With a global recession shifting consumer behaviour away from spending for the sake of it, retail has needed to transform itself to appeal to a new kind of shopper. Today’s consumer experiences retail as a sensory journey, an ethical investigation and an interaction with design.
Design Now! is a week long programme of design events, installations and exhibitions which takes place from 27 October – 5 November 2011, at the Cape Quarter Lifestyle Village in Greenpoint, Cape Town.
Key to Design Now’s success is its determination to tell the retail story through a journey, rather than a parade of labels and shop names. Inspirational pop-up galleries and dynamic décor and furniture installations curated by leading interior stylist, Tracy Lynch, tell a textured story. Throughout the series of exhibition installations entitled Designer Nature, Culture Clash and Old School, New School Lynch draws on the retail offering of the shops in the Cape Quarter Lifestyle Village to weave collections of objects linked by theme.
Designer Nature appeals to the aesthetics of texture within a neutral colour palette. As people develop an ever-increasing regard for the treasure of our natural resources and the innovation of new sustainable materials (or the return to raw, unpolished natural ones) so the allure of this look grows.
In Old School, New School, objects from, or inspired by, the past are juxtaposed with future-fit items that speak to the wide-eyed wonderers in all of us. With Culture Clash, Lynch plays with the merging of influences drawn from the cocktail of cultural influences that interplay with the globalisation of our times.
Other events at Design Now! include; a study of kitchens then and now that will be showcased by Reto Kitchens and a series of decorated baths that will be on display courtesy of Victorian Bathrooms. Art exhibitions from Africa Nova hosting Frank van Reenen, and resident artists of The Lisa King Gallery, the launch of Neil Stemmet’s book Sout n Peper, workshops from Karen Suskin, chocolate tasting, live music and cocktails are just some of the weeks’ inspirational happenings – for more visit the events page on www.capequarter.co.za
