Weighing in on WOI's call for louder design critics

Observer 116

Housekeeping:

• I am in PARIS until the end of July, lifting and working… and living.

I read this story the other day in World of Interiors (not that new), a call for louder and more #outapocket criticism of interiors. It’s a great, wise and short piece. Here’s a relevant passage:

There’s a reason why Imelda Marcos’s high-rise condo is filled with faux-Louis XV furniture and purloined Picassos, if we cared to find out. It is why Saint Bernard of Clairvaux denounced the ‘misshapen shapeliness and shapely misshapenness,’ not of under-set jellies, but worship-distracting ornament on early 12th-century architecture. Whether abetting the status of dictators or aiding the salvation of souls, interiors speak of more than the prettiness of their upholsteries; in them are arranged, not just the identities of their inhabitants, but the material and spiritual state of the world. …

Interior design matters as much as any painting, pop performance or foam-engulfed morsel. We owe it to ourselves to pay them equal critical attention. To echo Carlyle’s coinage, it is time to redecorate the decorator – and commend the critic to the house.

He makes a good point. If we look hard at interiors, they say much about… our state of the world. Obviously. But must be said. And, more than this and plainer, about individuals as economic actors. There are pieces here and there written about how things look the same and how much of what is considered in good taste is, narrowly or improperly cast. It is true. What these pieces focus less on—past the rooms, into production—is most of what is built now new is either broken or boring. It’s of the point of view of this newsletter to not incinerate regular people for what they have in their house—any competent interior needs about 20 or 30 (probably 40) well-appointed objects and objets to be considered complete, much less correct. And there are few beautiful ones available unless you really spend time looking for them all. As for the interiors of dictators’ wives or visible captains of industry, most are, for me, beneath contempt. (I’d need to be paid double to spend time looking at these houses. It’s not worth the soul murder.)

There are some incendiary design critics out there, of course, many of them on Substack. Readers who may not work in the design world might notice that criticism now in this field outside of this medium is, kinda, in straits. The design publications and mainstream publications aren’t lining anyone up against the wall. (Should they? Not for me to say. It’s only furniture.) To be sure, press, when when writing about goods, is mostly deferential. But aside from these missives, it’s way divorced from reality now. Interiors look either unmemorable or bad, new furniture is mostly not worth buying and few new design movements are exciting enough to stick.

This reality’s understood but unspoken by people who don’t work in design and who need it, or who like it, want it in their lives. Things are bad but not all the way bad, and not bad for everyone. It’s achievable. They want a better sofa, a better credenza, better mirror, better chair. Is it impossible? No. There are great ones out there—every year (let’s say a dozen) new ones being designed and produced, many, sure, at the gallery level, but they’re still good. But broadly something is failing consumers. It’s the vexing problem of this newsletter: since it’s so patently obvious that design… is bountiful and alive and accessible, and has a rich, exciting and enlightening archive—an endless one—that is very much not divorced from consumers. That is available, that can be put in the house, and placed up for critique by WOI.

Really, we have the wrong mind-set. Good design is not an investment (though it can be) or something that’s hard to attain (though certain pieces can be), but a constant state of plenty that is evident and obvious to those who look. As my below the paywall curations show, just about every design movement and style is available and accessible to someone (usually through auctions, but not always), and always to someone who knows what they like and who knows how to look.

Things are good—people dig this newsletter, and through it, people dig more design. And I don’t want to lay any problems at the feet of the press. Design magazines are worth reading, and, anyways, the penurious state of people’s room is not because of these magazines but from manufacturing: labor and material costs have risen so much that there is nothing competent and beautiful and new that is priced to meet consumers at scale. (Companies are also, as discussed in my pod with Daniella Ohad, not investing in young designers.

This is the issue. In the old days—USA 1959, Italy 1974—you could get something that looks good (several styles) made on an assembly line that would last and which you could use. Even give it to your kids. The reasons why this doesn’t happen anymore are the reasons that have decimated quality across just about every field. It is wild, though, that this functional past state of market is so beyond comprehension these days that we can’t imagine it except as a paradise. It wasn’t a paradise. It just worked. It’s why, I think, for all the work the great suite of design newsletters does—subscribe to the following:

• FOR SCALE

• Schmatta

• LIVING SMALL

• A Tiny Apt.

• One Thing

• many others

There is only so much this movement can do. Give me $25,000,000 and a couple of factories and I’ll have all of Greenpoint drowning in nice, normal chairs. Really there is nothing to buy! Not luxury items: but actual integral things for the home. Criticism is great, sure. We need more of it. But critiques of the products of a stagnant market is not enough.

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Ssense Home Retail Corner

Complete 180, the following items allow immediate design satisfaction without the use of the auction mechanism:

• Hem’s Yrjo Kukkapuro Experiment chair—the best thing here to me and new to the shop: a flawless, new licensed production of legit one of the best chairs of all time. (Same but black legs)

• Dusen Dusen orange/purple sheet set | King | Queen—nice Italian/Swiss Guard aesthetic here from DD, regal, and a little dark…

• Gohar World egg dish—minimal, strong… so pared back. I’d be fucked with this thing I’d need 20 (speaking nutritionally here not design-wise)

• Conran Shop footed bowl—elegant but crooked in its dimensions, the perverse lines here make it feel like the ultimate fruit-service dish… somehow not gaudy, though.

• Edie Parker tabletop lighter and ashtray—another winner, this is late Sottsass meets Janet Rossi (who is effectively budget Sottsass).. here is to an infinite selection of tabletop lighters…

• A simple and strong gold bowl

• Versace plates—this one has a butterfly on it, this (pictured) doesn’t—I do wonder why the best (and loudest) kitchen aesthetic has not translated over into regular people’s lives. Can’t be beat.

This week

has brouht 100 or so design items on auction—knowledge about all i.e. context, prices, comps and so on is below the paywall. I’m first to admit this info is out there in disparate places but it’s also all here in one place, and it sure isn’t in one place anywhere else.

Obs 116