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THE PICKS

Artful rugs

After years of neutral, nondescript rugs, 2007 was the year of distinctive, atelier-designed carpets sporting bespoke patterns and one-of-a-kind colour combos. New York's Madeline Weinrib, whose Megan Yellow pattern is pictured at right, offered some of the chicest, as did Canadians Kate Thornley-Hall, Bev Hisey and sisters Katherine and Ali Yaphe.

Tartan

This year, everyone was mad for plaid, which was a hit on fashion runways before making the leap to upholstery, pillows, lampshades and more. Decor-wise, the trend owes much to the Helen Mirren factor. She got her Oscar for The Queen, but we got to revel in the movie's handsome check-bedecked sets.

Bronze-toned appliances

In a stainless-steel world, Jenn-Air dared to be different, launching its Oiled Bronze kitchen suite (including the double wall oven at right) this past summer. The appliances are warm in tone, complement most woods and provide a welcome alternative to their ubiquitous silver counterparts. Could this be the dawn of a new bronze age?

John Hutton's swan song

When acclaimed American furniture designer John Hutton died last year, he left behind a body of work that The New York Times called "timeless." In June, North Carolina-based HBF unveiled his final collection, which ranges from graceful campaign-style side tables to retro-futuristic sofas and chairs. The pieces provide a stylish end to a celebrated career.

taTu steel-wire furniture

Designed by Stephen Burks for Artecnica's Design With Conscience project, this line of powder-coated steel-wire furniture hand-woven by South African artisans has it all: a feel-good provenance, airy good looks, a durable finish and tremendous versatility. (The coffee table at right breaks down into a tray, a bowl and a basket.) A truly original collection.

Avenue Road

One of the coolest furniture stores to launch in this country in years, Toronto-based AR (right) made an auspicious debut this fall, counting Canada's Yabu Pushelberg, France's Christophe Delcourt and other big-name designers among the contributors to its eponymous line. A second AR showroom is slated for Paris.

Canada-inspired paints

Vancouver-based General Paint had us at Moose, just one of the many fantastic names (others include Ogopogo, Canuck Red and Grouse) in its Canadiana Historic paint collection. The colours, though, also happen to be gorgeous. A delightful release from an admirable brand.

Brizo's crystal-topped faucet

Were you looking for some bling in the bathroom this year? Brizo all but redefined lavatory luxury with its sleek RSVP faucet topped with a sparkling Swarovski crystal finial. It was a small touch, but a sumptuous one.

Michael Iannone

The young Philadelphia designer burst onto the international stage this year with his well-received eco-conscious furniture designs. A particular favourite is his Flower Inlay series, which includes the sideboard below. He also made cork seem positively pretty.

Colourful Eames chairs

It's hard to improve on perfection, but Herman Miller did just that when it released the iconic moulded-plywood Eames chair in seven fun new colours, including yellow (right). Far from debasing the modernist classic, the hues recast it in a fresh new light. The colours were introduced to celebrate the 100th anniversary of designer Charles Eames's birth.

Enviro fashions

No longer are ethical duds sold in hippie shacks smelling of donkey pee. (Yes, that is what many tanners cure their leather in.) In fact, eco has gone upscale and the fabric industry is catching up with the skill of designers and the will of consumers.

Knee socks

This could have been a stupid trend, but then we tried it and we were hooked. The look was most notably sold (and sold out) at Prada, where you could get socks with holes in the toe and ankle for $95.

Equestrian chic

Horsey style (right) peaked this fall, as all things equestrian brought the stable to the city. From jumping helmets and high, tight boots to little cropped riding jackets and slim breeches, there was nothing from the show cupboard we didn't steal.

Deco fabulous

It was a year of flapper girls (bottom left) and dapper boys. Waists dropped and diamonds popped. Paul Poiret, the subject of a major museum retrospective, was rediscovered. Knockoffs appeared at every price point. In short, the 1920s roared again.

Look like an Egyptian

Perhaps we had all had way too much of smoky eyes and all that guck around them, but lined Bardot-style peepers (left) were another retro flourish - this one from the height of the 1960s - that looked fresh in 2007. The cleaner, sexier look was a welcome one.

What about bobs?

After years of long, messy bed-heads, hairdressers couldn't take it any more and took a shine to bobs (left). Scarily, Victoria Beckham started the trend, which was soon taken up by new BFF Katie Holmes. Then the runways and the models started chopping and, soon enough, hair was cute again.

Fits like a glove

Accessories have become the biggest part of our wardrobes. And nothing finishes off an outfit like a good pair of gloves (below left). Not since Madonna was a virgin have gloves, especially the dramatic elbow-length ones we loved this fall, been so in vogue.

Put a lid on it

Heads, like hands, stayed covered this year, meaning that hats - bowlers, fedoras, top hats, even big floppy sunhats - could be spotted at every turn. And since there was a strong androgynous streak running through the year's looks, men and women wore many of the same lids.

Fuzzy wuzzy

Real, renovated or completely fake, fur (left) was everywhere - as full coats, as trim on T-shirts, even inside men's sweatshirts. Nothing was too decadent (or too ridiculous) for designers to contemplate. Good thing snow came early.

Seattle redux

Amid all the formality was one strong informal streak. Grunge, that benighted era of flannel shirts and angst, has started to haunt us again. We've already seen the long hair and the beards on boys. What the heck, flannel shirts are cozy to borrow.

THE PANS

Pink electronics

What was with all the bubble-gum-coloured TVs, radios, laptops, cellphones and digital cameras this year? It's a well-known fact that most Hollywood movies are created for adolescent boys, but are electronics now being built for tween girls? Another example of the infantilization of contemporary culture.

Sto ckholm syndrome

There were some nice pieces in Ikea's new "higher-end" Stockholm collection, which launched in June. But do you really want to pay $700 for a cabinet and still have to put it together when you get home? By charging boutique prices for self-assembly furniture, the chain seemed unfocused and unsure of itself. A rare misstep by the Swedish juggernaut.

Damask overload

It was nice on pillows, upholstery and rugs. It was great on wallpaper, drapery and bedspreads. It was even acceptable on adhesive wall stencils. But when everything from coffee mugs to paper napkins sport the pattern, it's time to give damask a break. Enough already

Ghost world

As with damask, the surfeit of transparent plastic furnishings spawned by Philippe Starck's sublime Ghost chair has lost its allure. A see-through Lucite stag's head? How about designs with a little more meat on their bones?

Royalton redo

On the subject of Starck, why did the Morgans Hotel Group feel the need to gut his iconic blue lobby in New York's Royalton Hotel? Sure, the place had lost much of its mid-nineties lustre, but replacing the designer's tour de force creation with a clubby, generically hip alternative did no one any favours.

CN Tower lighting

It's great that Toronto's CN Tower is illuminated again after so many years of darkness, but whoever runs the controls needs to show some restraint. You don't need to use every (pulsating) colour in the crayon box every night. Check out Manhattan's Empire State Building for examples of dramatic yet tasteful light shows.

Will Alsop table tools

In the category of Most Pretentious Flatware of 2007, British architect Will Alsop's "table tools" for Umbra (above) win hands-down. Speaking of hands, the seemingly random utensils were "essentially shaped" by Alsop's own digits, which look as though they may be arthritic. How this accommodates anyone else's hand is a mystery.

Brand China

The People's Republic never had the merchandising cachet of France, England or Italy, but the parade of toxic toys, children's jewellery, paint and other products coming out of the country did nothing to enhance its reputation. It will have to work hard to ensure that Made in China means something positive again.

Vancouver Olympics mascots

Sumi, Quatchi and Miga, the sorta cuddly, vaguely animé-style 2010 Olympic mascots, were unveiled last month to a lacklustre and confused reception. For one thing, there are too many of them. (They also have a sidekick named Mukmuk.) And what the heck are they anyway? Disappointing and forgettable.

In-your-face furniture

If Alsop's table tools are ridiculous, at least they're small in scale, unlike a lot of the aggressively affected furnishings to appear this year, from Alessi's side table with jagged stainless-steel spikes for legs to Front Design's full-size horse lamp for Moooi (right). As Front says of the lamp, this is "furniture to fall in love with at first sight or hate forever." We vote for the latter.

Turban tizzy

The gem-toned turbans from Prada's spring collection were way out there: Norma Desmond meets Great-Aunt Lil. And yet - after looking at them for six months in pretty magazines - they started to grow on us. That's the evil power of Miuccia. With enough time, determination and ad dollars, she can make us believe that even turbans are pretty.

The 1980s

Hold onto your bat wings, baby. This trend, which by our reckoning has been cycling for about seven years, has taken hold of the mainstream. Look out for even more double dippings of patent, electric blue, wide belts and off-the-shoulder looks.

Stoplight shades

This was a year of wild colour. The main palettes of white in summer and grey in winter left room for only the boldest alternatives. And it was a joy to go to formal events and find a few women bucking the little black dress trend. But if you bought a bright yellow gown, you may have to lay it down for a couple of years before you go Big Bird again.

Vanity projects

Okay, Kate, Sienna, Mary-Kate, Beyoncé et al. We're on to you. Just because we buy your movie tickets and CDs like sheep doesn't mean that we will continue to buy dresses with your name on them.

Killer platforms

This year's Dior clunkers (above) would make terrific anchors. Just think: couture weights to send your wife to the bottom of New York harbour when she spends too much on clothes. There is nothing pretty, nothing revolutionary, nothing "insider cool" about them. We will wake up on Jan. 1, look in our shoe closets and groan.

The big squeeze

Take big belt. Squish centre of grown woman. It's never gonna be pretty, folks. Women have grown too fond of wearing low-slung waistbands. We feel sexier when nothing is hugging us like a python.

Gauchos

The gaucho is an evil concept perpetuated on women by bad people. Think about it. They cut off a woman's leg just below the knee. They are not shorts, which don't look good on grown women either - we proved that for good this year. And they are not pants. They are just stupid.

Pop-up shops

The world is now divided between megastores and secret, time-limited pop-up stores. Just like when restaurants were all about secret entrances without signs and reservation numbers traded like commodities, the chicest stores (from Komakino in Vancouver to Joe Fresh Kids in a truck in Toronto) move around without warning. It was a thrill, but we are tired of it.

Louis Vuitton shopping bag

Parkdale chic? East Hastings finery? This has been a nutty year for guru Marc Jacobs - rehab seems to have sparked a contentious wit. But these shopping bags, made to mimic the Chinatown special woven plastic bag, win the award for over-the-top fun with poor people.

Patent idiocy

Was there anything designers didn't make in patent? Thank God we all wear sunglasses 24/7 these days. Your bag, your belt, your shoes - they're blinding us A key component of 1980s style, patent was definitely the fabrication of the year and the one we most want to go away