In today's fast pace, "instant" information age, home decor trends are beginning to change almost as fast as the apparel industry, and the heat is on to keep up. Home decor trends are reaching the mass market in record time rather than taking years to cultivate and move through what was once a chain or channels of distribution. This slower process took years for a consumer to build upon a home decor theme and allowed our industry to progress along at a slower pace. Those channels, as we all were comfortable and familiar with, have crumbled before us and changed the movement of home decorating into the consumer wanting instant home decor lifestyles.

These lifestyles encompass many aspects of our lives from what we choose to wear, where we shop, to how we decorate our homes. The parallel between these is growing closer and closer as we look to find more harmony among our busy lives. By choosing a lifestyle approach, you are saying that you not only want to look the part but you also want to live the part.

An example of this lifestyle approach is the recent West Indies home decor rage. Not only could you decorate your home to feel like you live in the tropics, but you could also dress the part with apparel by companies like Tommy Bahama, which very well may have spurred this home decor phenomenon. This concept even grew to the point that Tommy Bahama, notably an apparel company, began licensing a line of hot products.

Staying on top of the apparel industry trends might prepare you to anticipate future decor trends and get a head start. The question now becomes how to sort out the fashion runways - the good, the bad and the ugly - to determine what trend will have the most shelf life and translate best into today's home interiors. Start by analyzing the upcoming fashion color palettes and patterns. Take note if apparel is more fussy and detailed or more simplified in construction for ease of wear. Determine if the trend for fashion accessories is gaining or losing power? By analyzing these areas you might start seeing a pattern that the consumer will not only be incorporating into their wardrobe, but also adapting these decor philosophies into their homes to create a complete lifestyle.

As many of the top fashion designers are getting into the game with full home decor lines, this only reinforces the notion to look at the fashion industry first for our next home decor color palette and trends. Some of the top apparel key words for current fashion trends are retro, vintage, nostalgic, luxury glamour and animal instinct. All these buzzwords are used just as much in the home decor industry. We're seeing numerous parallels like the retro '60s larger bold floral and graphic prints popping up everywhere on apparel and upholstery fabrics as well as art prints. The glamour-gilded age of the '40s apparel revival with metallic, gold, tweeds, velvets, furs, bows, be-jeweled broaches and jewelry has set the stage for the luxury glamour home decor resurgence.

We are seeing all of these opulent textures and finishes of a vogue period reborn, and we have to credit this rebirth to the apparel industry. In addition to styling, color is making just as big of an impact from the runway to our home interiors.

Color is a key factor in the direction of home décor and it sets the tone for product development. Great product in the wrong colors can be disastrous. Being able to hone in on the right colors for your product can be the difference between success and failure within a particular market. A good example of this theory is the color pink. Did you predict last year that this would be a hot and upcoming color for the décor market? If you did, then you already have product produced and on the market that fulfills this emerging trend.

As I look around recent home decor markets within the wall decor industry, I don't see strong signs of this knowledge. But if you looked at the apparel industry last year, pink was already the hot fashion color and it continues to have a strong presence in the retail sector for the apparel industry. Who would have thought that pink would move from the runways to the showrooms of the home decor industry so quickly?

Pink wasn't the most dominating color at the recent home decor markets but it is continuing to build momentum. Pink was mostly used on accessories and fabrics but its presence did not go unnoticed. The wall decor industry will need to decide how to best incorporate this relative newcomer to the home decor scene. The key is to understand how to adapt this color trend into sellable wall decor. Now, I can't see the consumer filling their walls with overly pink wall decor like the days of the popular beige and neutral art, but I can see consumers using hues of pink accented within wall decor and by working with color palettes that compliment pink. This will allow pink to work into today's home decor. Framing is an ideal way to balance the use of pink in art and make it feel less feminine. By using black, umber, chocolates or silver frames with neutral warm toned matting, the use of pink can feel very modern and fresh.

By all means, these are not the only trends going on in the home decor industry. These are just prime examples of the relationship between the fashion industry and the home decor industry. It's up to you to decide how to interpret the fashion insurgence into our industry and apply it to best fit your product line. What we must do is recognize that society is merging on many levels and we may have to look no farther than our own closets to see what the next home decor trend will be.