Are stainless appliances becoming passe?

No. Stainless is still pretty popular. Maybe there are some 'cutting edge' areas where that's less the case, but in most of the country, seems like its still going strong. I blame HGTV. They've really fueled the 'you gotta have stainless appliances and granite countertops' mentality.

Stainless is still de rigueur but you might consider the color of the cabinetry. Dark cabinets + black appliances can look gloomy.

I went with titanium because of little hands pawing at the fridge, leaving smudges and fingerprints.

I like stainless, but I'm into the industrial kitchen aesthetic. My only complaint about the place I'm in now is that it has an all white kitchen and since it's fairly new construction everything is in good condition so I can't justify changing out the appliances. I've got some black and stainless stuff (cannisters, wine fridge, etc.) that I brought from my last place, which had a stainless kitchen. It looks pretty good here and adds some contrast.

Stainless is better.

Go with stainless. Although the latest craze is everyone having a nice kitchen with stainless appliances, they have really been around forever. I grew up with them in my parents house, and that was in the 80's and 90's. HGTV is full of shit for just about everything they do. We did this entire kitchen top to bottom for under $1,000....yeah..right. I have stainless appliances and polished concrete counters..love it.

I think eventually just like anything else it will lose it's appeal, especially now that the masses can afford good quality stainless steal appliances. I don't think it will fade as fast as the "black laquer" Miami Vice look did but some new trend will come along. But I believe you're safe for now.

Colored appliances are huge now. Red and turqoise clothes washers and driers are all the rage.

SS will always be fine for me. It's functional, it's clean. I despise the look of white appliances. Yes, they will go out as a trend, as will that gastly granite that every housewife wants. Carerra marble will never go out of style, and neither will stainless appliances. They've been around in pro kitchens since forever so I don't think it will ever look dated. It might come to seem more industrial looking, but I'd rather have that than the disgusting 50s throwback kitchens that are comming.

GCSSA is so mass luxury. I hate that look it reminds me of 1990s and 90s sucked.

I took doors of my appliances to my local body shop and had them all painted vintage red.

those colored appliances will look dreadfully dated in 5 or so years. the stainless will not.

Stainless has been and always will be the baseline.
Untill commercial kitchens start using colored appliances and use materials other than stainless steel, it will be perfectly acceptable to put stainless in a kitchen.
Same thing goes with stone (although certain colors may come and go), Take Carerra marble or other classic stones, they have been used in kitchens for hundreds of years. They are classics because they hold up well and can take a beating.
Simple high performance will always be classic, and will add value to your home.

Here's the funny thing about kitchens. I've seen a lot of fantastic kitchens in homes of people who cook, and they're always classic. What I find funny are the suburbanites who take out mortages to make their kitchens look nice, when all they prepare is some out of the box mac n' cheese and maybe open a can of tuna. This whole kitchen craze has always been funny to me.

I've gotten to see a lot of older manors in England, France and Italy, and quite a lot of important homes in NYC and Greenwhich, CT. Funny enough, a lot of them, before this kitchen craze, had very very basic kitchens. In fact, in many of the really serious homes where the people don't cook themselves, you're likely to see mostly butcher block and a large industrial fridge and an old range, along with some very basic terracotta or other utilitarian tile.

I'll never be worried about a white cabinet, carrera marble, stainless appliance kitchen. That will never go out of style, ever. It works, it's beautiful, and it will always sell.

+1. My aunt and uncle live in Italy, in a villa built in the 17th century IIRC. The previous owner put in one of those industrial fridges that you describe and marble countertops. It looks better than 95% of McMansion kitchens around today.

We just finished a complete gut job of our house (which is not a McMansion), and everything we did to it had to pass the classic test. Very basic, high quality cabinets, chrome finishes, and the hardest stone we could find. No fancy hoods, no Viking, Wolf, or Dacor (went with a caldera cooktop), no in door ice, no water in the doors (we did a commercial fridge and freezer), and lighting that was easy to clean and lit the space well.
Funny thing is, in our heads what looks good is usually classic, classic becomes this way because it is seen often, it is seen often because it works well. I have to say, it was hard working with designers as they tend to push you into a trend, we asked very strongly to make the space classic in function and form.
I love to cook and wanted to make the kitchen incorporate into the rest of the house better and take out all the mistakes that were made in the past.