1) Best stand: Hansgrohe, featuring the Axor Urquiola collection by the Spanish designer of the moment Patricia Urquiola

2) Best brassware: PuraVida from Hansgrohe, a stunning white basin, bath and shower collection, and Grohe’s lime-green doughnut shaped Rainshower Icon showerhead

3) Best sanitaryware offers: VitrA’s assymetrical Freedom by Ross Lovegrove and Villeroy & Boch’s new romantic La Belle Collection featuring floral curves

4) Best baths: The playful Jolie from Italian manufacturer Regia which was a Design Plus Award winner at the show, and the Diamond bathtub inset with 104 STRASS Swarovski Crystals from Aquamass

5) Headturners: The Jungle Collection of snake skin-look ceramics from Ceramica Cielo and bling STRASS Swarovski Crystal encrusted gold taps from Fir Italia’s Glamour Style collection

6) Best party: VitrA Music and cocktails provided a rare sighting of British designer Ross Lovegrove and former UK md Levant Giray who has been conquering the US and is now tasked to return to Istanbul and put brassware firmly on the VitrA agenda

7)  Best product range: Brassware. A glittering array with a difference, from the HANSALATRAVA from Hansa which creates a blade of water effect, to V & B’s LaFleur collection available in a Champagne gold or chrome finish, and Samuel Heath’s Xenon Black collection

8) Definite trends: Combined basin with waterflow outlet. Take Il Bagno Bandini’s stunning Arya basin arrangement made from a single sheet of white Corian, or The Eumar Company’s Abisko washbasin which took centre stage on a rotating display

9) Baths doubling up as loungers: Duravit’s Sun Deck which is now available in bigger dimensions and with a pool system which maintains water temperature at a constant 38°C, and Kaldewei’s Relax Lounger

10) Furniture: Dansani’s Zaro furniture range which is available in a velvety black rubber finish and Burgbad’s gently curved Elena range in high-gloss white, black or cappuccino

The 50th anniversary of this huge bathroom exhibition treated the Frankfurt show’s 202,000 visitors – including your ekbbusiness team  – to an explosion of bathroom delights.
A full report of who launched what, the best stands, products to lust after, together with a raft of fab images will follow later.

This is just an appetiser…

Colour-wise:
think a gold revival, think white where you just wouldn’t expect white – like stunning taps; think lime green and purple showerheads; and think black. Now try and imagine animal print ceramics. Not for everyone certainly, but a window display show stopper nevertheless.

Shapes:
asymmetrical sanitaryware – wow; flower-influenced basins;  oval baths, an award-winning red jelly-look bath; LED-lit baths.

Brassware trends:
all of the above from colour to shape, with a mass of slimline faucets, and a definite move to waterfall performances in both basins and baths. Bath overflows are either shrouded in nearly invisible self-coloured tones or non-existent with either hidden water sensors or byseparate electronic controls.

Showers:
slim and sleek or massive overhead drenchers, while enclosures divided between frameless with new door arrangements, and something of a crusade towards yesteryear’s love of patterned shower door designs – albeit some were decidedly pop arty.