazines are currently offering complimentary digital access to their most recently published editions. From Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s crisp white interior to the exuberant Parisian apartment belonging to shoe designer Corrado de Biase, everyone can continue feasting their eyes on homes the world over without ever leaving their own.

Continue connecting
…with designer-makers, designers, stylists. Podcasts provide the perfect way of escaping into your own little world, enjoying a moment of privacy and getting away from it all. For those who speak French, podcaster Hélène Aguilar gets out and about interviewing designers, artisans and architects in Où est le beau?, whilst each episode of Décodeur invites a different architect, designer, brand, entrepreneur or influencer to chat about design. If English is your language, you may fancy tuning in to Clever, which features designers such as Jonathan Adler and Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance discussing the ins and outs of their trade. The latest episode of Monocle on design, meanwhile, treats listeners to a whole 15 minutes on the work of Eileen Gray.

Pull together
From co-working to co-living, it’s fair to say the whole design industry was already caught up in the togetherness trend. Faced with today’s crisis, however, it takes on another, more vital dimension. Pulling together today means sharing the household tasks in our homes, helping out our neighbours and supporting our business partners. In France, global hospitality leader Accor has pledged to provide rooms for “deprived and homeless people who need to be confined”, whilst the Madrid Hoteliers Association has “made 9,000 beds available in over 40 hotels to help patients who have contracted the coronavirus”.

Get or-ga-nised
Working from home demands discipline. Advice from freelancers who have already got it nailed can help keep our productivity vaguely on track as we acclimatise to our new working environment. On Maddyness.com, the webzine for start-ups, freelance platforms such as Crème de la crème and Nomade Path share their teleworking tips: create routines, take regular breaks, use the “Pomodoro” technique to help boost your efficiency (we’ll let you check that one out for yourself…). The AD Espagne magazine website, meanwhile, invites Alberto, Cristina, Raquel and Aida to share their own nuggets of advice, guaranteeing a slightly more personal approach combined with a smattering more design.

Relax
Colouring or drawing is said to trigger feelings of happiness in the brain and boost a person’s confidence in their creative ability, not to mention having a positive impact on stress and mood. What better time than now to give it a try? Designer Jaime HayonJaime Hayon has chosen to use colouring and drawing to continue connecting with his audience whilst Spain is in the throes of the crisis. On his Instagram page, he publishes original drawings anyone can colour in, inviting his followers to share their completed works of art… as well as those coloured in by their kids. The results are nothing short of astonishing. Over on Milanoarteguide.com, meanwhile, Rossella Farinotti and Gianmaria Biancuzzi have invited artists and designers of all ages to contribute to a printable colouring book. The poetic and playful drawings dreamed up by Fausta Squatriti and Roberto Amoroso are available for download right now, along with the irreverently liberating finger to the world drawn by Maurizio Cattelan.

Put things into perspective
A significant portion of the global population is currently on lockdown. As home and lifestyle professionals, we have ourselves become guinea pigs for our very own field of expertise. The conditions in which we now find ourselves living are extreme to say the least, cooped up in a confined space 24/7 juggling family life, leisure activities, our children’s education and work. It’s a daily challenge. Our experiences over the course of the next few strange weeks should help hone our insight into what we and our clients need.

Be inspired
How? By taking the time to cast your eyes over all the new products we add to the MOM digital platform each week, by catching up on all the fascinating MAISON&OBJET stories and interviews you may have missed, or by listening to the conferences you never managed to attend. In other words, by opening your mind to new ideas, new approaches and new concepts that will help us all stay positive and come back even stronger, maybe even giving rise to the creation of new trends we can hopefully carry forward together when the next edition of the trade fair comes around.

Our digital platform, MOM!