A Touch Of Virtuality

I would have booked my plane ticket by now, requested my usual hotel room, and started making appointments with favorite suppliers. Then I will be waiting with bated breath to see the novelties and feel the buzz of immense buying power and quests by retailers racing to snag new brands that might re-define their business.

- Stefanie Hauger

Or, to be that fabulous new brand that will rock someone’s world. I can practically smell the dreadful coffee wafting through wonder-emporium aisles teeming with designer-clad human-life. I can feel the claustrophobia starting to set in as the air in the massive exhibition halls begin to tighten around thousands of busy little buyer-ants, scurrying through either at break-neck speed.

There is manic competitiveness in the mornings that eventually morphs into cross-eyed weariness after brains become saturated with sensory and visual overload. It’s completely exhausting. Intoxicating. Food for the soul. We willingly torture ourselves awake at 5:30 a.m. for days because there is nothing quite like it. Whether it be Maison & Objet in Paris, Salone del Mobile in Milan, or Ambiente in Frankfurt, these trade fairs are an essential ingredient to life in the world of interiors as we network, over-spend, and expand our infinitely malleable horizons.