Katherine Finder, chief merchandising officer of Anthropologie Home at URBN, joined Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC) Co-Founder Melissa Campanelli for an interview last month to discuss her career journey, her leadership style, what home design trends she’s eyeing, and more during the Women in Retail Leadership Circle and Total Retail Virtual Exchange.

Finder, who has led merchandising at Anthropologie Home since October 2023, said there are certain foundational truths that exist in all of Anthropologie’s strategies, including letting design and creativity lead strategy, never being afraid of color, thinking about styling and curation of the product as much as the product itself, and always driving newness, to name a few.

“We’re very serious about a business that appears incredibly fun,” Finder said.

Finder also shared the top design trends that are catching her eye as she decides what’s next for Anthropologie Home:

1. The Rise of the Dinner Party

Finder said in the past people looked at their homes as a sanctuary — a place to refuel, refresh; a place to escape to. Post-COVID-19, that’s changed.

“Now, people want to create a home that they can fling open the doors and invite people in,” Finder said, calling it the “rise of the dinner party.” And it’s not just older folks throwing these dinner parties — Gen Zers are getting into it, too. The January issue of Southern Living magazine declared “2025 is the year that dinner parties come back in an entirely refreshed, fun, anything-but-boring way.”

The modern dinner party is more intimate and allows for more quality time with friends in a way that you can’t quite get when out at a restaurant. And it requires a different level of preparation and decoration, Finder suggests.

She said this trend is a response to people being stuck in their homes during the pandemic who are now looking for new ways to use their familiar spaces as social distancing becomes a thing of the past.

2. Imperfect Items With a Story to Tell

Finder said another home trend she’s loving is the search for homemade, handmade, imperfect objects to incorporate into your space. People are on the lookout for pieces with a history or made from some vintage technique. She said these kinds of pieces make folks feel more authentic and connected to something bigger.

There’s a term interior designers link to this new trend: wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy that finds beauty in imperfection and impermanence.

3. Intentional Clutter

Chances are you’ve seen the viral TikTok trend of #IntentionalClutter or #ClutterCore — it’s the idea that you’re curating objects and collections you love, that showcase who you are and what you’re all about, without feeling the need to match everything or fit a certain aesthetic. House Beautiful predicted it would be the biggest decor trend of 2025.

“It’s the opposite of the overdecorated perfect home where nobody’s been there, nobody lives there,” Finder said. “This is a way of decorating that shows who you are and how you live, where you’ve been, what you do, what you love, and who you’ve done all these things with.”

Achieving the look of intentional clutter is done over time, Finder said, with a curation of pieces that show your personality without feeling like your house is full of your grandmother’s tchotchkes. Finder said it’s a trend Anthropologie Home is leaning into.

“It’s a place where you feel like you can sit on the couch and put your feet up,” Finder said. “It’s not precious; it’s super warm and welcoming.”

You can watch the full interview with Finder here.