July 25, 2007
By Millicent Kgowedi
WITH the theme Embellishing Space, this year Decorex will boast a host of new features, including an entirely new hall and the signature stand of patron Stephen Falcke.
Now in its 14th year, the show dedicates five days to dècor and design. Some 650 exhibitors take part, with the event opening on Wednesday, 8 August at Gallagher Estate, in Midrand.
"We usually have over 50 000 visitors in the five days of the event," says Cairey Slater, the Decorex marketing manager. The organisers describe the show as rich in symbolism and meaning, providing provocative spaces to touch, feel and experience.
This year the Sanlam Dream Room is a completely new hall, filled with room settings and interpretations of the theme. Decorex Limited's new, exclusive range of dècor items, designed by D2 Interior's Yolande Wieners, will be launched at the event. Wieners won the Best Stand Award last year and this year will exhibit her own range of furniture.
"I am inspired by life," Wieners says in an interview with IE, the interior design and fashion magazine. "Everything around me inspires me. The beauty of nature is also inspirational. My students inspire me. They have fresh eyes and new ways of looking at things. Their creativity and innocence is very motivating."
Handmade objets
Another new feature at Decorex is Ceramic South Africa, an exhibition of handmade objects. In addition, Plascon, the paint company and one of the sponsors of Decorex South Africa, will launch its 2008 Plascon Colour Forecast, giving paint traders and suppliers a glimpse of next year's trendiest colours.
Anne Roselt, Plascon's colour manager, says 2008's palette will express many moods and emotions. At the company's Visual showroom, created by Switch Design, visitors will see the latest colours using different finishes, through hi-tech software and light projection.
Leon van Schaik, a professor of architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, will speak about the latest buzz on the built environment at a conference to be held on the first day of the event.
And a partnership between Decorex and the Department of Trade and Industry and the Tourism Enterprise Programme will ensure the uniqueness of artisan pieces at The One Of a Kind design-craft trade exhibition.
Young designers competition
The annual Sanlam Young Designers Thinking Ahead competition this year has the theme Fabric. Form. Function, and focuses on fabrics and textile design. Slater says that the theme reflects the important practical and symbolic roles fabric plays in our lives. "It stimulates the senses and creates excitement and energy through shapes, proportions, colour and textures."
Students have been asked to design three metres of fabric that can be used in interior design, as well as a dècor accessory piece using their fabric. The finalist will exhibit at Decorex, win unit trusts from Sanlam and get publicity in VISI, the design magazine.
Slater says that the judges are designers with years of experience, including Annamarie Meintjies of VISI, Sharon Nicolaci of Spegash Interiors and Tanya Sturgeon of The Silk & Cotton Company.
Decorex Johannesburg runs from Wednesday, 8 to Sunday, 12 August at Gallagher Estate, in Midrand. Tickets are R50 a person and pensioners pay R40; they are available at Computicket and at the door. The exhibition is open from 10am to 6pm daily.
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