For this issue of SPARK magazine, our longtime style guru Karl Marshall designed an expansive in-house set. Here, he shares his inspiration—and we tap design industry liaison Ginger Hartford for her trend insights.
If you’ve ever been in the audience alongside the runway at a Dallas Market Center’s Apparel & Accessories Market, you’ve seen Karl Marshall’s work. For the past 25 years, he has been the visionary producer and stylist behind all of DMC’s much lauded runway shows. Known for his deft blend of color, pattern, and apparel pieces, his aesthetic has also extended to stints in areas including event production and hard goods displays. He was also one of the creatives behind SPARK when the team began creating original imagery. Karl recently stepped into a more prominent role as the senior director of creative design, overseeing the entire company’s visual merchandising, including the fresh style vision for SPARK magazine’s photo features.
For this issue of SPARK, Karl built a miniature home inside Dallas Market Center as a backdrop to showcase everything from gifts to apparel and home décor. He drew inspiration from a pair of floral paintings found at Revelation (IHDC 2F448). “Florals for spring isn’t groundbreaking, but having florals for a fall twist is so fun,” he says. “I wanted to have color that wasn’t so bright, and I liked the moodiness.” He also wanted to integrate unique and one-of-a-kind pieces to layer in a “heritage” feel. “The idea of mixing pieces inspired a story of an estate that was left to a younger person who wanted to bring in fresh touches and a modern vibe. Words like ‘heritage’ and ‘celebratory’ came to mind,” he says.
The result, says Ginger Hartford, Dallas Market Center’s senior director of design business development, merges “fashion, form, and function to compose a home narrative that celebrates heritage with modern verve,” she says. “It’s a visual essay of how we live today, shaped by memory, curated with intention, and elevated through design.” Here, Karl and Ginger explain the trends, sources, and ideas behind his design.
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