Let’s Talk About Zara Home x Collagerie
When the latest collab with Zara Home hit my inbox last week, I was ready to share yet I knew to hold off until it was officially ready and shoppable for all of you… As of today, it’s online and ready so, allow me to introduce a collection that I can get behind - the Zara Home x Collagerie collab for late Summer 2024.
Collagerie, if you don’t know about them, is a gorgeously curated fashion and home site by British fashion experts Lucinda Chambers and Serena Hood. Both seasoned trend experts, Lucinda was a fashion director for British Vogue for 25 years (!) and has worked as a creative consultant and stylist for brands like Prada, Marni, H&M, River Island, Warehouse and now Zara Home with her first collection through Collagerie. Serena, her biz partner, was a former executive fashion director at British Vogue and was responsible for creating prestigious events. She produced countless style and fashion edits for Vogue and various media sites.
This collaboration between the brands truly energizes Zara Home with a fresh new take on New Mediterranean style. You know the look, it’s very clean, understated farmhouse chic, and very neutral. This new collection, while Mediterranean-inspired, has taken us a bit forwards and a few steps backwards at the same time. In one way, it’s returning us to the roots with it’s nod to familiar motifs, pep and color, feeling almost old-fashioned and nostalgic in the best way possible. On the other side, the collection brings us forward with a fresh, contemporary, and dare I say from a big box, a handmade, artisanal appeal.
In recent years, I felt Zara Home became increasingly neutral but, from a design perspective, quite impressive. I know their shift from the colorful Zara Home a decade ago to what we see today is mostly due to increasing customers’ interior preferences - many are big fans of minimalism and beige and the New Mediterranean style with it’s calm, natural, relaxed and very neutral aesthetic elicits calm and peace. You can find hints of this style by designers not even based in Europe who promote what I see as a very safe, enduring, calm, relaxed, simple and lovely decor style. And when I say safe, it’s by no means an insult. But it is appealing to consumers who are burnt out, stressed out, and worked out - which most of us relate to - so to not have to overthink colors and patterns at home, to not have to worry about making a decor mistake, is a relief. It feels safe and it is. To go minimalist and to decorate only in neutrals and minimalism means that you really can’t lose, right? That’s the appeal to me as well, because I also enjoy spaces that are reduced and more neutral in color. For instance, when I see a home like Villa Castelluccio in Puglia, even though it’s already 5 years ago since I first saw it, I want to stay forever and just sink into the sofas and never leave the house.
There is great character and beauty though in color and pattern. I explored this in my recent trend exhibition, Mood Spaces, that I launched in January this year. [You can view the project here.] In fact, a lot of the colors and styles that I used in my exhibit are very close to what Zara Home has done with Collagerie, which confirms I was on the right track with my trend forecasts. But the idea behind my Mood Spaces was to infuse space with personality and a mood - an atmosphere, and that can often be achieved first through color, not the absence of it. Lucinda Chambers shares my opinion in her quote below.
“When colors communicate with each other, they create a mood, an atmosphere and thus a world in which you enjoy spending time.”
For those of us living and traveling frequently to Mediterranean countries (Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Spain, Tunisia), we know from experience that there exists a great range within Mediterranean design that never went mainstream. There is a lot of colorful Yang to all the neutral Yin we see in modern-day Mediterranean-inspired interiors. What we see on the high street was merely reinterpreted - scaled back and simplified - by designers who created a new energy around a very old world charm.
Those designers were clever and took something we all took for granted during our 1995 road trips across southern France, and turned it into a vibe. They used the playbook by Shabby Chic from Rachel Ashwell from the 90s, took away the ruffles, pink, and femininity, and merged it with Japanese wabi-sabi with its handmade and very earthy vibe. Then, French/Italian/Greek and Spanish coastal vibes were scaled back but added with stone floors, cozy seating, and peeling paint on walls straight from the French countryside.
Then in the recipe, there was the waving of the wand where the extraction of color took place and the core vibe became neutral and centered around natural, raw, earthy elements and texture - lots of texture. A bit of Moorish design was tossed into the mix, with wicker baskets and floor tiles and pottery, some Berber carpets (cream-based), black metal, and we saw pottery influenced by Sicilian and Italian design, with head vases and curvy urns.
I can go on and on about how I’ve watched the New Mediterranean style evolve, as I’ve sat in the front row viewing this evolution since I was flea marketing in California, meeting Rachel Ashwell at her then-famous Shabby Chic clearance sales attended by her die-hard fans, which I was back in the 90s, for sure. Rachel Ashwell and Kelly Hoppen, strangely enough, were the two women who introduced my young and curious brain to the world of interior design. Two British women who couldn’t be more opposite in their design language.
Mediterranean countries historically (and even in present times) are loaded with SO MUCH from heritage patterns, to the various skills need in making the objects they’re known for, and of course, loads of color, vitality, and culture. There is nothing reduced or scaled back in a Moroccan souk. Mediterranean foods and dishes are vibrant, their fruits color-loaded, even a salad is energetic with color and texture.
That area of Europe is historically rich and diverse from art to design, fashion to food and architecture. In modern times, this part of the world is home to some of the most famous and magnetic names and brands responsible for exquisite fashion houses and interior design. When you imagine the very neutral Mediterranean design style we all know and love, think on the flipside to the very designers from, let’s say Italy, Spain and Morocco, who have shown us a very different vision that is anything but calm and beige.
Think of Italian trend expert Rosanna Orlandi, or designers like Patricia Urquiola, Gucci, cc tapis, Dimore Studio, Cristina Celestino, Emilio Pucci, Paola Navone, or even a trend expert like Gudy Herder in Spain. Let’s envision explosive traditional Moroccan interiors or think of LRNCE - a modern design studio that has a fresh and colorful take on Moroccan design. Or go a step further back and simply envision the random and colorful Italian kitchens that spring to mind when you think of Italy and its incredibly rich food culture.
Think also of the old film - Under the Tuscan Sun - and the decor in that movie which was a huge trend only a few decades ago and in parts of Italy, still is. Also consider Mediterranean-inspired Oursin, a pop up restaurant by fashion designer Jacquemus that opened in Paris for a limited time in collaboration with Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysée’, which I visited for my magazine, HOLLY, back in 2019. It boasted whitewashed walls and carefully sculpted alcoves evoking the vernacular architecture of southern Europe, think French architect Jacques Couelle vibes.
As you can see, there is a lot more to Mediterranean design, which is why I find the new collab between Zara Home x Collagerie so appealing. They show us some reds, blues, pinks, mustards, and even bring the more traditional motifs into today’s interiors - all layered on a base of neutrals. They are essentially training their customer how to add in some color to their currently beloved beige minimalist home and to not feel overwhelmed by the addition of it. Color doesn’t have to be hard, though most of my clients are terrified of it. I quite like neutrals myself, or toned down colors, because that is exactly how I live and style in my own private world at home. I keep the base neutral and add color as I go - I use accents that can easily be rotated in and out on a whim with little thought or emotional investment. Color is wonderful, it’s exciting, it gives feeling and character to a space - in whatever dose of it you choose but if you are extremely scared to try it, then Zara Home x Collagerie are giving you a chance to experiment in small doses with zero risk.
Zara Home shows with this collection to be progressively more edgy and fresh for a high street retailer, yet also relevant enough to sell product, which is a delicate balance since staying ahead of the curve doesn’t always mean customers will join you and buy what you’re selling. From my experience with retailers and launches, customers need time to “warm up” to a new interpretation, a new look. That’s why it typically takes two years (in most western countries) to know whether your brand will sink or swim, so you better have enough money to see the new brand through for the first 24 months of what can be an extremely challenging period.
Most people I know start with a bang, customers are excited to show up and see what you’re doing, and then things fizzle out. Customers expected you to either fail or to prove yourself successful over time - which generally takes 24 months of consistency in your work. Zara Home has been around a long time, but I think they have gained a specific type of interiors customer now who are more followers of trends and want to be shown what’s cool - so they can finally lead them whereas when Zara first launched their interiors world years ago, I found all of the romantic flowers, ruffles, and overt feminism a bit too fussy and dare I say, old-fashioned. Capsule collections and limited editions are hard to sell because there isn’t enough time to get your customers on board. This is why whatever you put out there has to be well researched, and your customer has to feel ready for it - and it’s your job to make them ready.
I personally enjoy seeing Zara Home partner with Collagerie, two stylish women who are quite successful in their own right and are bringing their effortless chic and colorful mood to our spaces which still feels familiar - Mediterranean - but not the strictly neutral look as we’re so accustomed to. They are showing us a little edge, boldness, and personality. As I said earlier, this new collection helps Zara Home customers to explore color a bit more - to experience Mediterranean style with some flair, some color, something new.
And I quite like it.
Love,
Holly
(Photos: Zara Home)
