Heimtextil Treated the Home as a Performance Space: Home-Maxxing 27/28
The Frankfurt home textile fair's direction sets the display of technical competence against a search for sensory respite. Curation is with Milan's Alcova, and one heading stops hiding the screw, the seam and the zip.
Heimtextil's 27/28 direction was announced as Home-Maxxing – The Performance of Everyday Living. By the fair's account the direction shows how our relationship with efficiency-driven thinking and technology is influencing the design of spaces and textiles.
Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt, describes the title as double-ended: “Home-Maxxing captures two opposing expectations of our time: the drive for ever greater performance and the need for respite.”
The direction was developed together with the Milan-based design platform Alcova. The fair's trend programme page refers to the platform as Alcova Milano and names its founders: Valentina Ciuffi (Studio Vedèt) and Joseph Grima (Space Caviar).
There are three directions. Staged Competence displays functionality deliberately; technical expertise becomes a visible design language. In the fair's phrasing: “Technical codes, numbers, symbols and micrographics become design elements.” Colours are cool blues, greens, mineral shades and acid yellow accents.
Inside, Out makes structure legible. The press release says it plainly: “Screws, straps, seams, cables, zips and other fastenings are no longer concealed, but deliberately become part of the design.” Colours are dark charcoal, graphite, saturated red, soft violet and muted cool green-grey.
Hyper Presence is the counter-movement: a sensory direction turned towards unmeasurable qualities. According to the release, “Materials accordingly take centre stage: natural fibres, rough, richly textured surfaces, wool, leather and wood-based textiles engage the body and the senses.” Colours are rust, burnt orange, ochre, dusty pink and warm off-white.
The Trend Space will be staged in Hall 4.2 at Heimtextil, 12 to 15 January 2027. The fair's own colour codes are in the downloadable trend booklet; two of its web pages word the colours slightly differently, so the naming above follows the press release.
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- Heimtextil · 7 September 2026
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Illustrative image: The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0
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