The Fibre Files by Warwick Fabrics

For nearly 60 years, Warwick Fabrics has been at the forefront of textile designing and wholesaling, travelling the world to stay ahead of emerging global trends while remaining deeply attuned to local Australian design sensibilities.

From our in-house design studio in Collingwood, Melbourne, our creative team works collaboratively with mills across the globe to deliver fabrics that combine style, performance, and innovation. This team is an active studio of creators, they are hands on in every aspect of the design process, ensuring that each range we create not only looks beautiful, but also performs in its intended setting.

This trend report draws from the latest insights across Europe’s leading design exhibitions and showrooms, translating them through an Australian lens to forecast what we will be seeing enter interiors over the coming 6–12 months.

Emerging Insights

Design today is becoming softer - in both form and feeling. Across materials, lighting, and silhouettes, we’re seeing a renewed focus on touch, emotion, and connection.

- Rigid lines are evolving into softened, rounded silhouettes that feel organic and fluid between function and fibre

- Refined nostalgia is seeing eclectic influences from multiple decades come together in form, structure, and finishes

- Tactility is multi-dimensional, where tone and fibre converge revealing depth, nuance, and imperfectly harmonised layers

- Fashion and interiors share a renewed connection, where decorative living blurs the boundaries between what we wear and how we inhabit space 

A Softer Tomorrow

A Softer Tomorrow imagines a world shaped by comfort, touch, and connection. Surfaces feel rounded, layered, and emotionally warm, yet remain intelligent and contemporary. It’s about design that cares - merging soft tactility with quiet structure, and balancing innovation with empathy. This is a new kind of optimism: less about speed, more about sincerity.

“Visiting Maison & Objet there was a shift from the sterile minimalism in recent years to a softer and more personally nuanced aesthetic in 2026”

- Tara Kain, Senior Designer

Trend “Butter” - Playful Proportions

A throwback to ’90s nostalgia, Butter celebrates inflated silhouettes and exaggerated forms. Furniture feels generous and soft-edged, inviting comfort while maintaining sculptural precision.

Yellow appears in a spectrum of tones from golden to mellow and vivid cyber hues radiating warmth and optimism, while electric blues or bold accent colours provide balance and playful contrast. The result is a look that’s joyful, sculptural, and unapologetically modern.

Key Features

- A tonal exploration of yellow in all its shades, from soft and subdued to bright and bold

- Contrasting accents in blue or strong, singular colours

- Chunky, oversized, voluminous shapes inspired by 1990s furniture design

- Rounded corners and inflated forms that feel cushioned and soft

- A celebration of comfort and playful proportion

Design Direction: Look to designers reinterpreting 1990s postmodern forms with a humanised, padded edge, combining sculptural simplicity with emotional tactility.

Trend “Terra” - Untamed Layers

Inspired by the natural world, Terra explores layered tactility and tonal depth through a mix of soft, textured materials such as bouclé, faux fur, teddy, and mohair. The result is a crafted and comforting aesthetic - where softness meets structure and every surface tells a story of touch.

Raw seams, contrast stitching, and rope-tied edges highlight handmade craft, while folding and panelling techniques add dimensional depth. Subtle animal references that are gestural, textural, and abstract bring movement and quiet wildness to modern interiors.

Key Features

- Layered animal-inspired textures and contemporary interpretations

- Finishing details that emphasise craftsmanship such as contrast piping, blanket stitching, ruched and tied edges

- Stacked and folded structures to enhance volume and dimension

- Animal motifs as accents on furniture like ottomans, stools, and cushions

- A palette of earthy browns, warm neutrals, and deep greens

Design Direction: Think quiet wilderness meets crafted luxury – a layered, textural approach that brings softness and soul to contemporary spaces.

“Spending time in Europe, it was exciting to see how animal motifs are being reimagined in traditional and gestural forms creating far more textural complexity and energy”

- Kendelle Hobbs, Senior Designer.

Trend “Glint” Softened Metallics

A cool, contemporary interpretation of metallics, Glint shifts the focus from shine to soft lustre -  where velvet meets metal.

Silvers and cool metallics are paired with tones of green such as olive, apple, and lime sherbet to create a palette that’s luminous yet composed. Velvets and chenilles provide tactile shimmer, while folded panelling, piping, and cylindrical forms define the silhouette. The result feels architectural, softly reflective, and quietly refined.

Key Features

- Cool-toned metallics reinterpreted in soft, tactile fabrics

- Reflective depth where restrained sheen and sculptural texture creates movement without excess

- Bolsters and cylindrical details for soft structure

- A sense of luminosity without glare - modern, gentle, and composed

Design Direction: A gentle collision of metal and material that is luminous, layered, and texturally complex