Strategy 2021

Big Ideas
Lifestyle & Interiors

The five need-to-know directions that will impact

lifestyle and interiors in 2021

Feather
 Action Points
1 . Respond to the changing meaning of home: pinpoint
how your consumer lives and what additional products
or services they will want to bring into their home as it
becomes an ever-more important space.
2 . Design for flexible lifestyles: multifunctional, versatile
offerings will hold more value as consumers expect their
homes to multitask more. Style products in multiple uses
and settings, and design for smaller spaces or changing
uses.
3 . Stay ahead of your consumers' expectations on
sustainability: packaging and materials are priority areas
to reassess, but look ahead to prepare for longer-term
mindset shifts too, such as plant-based lifestyles and
sustainable community living.
4 . Be smart with resources: curate collections with
essentialism in mind, building on fundamentals to
appeal to 'less-but-better' consumer attitudes.
5 . Keep the growing service economy in mind: look to
partner with D2C brands or rental services, or expand
your own offer to incorporate services such as
installation or aftercare.

Voice
The Home Hub The home economy is growing fast, and by
2021, this market will be wider and more
dynamic than ever before.
As the outside world becomes less certain,
consumers are turning their homes into
multifunctional spaces for calm, self-care
and self-improvement. The rise of direct-to-
consumer mattress brands such as Casper
has fuelled and encouraged this homebody
economy: bed brand Allswell markets its
popular Firmer mattress as a surface where
you can work or watch TV, as well as sleep.
At the same time, it is becoming possible to
enjoy more out-of-home activities in the
home. Delivery apps can order restaurant
food at the touch of a button, making
convenience king. Now available in more
than 1,000 cities, Uber Eats doubled its
sales in 2018 and is valued at $20bn.
A newer area to watch is home workouts,
which have recently had a major upgrade
from the days of a simple yoga mat. With
heavy venture capital investment, start-ups
such as Peloton, Mirror, Naked and Tonal
are bringing live classes, 3D body scans and
on-demand instructors to a living room near
you.
Tonal
“It’s fun to stay home. And it’s
scary out there, with the
political environment.
Everything in the world makes
us want to stay home.”
- Arlyn Davich, President, Allswell
As more consumers buy into premium
home tech, in part to upgrade activities
such as dinner parties, household
appliances are forecast to hit $590bn
revenue by 2020, according to Statista.
The homewares market is worth $649bn
worldwide, with furniture making up $120bn
in the US alone. Recognising this lucrative
opportunity, more fashion and lifestyle
brands are expanding into the home to tap
this parallel market.
Brands that don't currently operate within
the home should explore how to move into
this fast-growing area of lifestyle spending,
while brands that are already immersed in
the home space can seize the opportunity
to extend ranges and expand offerings
intelligently, staying flexible and
sustainable.
Rethinking Spaces The evolving ways in which consumers are
using the home is leading to a bigger
rethink of how spaces can be designed.
"The breaking down of
boundaries between
private and public, leisure
As lifestyles become more flexible and and work, intimacy and
spaces become more multifunctional, sociability is leading to
consumers are adapting and changing new structures in the
rooms as needed. Dining rooms are
home."
switched into spare bedrooms, cabinets - Joel Booy, Studio Truly Truly
open into fold-out home offices, garages are
converted into studios, and outdoor spaces
become open-air kitchens. With rooms and
their functions changing day by day, or even Outside of the home, public and shared
moment by moment, product and interior spaces will also become more flexible.
design must be versatile enough to keep up.
Designed by Stephan Hürlemann, Vitra’s
The 2019 Das Haus installation by Kate and Dancing Wall brings flexible zoning to
Joel Booy of Studio Truly Truly is designed office spaces, particularly as the benefits of
to be a flexible, emotion-driven space. the open-plan office are debated within the
"There’s not a strict separation between contract industry.
living, working, sleeping and hanging out",
Expect screens and room dividers to
says Joel. "Anything is potentially possible
become key items, as consumers look for
anywhere. You can choose the location and
creative new ways to zone spaces and
activity to suit your mood."
create smaller areas for more varied
As living spaces become smaller, they are activities.
also becoming smarter. Tech start-up
With co-living and multi-generational
Bumblebee Spaces has created robotic
homes on the rise, flexible spaces will only
furniture that descends from the ceiling
become more important to consumers.
when needed, with the user's needs
Brands that design collections with this
anticipated by an 'AI butler'.
widening range of needs in mind are set to
win big.
2LG Studio

Sustainable Evolutions
Lendager Group
As the effects of climate change start to
visibly affect living conditions globally,
consumers are moving towards more
sustainable lifestyle choices.
Following 2018's extreme weather, 73% of
Americans now think there is strong
evidence of global warming, while 60%
believe that this warming is due, at least
partly, to humans. This growing
environmental awareness is impacting
purchases. According to Nielsen, 81% of
global respondents feel strongly that
companies should help to improve the
environment, and this belief is across
genders and generations.
In 2018, the tide turned against single-use
plastic straws and non-recyclable plastic
packaging. By 2021, many of the plastic
targets set by brands such as McDonald's
will have come to fruition. What's next?
Crackdowns on Styrofoam food containers
(just banned in New York City) and plastic-
containing wet wipes are already starting to
emerge.
As plant-based lifestyles become more
widely adopted, in part for sustainability
reasons, this will impact materials too.
Already, manufacturers are developing
innovative alternatives to materials such as
fur, silk and leather.
"Sustainability has become an
urgent opportunity for
companies to connect with
consumers who are excited
about change.”
- Regan Leggett, Executive
Director of Thought Leadership &
Foresight, Nielsen
For a growing number of consumers,
sustainability means not only buying better
and reducing waste, but more fully
reshaping their lives to be low-impact.
Opening in 2021 in Copenhagen, the UN17
Village will be a sustainable residential
community that meets all of the UN's
Sustainable Development Goals. The 400-
home neighbourhood, built from upcycled
waste and non-toxic materials, and powered
by 100% renewable energy, is one of a new
generation of sustainable place-making
initiatives that are set to change not only
what we buy, but how and where we live.
By 2021, the aesthetics and scalability of
sustainable design will be much more
developed, and demand will be rising,
opening up opportunity across markets.
The End of More As outlined in our Future Drivers 2021
report, we are fast approaching the 'end of
more' – a mindset shift that will see
consumers seeking less but better products
and items, and looking to reuse rather than
replace where possible.
The rise of conscious purchasing comes in
many forms, but one of the most significant
for design and interiors brands will be the
importance of curation, which will now be
based as much on values as aesthetics.
Swedish home brand Voice has launched a
capsule-style collection of 'fundamental'
furniture that is designed to be functional,
accessible and long-lasting – the equivalent
of high-quality basics in fashion.
Another brand founded with this aim and
representing a new wave of authenticity is
Brandless. The US-based e-commerce
retailer sells everything from tree-free toilet
tissue to Fairtrade ground coffee, all with
the promise of "better stuff for fewer
dollars". Wellness and sustainability values
are embedded in the product edit, with
organic, non-GMO, phthalate-free, vegan and
gluten-free search filters on the website.
Brandless
“Amazon is the
everything store.
We’re a highly
curated collection.”
- Tina Sharkey, CEO, Brandless
But this rising mindset doesn't mean that
discovery is dead or that only highly funded
new brands can succeed.
Instagram is becoming an increasingly
important platform for small-scale brands
that feel uniquely local and personal, while
still selling globally. Marrakech-based
@lrnce is a case in point, having become a
cult interiors name in recent years thanks to
its impeccable Instagram and on-point
styling. It also has a tight, less-is-more
product edit, specialising in ceramics,
textiles and leather accessories.
As Larissa Vince, MD at Saatchi & Saatchi
London, notes: "in complicated times,
simplicity is something we should strive for
because it has more power than ever to
influence people to choose."
 Selling Services Service offerings are going from strength to
strength across interiors as consumers
favour access over ownership, which offers
both newness and higher quality pieces that
they may not be able to buy.
Having originated in fashion, with
companies such as Rent the Runway
making catwalk style accessible, rental
services are now starting to impact
homewares. Harth offers top-end furniture
and decor that can be rented and replaced
each season. Furniture subscription start-up
Fernish recently launched a rental
collaboration with Crate & Barrel, and has
ambitious plans for the future. “Over time
maybe we end up having a concierge
service to help you with things like utility
transfers or getting your basic commodity
items when you move into a new place,” co-
founder Lucas Dickey told Geekwire.
Curated rental services are starting to
emerge across lifestyle products. Examples
include Fair, a subscription car service;
Whirli, a kids' toy subscription; and baby
gear provider BabyQuip.
Service providers are also starting to disrupt
complex interiors services that may
previously have been purchased
Framebridge
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
"[Renting] makes us free to own
less stuff, yet surround ourselves
with things that inspire us. You
can have it all and then give it
back when you feel like it."
- Henrietta Thompson, Co-
Founder, Harth
off-the-shelf or given to an interior designer
to handle. With $67m funding, Framebridge
offers on-demand custom framing, selected
via an easy-to-use website, and one of
Casper's founders has launched Block
Renovation, a start-up that can complete a
bathroom renovation in three weeks.
In retail, service stores are proving to be a
promising way for brick-and-mortar to offer
the experience that e-commerce lacks. Best
Buy's sales uptick has been credited to its
Geek Squad advisors, who visit customers
at home to provide tech support. Nordstrom
Local, a store concept that only offers
services, is another example of how retailers
are buying into service in addition to, or
even instead of, product.