Decorex Reveals the Theme We All Needed: The Soft Life

As the world craves stillness, Africa’s premier design event answers with a theme built around sensory comfort, and the beauty of ease.
Decorex Africa has long reflected how we live, and where we are heading next. For 2026, the continent’s leading design platform introduces The Soft Life, a theme that marks the next phase in its cultural development: a deliberate recalibration of design’s current focus, and shift toward balance, and more intentional living.

In a world defined by acceleration and excess, Soft Life signals a conscious shift away from relentless productivity and toward spaces that restore rather than demand. It is not an escape, but a response — one grounded in the belief that design carries a quiet power to shape how we feel, how we connect, and how places are understood.

The theme was announced in February at an intimate Women in Design gathering in Cape Town, where industry leaders came together at the Anatomy Design showroom — long-time Decorex collaborators — to open an early dialogue with the continent’s designers, makers and retailers around the role of comfort, care and the female experience in shaping spaces, and the evolving direction of design in Africa.

Over recent years, Decorex has explored the forces reshaping our environments, from sustainability and technology to the systems and cultural shifts influencing how we live and work. Soft Life builds on this thinking, turning attention to the human experience within those spaces that prioritise wellbeing, and clarity, as the new markers of contemporary design.

“This is not a departure from our previous themes, but a natural progression,” says Garreth van Niekerk, Co-Executive Creative Director of Decorex. “We’ve spent years examining the future and the frameworks shaping it. Soft Life reflects what people are now asking for within that future, part of which are homes and experiences that nourish, restore and support how we want to live.”

A central tenet of Soft Life is soft power: the idea that design can quietly shape perception, strengthen reputation and create long-term opportunities through cultural exchange, collaboration and sustained relationships.

It is in this spirit that Decorex Africa announces, for the first time, a new international partnership with Maison&Objet Paris, with South Africa named as the Spotlight Country for the Rising Talent programme at the fair’s September 2026 edition.

“Establishing this partnership has taken an enormous collective effort and represents a major milestone – not only for Decorex Africa, but for the local design industry as a whole,” says Sian Cullingworth, Portfolio Director of Decorex Africa. “Our focus has always been on building real pathways for African design. Opportunities like this move visibility into momentum, and momentum into sustainable growth. This marks the first of several international partnerships we will be announcing, all designed to expand meaningful opportunities for local talent.”

At its core, Soft Life celebrates design that is both beautiful and deeply considered. Across installations, products and experiences at Decorex 2026, comfort is positioned not as indulgence, but as intention – with every element curated to invite a slower, more immersive way of engaging with space.

For 2026, this sensibility is reflected through a palette grounded in clay, deep plum, warm coral, sage and other neutrals, but will be juxtaposed beside the neons that occur so vividly in nature, and that are often overlooked: electric limes, neon magentas, ultraviolets.

This new visual language also mirrors a broader shift toward design that speaks softly, yet with conviction.

“Comfort is no longer a luxury,” van Niekerk adds. “It’s cultural. It’s becoming the language of how we choose to live and design plays a critical role in shaping that experience.”

Decorex 2026 promises more than an exhibition. It offers a more complete, immersive experience shaped by the intention to slow down, look closer and rediscover the quiet power of living well.

Welcome to the Soft Life.

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Author: Karabo Mafolo from Sinnamon PR on behalf of Decorex.