The window dressing market is worth more than £1bn a year and much of this money is devoted to providing privacy and protecting peoples’ possessions. Window dressings, such as net curtains, prevent strangers and potential burglars from prying into your home and getting an eyeful of your possessions. As a result, designers are constantly looking for more creative and innovative approaches for our window furnishings.
Lauren Moriarty has now invented a 3-D curtain, which is made from two layers of voile with a butterfly pattern dangled in the middle. This creates the impression that the curtains are moving as you walk past the window. Moriarty said that she wanted to ‘create the illusion of something magic’ as people soon get ‘bored of our surroundings and I thought that if something appeared to change, it would keep it interesting. This is an optical illusion so that when you walk past it, it appears that the butterflies are fluttering. But if you are just sitting inside the room reading or watching television, they don’t move so they are not distracting.
Another approach to 21st-century window dressings is using woven metal, creating a fashionable metallic look. Most of the time, these intricately woven curtains still allow plenty of light into the room but at night they reflect light and shimmer.
As an alternative approach to net curtains, one design company has been bringing fly screens into the 21st century. Today, the garish plastic strips are a thing of the past. Now, designers are using pearls and crystals to create a stylish look. Customers can choose the colors of the crystals resulting in an individualistic look. The more you hang, the greater the privacy provided.