Feature: What's In a Name?
March 1, 2004
In spring 2005, Barbara Barry will launch a new signature furniture collection
through Henredon with an ambitious goal—to sell much more than upscale sofas and
chairs to tony shoppers. Unlike the pieces produced under her recently expired
contractual arrangement with Baker Knapp & Tubbs, which helped establish the
Los Angeles interior designer’s star power as a furniture maker, Barry’s new
line is more like a lifestyle, encompassing everything from furniture
and light fixtures to tabletop and bed linens. And she hopes to ultimately market
everything through her own shops.
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Antoine Proulx’s dining suite in bleached ash. (Click image to enlarge)Not only will Henredon be a nameless
partner, but the arrangement will also allow her to break out of the Baker mold,
says Barry. “With Baker I basically did one finish, which was called Java. But
with my custom line for a high-end clientele, I work with many finishes. So now
there will be accessories and hardware and lighting and soft goods done in a
variety of different finishes.” If having her own shops comes to pass, she adds,
“we may even reinvent the paradigm of how furniture is sold in
America.”
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Michael S. Smith’s Braque armchair, at Thomas Lavin. (Click image to enlarge)Interior designers taking on the role of furniture taste-makers is
a phenomenon that has exploded over the past decade. Although Bernhardt and
Hickory Business Furniture (HBF) started nurturing the work of interior
designers as early as 1982, most believe Michigan-based Baker Knapp & Tubbs
paved the way when former HBF president Chris Plasman joined Baker and signed
Barry to a multiyear contract in 1996. Over the ensuing years, the company inked
deals with a growing list of top-name talent, including multidisciplinary
designer Michael Vanderbyl, Thomas Pheasant and Bill Sofield.
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Orlando Diaz-Azcuy’s Toscana chair and ottoman for McGuire. (Click image to enlarge)“I was a
prototypical designer for Baker and set the mark for others to follow,” says
Barry, whose sinuous new Script collection of rattan pieces for McGuire, a
division of Kohler that also owns Baker, is among her best. “But they made a
move to have their brand predominate and to introduce other collections, and I
think I’m more than a collections designer, so it was a fundamental decision,”
she explains.
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