Travel diaries of our Buying team from Milan to Malaysia on a quest to source signature furniture for your home.
Jetting to Milan, Dubai, and Malaysia during the first half of 2022 to source new seasonal collections is part of the job as a buyer at Essops Home. Working alongside the world’s finest to decide upon the most covetable pieces and perfectly curate a seasonal collection to furnish the homes of many South Africans.
As buyers for a family owned, boutique furniture retail brand, we put our heart and soul into scouting the world’s most beautiful furniture pieces to bring to the local market at an affordable price. Of course, an impeccable eye for design and detail is inherent.
Journey with us as we take you on sneak peek of our recent trip in search of global furniture trends, just for you!
What does a typical buying trip entail?
The process starts long before we board a plane, researching upcoming trends and identifying the best furniture fairs and suppliers across the globe.
Once we touch ground at our international destination – it’s time to refresh and get ready for busy days and nights that include attending furniture fairs to source global trends and latest designs and factory visits to potential new suppliers to view their manufacturing process and quality control standards.
In between we always make time to catch up with existing suppliers who have become part of our cherished cross border family, these coffee catch ups include real time product prototyping of new designs developed by our head of R&D and the team.
Hours are spent scouring through fabric samples and examining every minute detail to then curate a harmoniously balanced range, with visual merchandising guidelines already set. This entire process is centred around a deep understanding our customer needs and desires.
The art of buying is an exhausting yet exhilarating process for the team as we patiently await shipment of our newly designed ranges, which reaches our shores after months of detailed planning, forecasting, design and quality assessments.
The greatest reward for our team culminates in the joy our customers experience when those carefully designed and curated collections take centre stage in their homes.
Trends Round Up
Trends Round Up
- The following trends were evident across all fairs:
- Design styles - Minimalism is still very much a trend – less is more as they say.
- Neutrals are always in.
- Bright bold colour pops.
- Orange and maroon are trending this season.
- Colour pairings – maroon and baby pink
- Textiles – leather, tweed, boucle, shagreen, wood, terrazzo, marble
- Patterns – herringbone, houndstooth, check
- Trends – layering of textures (wood, metal, fabric)
Did you know?
Interesting Travel Facts
Photo Gallery
29 July