Decorex

 

A celebration of South African style

Decorex, South Africa’s esteemed annual décor exhibition, takes place each April at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Decorex Cape Town, which celebrated its 11th anniversary in 2009, is popular with interior designers, architects, home renovators and the city’s design-conscious crowd.

The five-day event, which sees more than 100 exhibitors assembling at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, showcases the best in design. Exhibitors display trendy home furnishings, sumptuous fabrics, state-of-the-art kitchens, decorative accessories and everything else needed to make a house a home.

Up-and-coming designers are given the opportunity to create “roomscapes” at the Sanlam Next Generation Style Shapers “house”. Given an empty room to work with, designers are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild as they decorate, furnish and accessorise the room of their dreams.

2009’s Sanlam Next Generation Style Shapers award winners, Tara Carmichael and Bielle Ross, created an innovative, eco-friendly baby nursery. The winning design included recycled objects and a sturdy cardboard crib, yet the room still remained a “nurturing space … with elements of fantasy, mystery, intrigue, functionality, challenge, collection and wonder”.

The South African Handmade Collection features highly original and uniquely South African works – made largely from recycled material – that have proved immensely popular with locals and tourists with an eye for (quirky!) design.

“The South African Handmade Collection represents the highest quality, design-led, well-manufactured, environmentally friendly South African craft products, conforming to fair trade practices,” says Nadia Sujee, director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s creative industries division. “This definitive annual collection showcases our handmade products to the world: to international buyers, to the dynamic local trade and also to South Africans who welcome the handmade into their own homes with so much enthusiasm and pride.”

The décor stalls and exhibitions at Decorex Cape Town encompass the quirky creativity of the Mother City – the event celebrates the best of Cape Town’s style.