NEW YORK CITY — At the BDNY trade show, held this week at New York City’s Javits Center, trend forecaster and designer Stacy Garcia celebrated her 15th anniversary with Brintons by unveiling a new collection—her 12th—for the carpet company.
Imperfect Opulence emphasizes what Garcia described as “vintage” design elements. “Our design studio is known for the trend forecasting that we do,” she told Hotel Management on the trade show floor. “We were seeing a trend toward more nostalgic [and] vintage design.” Drawing inspiration from traditional textiles and vintage aesthetics, Imperfect Opulence incorporates subtle irregularities and layered textures for a combination of classic and contemporary.
“We were going for this really vintage vibe,” Garcia recalled, “but also adding a little bit of a modern twist and a quirkiness to it.” Describing the collection as “Gucci meets Wes Anderson,” she said it is a “throwback to traditional patterns” in “a really playful way.”
The collection’s palette includes mossy greens, traditional blues, burnished rusts and aged burgundies. Traditional patterns and details are reimagined through scale shifts, stylized leaves and organic textures that are meant to evoke block-printed fabrics.
Classic and Contemporary
Finding the balance between vintage elements and modern style was “not an easy thing to do,” Garcia said. While scale could help, she prefers to use what she calls “bridge designs”—a transitional element that helps to bridge the traditional with the contemporary. “If you're coming into the lobby, you might have rugs that are more traditional. Then you put one of these bridge designs [in] the corridor spaces, and then you get into the ballrooms … And you can kind of go any way you want, because you've got these bridges in between.”
Incorporating traditional elements into hotel design also can help guests and hotel teams alike feel more comfortable, especially in turbulent times, Garcia noted. “You can feel safe when you lean into things that have more of a classic heritage to them,” she said. “So whether that's beautiful textures or classic elements or vintage elements, things that are historical, I think, live a very long life. Those are always good directions to go.”
Boutique hotels, she added, can “embrace those kinds of eclectic, extravagant looks,” but in terms of both comfort and perpetual appeal, “leaning into things that have more of a classicism to them [is] a really good investment.”
Trend Report
Ahead of BDNY, Garcia identified the major design directions shaping interiors and environments for 2026-2027. Among them:
- Terra Forma: Brutalist boldness meets organic warmth, celebrating sculptural forms, raw textures and sustainability.
- Dream Weave: Surreal, fluid spaces that shift with light and digital innovation.
- Modern Mesa: Desert-inspired tones and artisan-crafted, eco-friendly materials.
- Peak Serenity: Minimalist yet cozy designs that bring calm and lightness indoors.
- Legacy Lounge: Classic elegance softened with playful modern touches.
- Eclectic Extravagance: Maximalist vibrancy, bold textures and personality-driven spaces.
Garcia noted that last year’s trend report predicted an “era of opulence,” but said that it’s “very early” for that trend to be fully embraced in the design world. “That true opulence of crystal chandeliers and traditional furniture and wood carvings and even gilded accents I did not include on my forecast this year because I feel like it's just beginning.”
At the same time, she added, “We have new iterations of how we think some of these trends are going to be interpreted—how the colors might be changing.”
The “Eclectic Extravagance” trend is a “return to a modern maximalism … almost a nod to the ’80s again,” Garcia said. The trend includes “highly contemporary color combinations” that are inspired by the digital world. “Some of it is almost like an irreverence for what's happening on the news,” she added. “It's a way for us to sort of say, “I'm just going to have fun with design. I'm going to immerse myself in a space that you can't help but smile in.’”
The “Legacy Lounge” trend fits in well with the new Brintons collection, Garcia noted, as it includes “historical references” with plaid patterns and dramatic tapestries—“things that make you feel like there's a sense of soul, a sense of history to it, that there were stories that were told, there were lives played out against these motifs, these images,” she said. “I think we're craving things that feel real.”