It has been a solid nine years since Akarat Vanarat, managing director of Bangkok-based high-end furniture showroom Motif, opened his home decor business to cater to the fast growing home furnishing market in Thailand.
Akarat Vanarat sits on one of Motif’s luxury high-end pieces of furniture.
His love for all things design, however, began long before that.
“I was always flipping through design magazines for inspiration when I was growing up and I began to notice that furniture design, in particular, was always being reinvented with fashion and function constantly being combined in new and clever ways.
“Much like how we choose clothes to represent our character, home decoration can also reflect who we are — our taste, our lifestyle and our thoughts. That sparked my initial interest in home decor,” said Akarat, who also owns fashion watch brands Glam Rock and Tendence, as well as the Korean skincare brand Belif.
Akarat believes that over the years Thai consumers have become more savvy than before, partly due to the availability of an increasing number of home decor magazines and websites. They know designers and global brands, but most importantly, they know what they really want.
“Gone are the days when rich people decorated their homes with flamboyant Louis XIV-style furniture items. Today, they look for something more contemporary and personal. It’s not just a local trend, this is happening around the world. They no longer want loud and overly flamboyant items anymore,” he commented.
As homes become more compact [Akarat believes that urbanites today prefer smaller homes in the city to big ones far away] furnishing items have also become smaller. Akarat says that the need to manage space usage has thus resulted in the rise of interior design.
“In turn, they are investing an increased decorating budget into the smaller home, as many feel that the home only needs a few key pieces, and they want to make a statement with those pieces,” says Akarat. “Also, the trend now is to invite friends to hang out at home, so there’s a need to make the home look presentable.”
Another trend to watch for is the growing presence of luxury fashion brands in homeware collections. Following on from Fendi, one of the first Italian luxury fashion brands to enter the homeware sector by launching Fendi Casa Home Collection in 1989, Ralph Lauren, Hermes, Versace, Donna Karan, Diane Von Furstenberg, Armani, Vera Wang and Emilio Pucci, among others, have all followed suit in targeting the luxury lifestyle market by introducing a homeware range that complements their fashion line.
The entry of luxury fashion brands into the high-end homeware sector is a logical move. The two have essentially evolved from the same core — coupling the best material with the best design to show a person’s character. Akarat explained that consumers today care more about how they present themselves, far beyond what they wear and what bags they carry. Fashion brands are therefore aiming to become lifestyle brands, venturing outside their known expertise.
“Fashion is not limited to clothes, and more and more brands have shifted focus from offering just sartorial goods to building an image and brand. Fashion and home decor have come to influence each other in a reciprocal way.
“For example, French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, who designs for homeware brand Cassina, is an inspiration for Louis Vuitton’s womenswear collection.
Tom Dixon, contemporary lighting designer whose range we’ve just introduced, recently collaborated with sportswear company adidas. The two industries today reflect and influence each other more than ever and have become almost inseparable.” Compared to its Asean counterparts, Akarat said that items available in Thailand are much more varied, fashionable and forward-thinking, leading nationals from the Asean region to be among the biggest clients in Thailand’s upscale home decor industry.
“Some send us a list of what they want, and then we have everything shipped to their address without ever stepping foot in the store. That’s how well they know what they want. Thai clients still prefer coming in to have a feel of things, but their taste is just as sophisticated,” said the MD.
Akarat says that he does not believe that home decor is just luxury, but rather a reasonable investment. “We invest in clothes because we want to present ourselves in a certain way. The same goes with home decor. The good thing is that we don’t change our couch every season. It makes sense to invest in key pieces that you can pass on to the next generation.”
