Home All-Stars: Hallmarks Of Style

William Kissel

01/01/2006

Many people believe architecture and furniture design were at their most compelling during the decades between 1910 and 1940, when artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Jean-Michel Frank and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were at their creative zeniths. Yet every decade has its share of turbulence and triumph that inspires waves of design. The past 30 years–from the post—Vietnam War 1970s through the decadent 1980s to the understated 1990s–proved no exception, giving rise, respectively, to flamboyant finishes, luxurious shapes and, finally, environmentally friendly materials that are sure to influence the world of interiors for generations. On the following pages, we revisit a handful of these brilliant ideas.

Photograph by Dedon GmbH. (Click image to enlarge)

Richard Frinier Canopy Daybed
Richard Frinier may have been daydreaming that he was Aladdin when he conceived his Hularo woven resin collection for German furniture maker Dedon GmbH. After all, his Daydream daybed has a wavy, dreamlike qual­ity reminiscent of mythical flying carpets. “It’s not modern. It’s not traditional. It’s not transitional. I call it experiential furniture,” says Frinier, noting that the idea was to create an indoor/outdoor piece. The Moorish cane-woven bed “embodies the mind-body-spirit connection to rest, drift and dream away a thousand and one nights,” he says. Which is about the same number of copies currently on the market.

Richard Frinier for Dedon GmbH, through Janus et Cie, 800.245.2687, www.janusetcie.com


David Linley Desks and Humidors
Never has the coexistence of architecture and fine furniture making been quite so complementary, and extraordinary, as when David Linley, the son of England’s Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, put his imagination to work on a collection of handmade marquetry desks and humidors that replicate historic buildings, including Apsley House, Chiswick House and a Turkish estate. “We wanted to do a Carlton House—style desk, because the art of letter writing is exalted when someone sits at a desk like that,” says Linley, who launched the Extraordinary Furniture line of bespoke pieces–complete with hidden drawers and secret compartments–that have subsequently become the master craftsman’s signature. (Click image to enlarge)

David Linley, +44.207.730.7300, www.davidlinley.com

Paris Ceramics Stone Flooring
Distressed by what he saw as precious raw materials going to waste, globe-trotting entrepreneur Charlie Smallbone decided to take action. He has spent the past 25 years in search of historic buildings being excavated or earmarked for destruction, and negotiating with their owners for the rights to their stone foundations. The result was the creation of Paris Ceramics (a company, ironically, founded in England), which reclaims the ancient stone and tiles from 17th-century French châteaux and structures in other European countries and the Middle East for reuse in modern living spaces. Smallbone’s searches for antique Dalle de Bourgogne, Grey Barr and Blonde Barr, among other period stone floorings, have taken him throughout Europe as well as to the Middle East, India, China and even the Holy Land, where Jerusalem flagstones were once quarried in the southern Hebron mountains. (Click image to enlarge)

Paris Ceramics, 888.845.3487, www.parisceramics.com

Orlando Diaz-Azcuy Rattan Seating
By the time orlando diaz-azcuy was named Designer of the Year by Interiors magazine in 1982, the Cuban-born architect had amassed a significant body of work that included private residences, interior and exterior furnishings and even landscapes, incorporating simple elegance with unforgettable visual impact. More recently, Diaz-Azcuy has been applying his considerable talents to a collection of indoor and outdoor furnishings for McGuire of San Francisco, using natural elements such as woven rattan, solid teak and other hardwoods to achieve similar results. Among his timeless classics for McGuire is his woven rattan Umbria collection, including his distinctive barrel-back, scooped armchair, which was created to recall the elegance of Italian lounge furniture of the 1920s. (Click image to enlarge)

McGuire, 415.626.1414, www.kohlerinteriors.com

Kipp Stewart Chaise Longue
How to whittle down classic forms to their bare essences–that was one of the primary lessons that Carmel, Calif., architect and artist Kipp Stewart learned during his two-year apprenticeship with the late Charles Eames. That knowledge, and his own interest in 18th- and 19th-century British campaign furniture, had a profound impact on Stewart’s classic outdoor teak furniture designs for Summit, with which he formed a design partnership in 1979. “In the past, people would just throw away their iron furniture when it rusted. Or it was made with the least amount of wood, or cheap wood that wasn’t designed to last,” explains Summit marketing director Gay Reimann. “Kipp wanted to design something of permanence using the best materials and the best craftsmen.” (Click image to enlarge)

Summit Furniture, 831.375.7811, www.summitfurniture.com

Edelman Leather Floors
Arthur and teddy edelman considered themselves pioneers in the 1950s when they covered the floors of their New York showrooms in leather tiles and caught the interest of such style-setters as Neiman Marcus founder Stanley Marcus and fashion legend Rudi Gernreich. Years later, while perusing vintage photos at a Paris flea market, they discovered an image of a Jean-Michel Frank—designed card room circa 1920 that featured leather furniture, walls and flooring. “I suppose cavemen might have used hides on the floors,” says Teddy Edelman. Nevertheless, the Edelmans can take credit for breathing new life into the concept by perfecting the process. In addition to using only the back center of the hides (where the thickness is uniform), they developed a special vegetable dye that completely penetrates the skin, so that the flooring repels stains while simultaneously retaining its color over time. (Cick image to enlarge)

Edelman Leather, 800.886.8339, www.edelmanleather.comChristopher Farr Rugs
Rugs have long been thought of as artwork for the floor. London-based Christopher Farr, however, has also made them highly collectible works of art by recasting his own boldly colored drawings–as well as those of many fashion and interior designers, furniture makers and even scholars–into stylish rugs. Farr’s landmark exhibition of contemporary rug patterns at the Royal College of Art in London in 1991 reignited interest in modern rug weaving. Nevertheless, Farr, along with partner Matthew Bourne, always manages to stay one step ahead by essentially looking back to great Bauhaus and Art Deco designs from early-20th-century weavers such as Gunta Stolzl and Marian Pepler, among others. “Artists and architects had always done rugs on a small scale for high-end clients. So in a way I didn’t innovate at all; I merely resurrected,” says Farr. “I suppose the only thing I can really lay claim to is the fact that I was the first to pick up the thread that was dropped in the 1930s and 1940s.” (Click image to enlarge)

Christopher Farr USA, 310.967.0064, www.cfarr.co.uk

Rose Tarlow—Melrose House “Imagined” Antiques
When rose tarlow was building her antique furniture business in the 1970s, the designer recalls finding in every truckload of furniture she ordered one or two extraordinary pieces that were “just a little eccentric, a little large, a little off-scale, that also gave flair to a room.” Wondering what it would be like to have an entire shop filled with such designs, Tarlow took it upon herself to start re-creating them to her own exacting specifications. “None of my pieces are from antiques,” Tarlow says of her “imagined” pieces. “But they look like they could be, because I see a chair with a fabulous leg and the rest of it is hideous, so I make what I call a do-over. And then I increase it or make it smaller, or I may use it as a table leg. Design is a whole dictionary of elements I use in my own way.” (Click image to enlarge)

Rose Tarlow—Melrose House, 323.651.2202, www.rosetarlow.com

Photograph courtesy B&B Italia. (Click image to enlarge)

Antonio Citterio Floating-Back Sofas and Chairs
At a time when furniture seemed to be bulking up to accommodate bigger rooms in larger houses, Antonio Citterio put his designs for B&B Italia on a crash diet that instantly inspired others to start watching their weight.  The catalyst for this furniture shape-up was the Italian designer’s spindly legged modular sofas and chairs with movable, floating arms and backs that enable one to adjust the depth and position to suit one’s individual needs. The concept of free-floating backrests and adjustable seat depths is part of the Freetime system that Citterio began designing in the late 1990s, and that continues to influence his and others’ modular furniture designs to this day.

Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia, 800.872.1697, www.bebitalia.it

Philippe Starck Louis Ghost Chair
Furniture makers have been trying to reinvent the Louis XVI—style armchair ever since the ineffectual French monarch was beheaded in 1793. Leave it to irreverent designer Philippe Starck to succeed where others have failed. He saw right through all the varied lines and formal geometry of the 18th-century original armchair with the creation of his transparent Louis Ghost chair, which was designed in 2002 for Italian firm Kartell. Starck’s chair is a historical and technical triumph, made of injection-molded polycarbonate, that some have suggested is perhaps the most daring example of single-mold plastic injection since the concept was invented in the 1930s. (Click image to enlarge)

Philippe Starck, +33.1.48.07.54.54, www.philippe-starck.com

Photograph by Ron Arad for the Swarovski Crystal Palace Collection. (Click image to enlarge)

Swarovski Crystal Chandeliers
The design editors at the New York Times said it best when they wrote that Swarovski’s Crystal Palace collection of chandeliers “touched a nerve in those who feel that much of today’s design is missing emotional weight.” Indeed, the fanciful collection, which debuted at the Milan Furniture Fair in April 2002 and continues to expand, is a remarkable collaboration between the leading Austrian cut-crystal maker and 14 cutting-edge designers; Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Andrée Putman, Karim Rashid and others were each given carte blanche to reenvision the crystal chandelier. The idea was to make the chandelier “relevant for today without losing its fantasy and emotional power,” explains Nadja Swarovski, who masterminded the concept that is reshaping the way the design world looks at traditional lighting.

Swarovski, 866.272.5423, www.swarovskisparkles.com

Photograph by Karl Petzke. (Click image to enlarge)

Conrad Natural Window Coverings
With its new landscapes collection of window shades made from abaca, arrowroot, flax and other renewable fibers, Conrad continues to lead the green design movement that began 50 years ago, when Edie Conrad began importing hand-woven Biri Weave wall coverings of wheat and barley from her native Norway. Despite the throngs now joining the environmentally friendly design movement, Conrad, under the leadership of Jo Holland since 1985, remains one of the few to employ its own ­cottage industry of artisan weavers in Japan, Korea and Indonesia, the source of the naturally grown and reforested materials found on every shade.

Conrad, 866.426.6723, www.conradshades.com

Photograph by Tom Vack. (Click image to enlarge)

Ingo Maurer Lighting
Ingo maurer certainly did not invent the lightbulb. But given the kudos and commissions from museums and collectors that followed the 1966 release of his now iconic table lamp–simply known as Bulb–the German designer may just as well have. Bulb, which consists of one lightbulb inside another, began a three-decade career of provocative lighting ideas, including Maurer’s Zettel’z wire chandelier covered in Japanese paper love letters, and his Canned Light wall sconce made from a Campbell’s tomato soup can. Maurer revisited the idea behind Bulb in 1999 with his LED collection, which featured a desk lamp with the glowing word LIGHT beaming from the head of a fixture the designer called (what else?) Light.

Ingo Maurer, 212.965.8817, www.ingo-maurer.comKarl Springer Exotic-Skin Tables and Chairs
When karl springer first started designing furniture in the 1960s, he made no attempts to disguise his affinity for the work of Jean-Michel Frank. Yet the only thing the two seemed to have in common was an instinct for luxury, which in Springer’s case manifested itself in understated and sometimes crude forms that became sophisticated when covered in such opulent finishes as ring lizard, cobra and polished bone. Springer had a passion for large-scale design, once proclaiming that “oversized furniture makes a room more important.” However, it is his smaller, exotic skin-covered chairs and low tables that continue to be copied. Today, Matthews & Parker owner Mark Eckman, who worked with the late designer for 30 years, is meticulously reproducing 16 of Springer’s original designs. (Click image to enlarge)

Karl Springer, through Matthews & Parker, 914.723.8887, ww.matthewsandparker.com

Photograph by Christopher Dow. (Click image to enlarge)

J. Robert Scott Shagreen Tables
Sally sirkin lewis has been collecting boxes and frames of shagreen on her own for years. “It’s one of those exotics people always associate with me,” says the designer, who believes “shagreen has the ability to transform objects into the extraordinary.” When the California-based founder of J. Robert Scott finally added the luxurious oceanic material to her company’s collection, others followed. Although most associate shagreen with French Deco pieces made of stingray in the 1920s and 1930s, originally shagreen was made of sharkskin, and was probably popularized in 12th-century Turkey. Sirkin Lewis’ shagreen pieces, including a telephone table, occasional table and side table, were derived from 8-by-8-inch squares of stingray and bone ray, which she recolored in powdery shades of champagne and cardamom, among others.

J. Robert Scott, 877.207.5130, www.jrobertscott.com

Mimi London Log and Tree-Trunk Furniture
One day in the 1970s, while she was driving up the California coast, Mimi London was following a flatbed truck carrying a load of cedar stumps, and she thought the natural forms would make interesting furniture. Tracking the woodpile to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where a conservationist group of Native Americans was thinning a forest, she secured “stumpage rights” and began producing her distinctive line of large-scale log and tree-trunk tables and chairs. London says concern for the environment gave rise to her organic designs at the time. But she credits Michael Taylor, her mentor and longtime collaborator, with popularizing the log look that ended up in so many of Taylor’s interior design installations. (Click image to enlarge)

Mimi London, 310.855.2567, www.mimilondon.com

Farrow & Ball Paints
There is a reason why Farrow & Ball is sometimes thought of as the Rolls-Royce of paints. The British brand brought glamour back to the paint business by staying true to its roots. “People think the names of our paints, like Dead Salmon, Mouse’s Back and Elephant’s Breath, are a kind of joke, but in fact, they are very real historic paint names,” says co-owner Tom Helme, a former adviser on decoration to Britain’s National Trust, which oversees the restoration of historic country homes. Farrow & Ball still mixes all its own paints, including samples, so the color remains consistent.  “Paint had basically been turned into a commodity by big manufacturers working on cheaper ways to manufacture it,” says Helme. Farrow & Ball specializes in paints that are no longer available elsewhere, including distempered paints and flat oils. (Click image to enlarge)

Farrow & Ball, 888.511.1121, www.farrow-ball.com

Frank Gehry Furniture
The manipulation of humble materials in unconventional, often curvilinear ways is a theme in architect Frank Gehry’s buildings as well as in his experimental furniture. To wit, Gehry once wrote about his first two collections, called Easy Edges and Experimental Edges, that he was trying to create affordable design, or “the Volks­wagen of furniture,” when he laminated varying widths of corrugated cardboard–a material used to create architectural models–and kneaded it into serpentine tables and chairs that were both eye-catching and comfortable. Later, in the early 1990s, while working with Knoll, Gehry reinvented the concept of the chair with his iconic collection of deconstructed bushel basket—inspired furniture crafted from wafer-thin strips of laminated maple curled into ­fanciful-yet-firm shapes. (Click image to enlarge)

Frank Gehry for Knoll, 877.615.6655, www.knoll.com

Christian Liaigre Bacchus Dining Table
Christian liaigre’s fusion of exotic woods with modern shapes drew worldwide interest in the French designer’s furniture, particularly among collectors such as fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs. Another of Liaigre’s fans is Poliform, the Italian kitchen and components maker which in 2003 enlisted the award-winning furniture maker to create a new collection of storage and dining pieces, called Bacchus. Liaigre’s wenge wood dining table epitomized the collection’s minimalism and masculinity while retaining its elegance and practicality. “I wanted each piece to function as an independent object and a seamless part of the environment,” says Liaigre. (Click image to enlarge)

Christian Liaigre for Poliform, 212.421.1220, www.poliform.it

Barbara Barry Oval X-Back Dining Chairs
When barbara barry started working with Baker Furniture in 1996, she felt the design world was defined by traditional Eurocentric pieces and by contemporary furnishings that could sometimes appear cold. “I believe that my furniture, like the Oval X-Back chair, created a bridge between the two worlds of contemporary and traditional–allowing for a dialogue between the two,” says Barry of her first signature design, which was originally created as an off-scale watercolor drawing. “I insisted it remain true to the drawing because it felt right to me,” she explains, noting how the design “resonates” because of its clarity of form. “The impact that chair had on the indus­try seemed to be an awakening to the fact that we as American designers have a lot to say, and that we have our own authentic style,” she adds. (Click image to enlarge)

Barbara Barry, 310.276.9977, www.barbarabarry.com
Baker Furniture, 800.592.2537, www.kohlerinteriors.com