At the end of each month, DNN Editor in Chief Courtney Porter curates a list of five standout things — design projects, product launches, noteworthy events, trends and more that deserve your attention. Together they offer a snapshot of where the design industry stands, capturing emerging trends, influential movements and key developments. Think of it as your monthly briefing on what’s shaping the creative landscape. This edition for September 2025 covers digital arts & crafts, luxury’s embrace of indoor-outdoor design, an industry omen from New York Fashion Week, two opposing color trends and how Kyoto University’s newest quantum discovery will impact design and home furnishings in the next five years.
1. Digital Arts & Crafts
A particular area of interest of mine is how designers interact with new technologies. This month I spoke with designers from across the country about their feelings towards tech and how it is integrated in their business. First: on a panel about collaborating to build luxury residences at the Pacific Design Center’s Fall Market and Second: for our monthly advice column ‘Advice for Designers from Designers’ (Read more here).
The upshot: Techy gadgets are generally perceived as a nuisance, a challenge to be dealt with, rather than widely embraced by designers, but cutting edge designers across the globe are interested in integrating tech into their process, whether for business operations and logistics or when designing. Designer/maker Peter Donders, for example, has made his career combining traditional craftsmanship with 3D design. His latest ‘Cyber Art Nouveau’ pieces premiered at Brussels Design this month.
2. Elevated Indoor-Outdoor Textiles
Conversations at PDC’s Fall market in West Hollywood revolved around indoor-outdoor and resilience design, and nearly every vendor was showcasing a new indoor-outdoor collection, many for the first time. Another common trend: The look and feel of these outdoor designs, lean more indoor, particularly the latest textile collections from Romo’s Black Edition and Rosemary Hallgarten.
Drawing inspiration from rugged rock formations, terraced olive groves, and timeless Mediterranean architecture, the designs balance durability with luxury. Crafted from solution-dyed acrylics, the fabrics and rugs are built to withstand outdoor elements while offering a soft, tactile feel ideal for indoor use. With a palette of earthy terracottas, sun-washed travertine tones, and rich browns, the collection embodies a deep connection to place, grounded, organic, and effortlessly elegant.
3. Contemporary Runway Style
September in New York City is busy. This month, the city hosted New York Fashion Week, the Collectible Fair and What’s New, What’s Next. Since furnishing trends fall downstream of fashion, I’ll start with some takeaways from NYFW: The major aesthetic themes were an evolved take on quiet luxury – more sandy shades and sartorial shapes – and garments influenced by impressionist art with avant-garde cuts. I’ll talk more about those aesthetic trends and how they’re manifesting in home furnishings in the next section, but here I’d like to draw your attention towards two notable collections which made their runway debuts: GWYN, the new label by Gwyneth Paltrow (a rebrand of G. label), and COS, the Japanese streetwear brand, which dropped the Atelier from their name, closing the gap between their runway and off the rack offerings. This might be an omen for where other design industries are headed.
We will see more of what’s being called “luxe washing.” That is — mid-market contemporary brands nudging increasingly upmarket, while ultra high-end take a step down, meeting in a liminal space we might think of as the upper-upper middle. How this tension between fast fashion and ultra-high-end luxury will translate to home furnishings remains to be seen in, but it’s already being battled out in wearable fashion. (See also: H&M opening London fashion week next month)
4. Aesthetic Trends: Fallen Leaves Vs. Candy-Coated Tye-Dye
This month IDS announced the winners of the Interior Designer of the Year Awards at a ceremony in New Orleans. As you peruse the winning rooms (here), it will be hard not to notice two prominent color and material trends: Green tile and cabinets, for one, and peacock blue in high lacquer paint or spattered throughout ditsy floral prints on walls and ceilings. You’ll notice a bit of both in the winning rooms pictured below:
As far as what is coming next, we’re seeing a melding of these trends as well as their polar opposite. Heimtextil forecast their textile trends for 2026 this month (See more here), which include a candy-coated nod to glitch art.
These digital tye-dye palettes and ultra-saturated shades are already all over candy packaging and fashion, aimed at younger consumers with a penchant for playful high design. You’ll notice this digital melted aesthetic extends to the form of the products as well, with noodly patterns and amorphous shapes.
If moody, mellow and organic is more your speed, not to worry – there’s another color story made just for you. Other Fall introductions feature traditionally autumnal palettes — auburn, rust and complementary shades of yellow or green — evoking the colors of changing leaves. Notable highlights include new outdoor seating from Fermob, Ralph Lauren’s 40th Anniversary Hudson St. Lounge Chair, and 11 Ravens’ Colossal game table, pictured below.
5. Kyoto University’s Quantum Discovery
This month, research out of Kyoto University in Japan confirmed the largest breakthrough in quantum technology yet: Quantum information was successfully transferred without physical movement, which opens the path to secure quantum communication networks and advanced quantum computers. What does this have to do with design and home furnishings? Nothing yet — but it is about to, and much sooner than you may think.
Quantum computing will have huge impacts on waste reduction as well as supply chain lead times and better financial risk modeling. Raju Dandigam, the engineering leader of business travel service Navan, told Forbes, “Logistics optimization represents an unexpected area of impact. Quantum computing shows promise for transforming complex routing problems that affect delivery networks and supply chains. The technology could optimize shipping and traffic routes in real time across the globe, which would reduce costs and emissions at a pace that’s beyond current supercomputers.” In more amazing news, these quantum capabilities are predicted to be a reality within the next five to ten years, although we may not able to use them just yet. It is all but certain that our quantum computing capabilities will outpace our readiness.
How quickly you or I will have our hands on these technologies has to do with how quickly the issue of cyber security is resolved using the same technologies. Data security is among the largest risks posed by quantum computing, and without the ability to secure data, quantum computers will remain too unsafe for general use. Figuring out this piece of the puzzle might add another five+ years to the timeline (This has a lot to do with how AI is developed and regulated — a larger conversation for another time). Even so, that’s not too far off. If you manufacture products, now would be an incredible time to get ahead of this next major shift and carve out a position for a Chief Technology Officer if you haven’t done so already. Time to start thinking about quantum computings’ effects on operations and logistics.
