2007: The Design Year in Review
Briefly, I just wanted to go over just a few of the design styles and designers who had a great influence the past year. We love to track trends and trendsetters, and this group of both kept coming up over and over again whenever I was trying to post. Yes, we are leaving out a ridiculous number of hits and hitmakers, but hey, I want to get this out before 2008, so this is it. As I started to try and name trends and think of style names, I realized that it seems like we are almost running out of catchy combinations to characterize design. As a matter of fact…I’m back in love with The New York Times again, just a week after they annoyed me. Julie Scelfo’s article last week called “Marketing Decor for a Conflicted Era” really nails everything that’s going on in design, by simply discussing the problem of trying to find nomenclature for styles that are designed to defy tradition. Scelfo asks the question of “how to stand out when rebellion has become the rule?”
How indeed. This year was ruled by eclecticism. When everyone is eclectic, is it still eclectic? Or does that make the thing that used to be banal and traditional the new eclectic, since it stands out in a quirky way from all of the formerly quirky eclectic stuff. It’s kind of like going to the bike messenger bar 97 Estoria, where every girl there has the same shade of fakey maroonish-auburn hair I have personally dubbed “alternachick red.” Is it alternative if everyone you know has the same color? Have we overused different adjectives put together with “classicism” or “traditional” or “modern” so much that it’s been done to death?
I thought the article almost asserted that we’ve run out of catchy style names. There were several clever names that fit well and ruled this past year in design. Some were old, some were new, some mashed them together. Let’s get started with a few:
“Vintage Modern” has many fans. Thomas O’Brien, Nate Berkus, Thom Filicia and Victoria Hagen have mastered this mix, while fabric designers Cath Kidston and Amy Butler brought on the vintage part through their patterns and expertly mixed them with furniture from all eras arranged in a perfectly balanced modern way.
The vintage modern look seems to have emerged from an adverse reaction to stark minimalism, adding personality and individual style to a look that was starting to get very generic. From the other side, Vintage Modern seems to be an update of the Shabby Chic style that took over during the 1990s, and hit the tipping point somewhere between Rachel Ashwell decorating Jennifer Lopez’s restaurant and creating her Simply Shabby Chic Target line. In fact, Vintage Modern seems to be where these two styles meet in the middle. Some of my favorite sources for this look are Victoria’s fabulous blog, sfgirlbybay, Amy Butler’s books, Found Style and Midwest Modern, and Cath Kidston’s book In Print.
I’m not sure anyone out there can outmix the master, Jonathan Adler, whose Happy Chic and Hippie Chic style gets tons of inspiration from classic styles and turns them on their heads. Adler can start with a base of Preppy Palm Beach Style, 70’s Colonial, Hollywood Regency, or perhaps a David Hicks-inspired print and, throw in Union Jacks, needlepoint, a hideously scary clown painting, some Rat Pack Palm Springs style, fringe and tassels and/or a giraffe statue, shake it all up and make it work.
Speaking of Hollywood Regency, it was back in a major way this past year. Lucite, lacquer, chintz, chinoserie, bamboo chandeliers, luxe upholstery, etc. were everywhere. Leading the Hollywood Regency comeback was the ultraglam Kelly Wearstler. For some great information on the look I love to check out blogs like Style Court and The Peak of Chic, and books on Billy Baldwin, Dorothy Draper, William Haines and Wearstler, especially Modern Glamour: The Art of Unexpected Style. For more sources, check out the post Hollywood Regency 101.
I’m not sure how to designate this look, as I am no good at naming. It’s incorporating exotic international inspiration into your style. Chinese garden stools, Suzanis, Turkish fabrics, Caribbean colors, monkeypod tree stools, African textiles and all sorts of exotic looks found their way into our living rooms this year. Some great sources for inspiration are the blog MyMarrakesh, Vicente Wolf’s book Crossing Boundaries, and India Hicks’ book Island Life.
Finally, it seems the world is finally going green. This is fantastic news, but let’s hope that people don’t start to suffer from too much green ennui. We also have to be careful of greenwashing, where products that are not environmentally friendly try to call themselves green. Being green can be tricky, as there are a lot of contradictions and pitfalls. Thus, we recommend keeping up with Treehugger, Apartment Therapy: Green (now re-nest.com), and The Lazy Environmentalist.
As for the question of the meaning of eclectic lately, well, who really cares? Whether you prefer Scandinavian modern, WASPy Ralph Lauren goods, Gothic skulls embroidered on everything, or the loudest, busiest wallpaper you can find, the important thing is that while you draw inspiration from all the design media out there, you make it your own and buy what you like. No one cares if you come up with a name for this style. Mix it up and rotate things around every few months (I switch up my art, throw pillows and duvet cover whenever I get bored with the look of a room). Also, be sure to purge the stuff that doesn’t ever make it back into rotation.
As for 2008, who knows? I think designers will continue to use materials in unexpected ways, continue to mix natural materials with manufactured ones. Hopefully organic environmentally-friendly materials will only grow in popularity, and people will continue to live a bit smaller, whether due to ethical principles or mortgage principals. If there’s a backlash from all the regency glamour, we’ll be going back to grungier lifestyles, or at least back to a less is more philosophy.
Do you have any design predictions? We’d love to hear them! Share in the comments!
Pssst…the top photo of the OMD showhouse incorporates so many of my favorite things in such a perfectly curated and edited fashion. Every piece and material is so carefully thought out. I think it might just be my favorite project from 2007.
Photographs from top to bottom:
OMD Showhouse via Turquoise
Trina Turk’s pad via Elle Decor
Jenny’s Mastery of Vintage Modern via frecklewonder.com
Shalom Harlow going green via Domino
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:22 am
Thanks so much for including My Marrakesh in your roundup! I am so flattered:-)