Pretty in Peach!

Vibrant, elegant and playful, coral and peach shades have always influenced spring and summer fashion. This year they’re becoming a big trend thanks to the beautiful looks on the catwalk, the range of coral pieces on the red carpet, and the constant photos of celebrities like Emily Blunt wearing the look. Coral and peach are great shades to try out this summer as they add a pop of color to your wardrobe without being too loud, not to mention they’re universally flattering.

Be on the lookout for our new sandal ornaments this Christmas season. Our fancy peep-toe sandal, accented with Swarovski crystals, makes a perfect hostess gift for a get-together with your girlfriends. And our crystal-accented flip-flop ornament will add a cool summer vibe to any Christmas tree.

Madison Avenue

This is the last of our 2012 trees, and certainly one of our favorites. Our Madison Avenue trend is inspired by the Mad Men craze that is not only dominating the airwaves, but spreading into fashion and home decor. Martini lunches, high-waisted pencil skirts, and tweed suits are all making a comeback in a re-imagined, modern way.

The Madison Avenue color palette includes iconic colors of the 60's: bronze orange and avocado green with pops of fuscia and vibrant blue. We wrapped our tree in thick satin ribbon, intertwining the orange and green into a floppy bow at the top. Blue glitter bulbs peek out from the branches, along with copper glitter stars and matte green bulbs.

From our collections, we chose some of our large, glitter flats in gold, fuscia and silver, tied with brightly-colored satin ribbons. We also selected iconic pieces, including our peep-toe shoe ornament in blue, our martini ornament, glitter wine bucket ornament, silver glitter peace sign and pewter ornaments from our NYC collection.

Packages were wrapped in a mixture of colors, from copper to blue and interspersed with a patterned paper of bright orange flowers. For each package we tied one of our ornaments to the bow which can be engraved on the back and used as a gift tag!

1900's Gothic Victorian

Continuing our re-emerging trends throughout the decades, we're going back in time to the early 1900's where the darkly romantic style of the Victorian age is making waves as a new trend in style, literature, and film also known as Steampunk. Re-imagined lace-up boots, corsets, and of course, icons of the steam-powered age are characteristic of the trend, and as you can see from our Gothic Victorian tree, the color palette includes varying metallics in bronze, pewter and brushed silver, deep purples and burgandys.

For our Steampunk tree, we twisted steel-colored mesh ribbon with burgandy satin through the branches and created a topper combining the two ribbons. To continue the theme, we also used the same ribbons on the packages below. Copper colored birds are clipped to the branches along with copper gears in varying sizes, bunches of small purple bulbs and copper metallic blown glass bulbs.






From our ornament collection, we included our matte gold filigree ornaments with Swarovski crystals, bronze filigree dragonflies, bronze owls, bronze filigree diamond photo frames and our pewter, steam-powered train.

Next week, the 1960's Madison Avenue tree.

1940's Pin-Up

For our annual holiday Trend Intelligence guide this year, we followed trend and fashion across the ages, finding themes and colors that have re-emerged in an updated style. First up, is our 1940's pin-up trend, reminiscent of carefree class and sailor-inspired design.


As you can see from our pin-up tree, the color palette includes cherry reds, vibrant pinks and a combination of blues. The tree-topper is a bow made from wide gingham ribbon and as garland, we used a mixture of red and light teal chiffon.


Filler bulbs come in fun spirals, red pinwheels and large, teal glitter and deep rose bulbs. Throughout the tree, we also used smaller gingham bows to tie everything together.


For our ornaments, we chose icons reminiscent of the era: pink swirl flamingos, blue sailboats, red glitter high-heeled shoes and cherries, and our "kiss" lips tied with red hearts satin ribbon.

For our packages, we found a combination of wrappings: red gift bags stuffed with pink tissue, silver with red and light teal ribbons, and underwater themed paper adorned with one of our sailboat ornaments.

Next week: 1900's Gothic Victorian

Pet Tree

Our pets are part of the family which is why we celebrated all of their love, devotion and companionship with our pet tree this year!

This tree was a lot of fun to decorate. We focused on using bright, solid colors: red, blue and green and accented with white paw print ribbon. For garland we used a length of chain. For decorations, furry mouse toys and rope bones nestled in the branches.

As far as traditional ornaments, we used our collection of pet photo frames, including our: blue glitter fishbowl photo frame, our red glitter hydrant photo frame, and our red and green glitter Santa Paws frames. All of them with photos of the Gloria Duchin animal family!

In addition to our photo ornments, we also adorned the tree with our pewter woof bone and meow paw ornaments and an assortment of green, red and blue glitter paws.

No tree is complete without gifts underneath and for our pet tree we put together a special assortment using stainless steel pet bowls as gift baskets, stuffed with colored tissue, wrapped in paw print cellophane and tied with "I heart my dog" satin ribbon. As a special package accent, we tied on one of our silvertone glitter paw ornaments that can also be used as a keyring.

Next week: Our Pin-Up tree!

Black Swan & Dreams

We've redecorated the trees in our office to reflect current trends in color, pop culture and design. In total, we have six trees at Gloria Duchin headquarters, and over the next few weeks, we're going to show you all of them, hopefully giving you some inspiration for your holiday decor. First up, our Dreams tree and our Black Swan tree.

Both of these trees are so much fun. The pink tree adds pop to your season and the black tree adds an edge.

For the pink, Dreams tree, we went for a soft, etheral feel, topping the tree with white tulle that drapes down through the branches. Bunches of cotton stuffing symbolize clouds, floating through the tree and also cover the base as a tree skirt. For bulbs, we used primarily silver, both in matte glitter and glossy finish in different sizes for depth. The fuscia glitter bulbs add just a touch of necessary color.

We wanted this tree to be about imagination and fantasy, and selected a group of iconic ornaments that would express that, including our pewter flying pig ornament with pink glitter accents. He soars through the branches along with our dreams angel and silver glitter stars.

Our Black Swan tree is of course, reminiscent of the film, Black Swan, capturing the dark beauty of the film and ballet. Our black tree was a perfect base to capture this idea. We accented it with a white feather topper, the two sides of the swan.

For color, clusters of red feathers are throughout along with bunches of small red bulbs. The floral lights resemble stage lights and the silver bulbs are like small, round mirrors.

The iconic ornaments we used are in pewter and gold finishes. To coordinate with the theme, we have pewter ballerinas, pewter ballet shoes, silver glitter fleur de lis ornaments and goldtone swans.

Next week: Our Pet Tree!

Sunny Disposition

This spring yellow is anything but mellow, popping in bright, sunshine hues on dresses, jackets, purses, shoes, jewelry and even kitchen appliances.

It's a perfect introduction to spring, amplifying the cheerful mood we all have when the snow melts and the flowers bloom. It's impossible to be depressed when dressed in yellow, and as shown, the hue compliments everyone and everything, from blond bombshells to toasters.

One of our favorites is a yellow glitter peep toe shoe ornament we made. Add some spring fever to your Christmas tree this season and compliment brightly colored ornaments with flowers and ribbons.

Fashion photos courtesy of Life & Style Magazine. Kitchen photo from Crate & Barrel.

Red, White, Oh my.

Not much has been appearing on the style horizon as of late. Thank goodness for the Oscars, where everyone showcases their newest and best in gowns, shoes and dazzling accessories. What trended this year? Red and white.

Jewel tones are still making waves in bright and bold solids paired with the ever-classic white. In addition to their coloring, all the gowns featured above have a long, sleek fit and simple elegance, with one sleeve or no sleeves. They might vary in design and draping, but one thing is for sure, classic colors are here to stay.

These gowns remind me of a simple candy cane, like our pewter candy cane ornament featured right. There are certain colors and traditions, like the candy cane, that will be around forever. A tree without a candy cane doesn't seem complete. Just as a wardrobe without classic solids is an empty closet. A traditional Christmas and a traditional gown are two things that will always be en vogue, even as styles change.

Photo courtesy of Star's Oscar fashion spread.