I am not a designer or a decorator, but in reading the design/decor blogs I have learned so much. I see amazing products even before they hit the shops. I have the opportunity to get a first glimpse of fabulous fabrics and trendsetting models. I feel like reading the blogs and getting the press releases that I do, has helped move me towards the leading edge of some of the trends in interior design and decorating.
That being said, I was talking to some friends who said that something to the effect that Imperial Trellis by Kelly Wearstler is just done. Over. So 2008. Or 2009.
Are the looks we see, like the heavy Belgian look that Resto Hardware is showing in every catalogue, finished by the time they’re in the catalogue? 
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I would love to have your thoughts on this.
Maybe it's just me, but I think this:
ReplyDelete1. Good design is timeless.
2. Good design should be available to everyone. So whether it's made by Tiffany or Target shouldn't matter. Price should not have a bearing on whether or not the aesthetics of the item are good or not. Just because it's pricey doesn't make it good design, and just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's bad design.
3. Your own home should be filled with things that you love and that make you happy. If it took you two years to discover the item that was "so hot" 2 years ago, it shouldn't matter. If you love it, let it make you happy every day.
As long as you love it it's not over. I love Imperial Trellis (which is a classic trellis design just redone by Kelly), high and low design, and weathered things. So for me, I guess it's not over.
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Gosh Meg I think of styles of furniture and fabric designs that have endured for decades.
ReplyDeleteLove what you live with it makes your home what it is.
I have a New Giveaway I think you will love!
Karena
Art by Karena
I love to live with things I like and sometimes I change and some are taken on a lifelong journey through my homes. Trends do not really move me, I pick here and grace there, some colors, finishes or patterns have always fascinated me and some things do not touch me, trendy or not!
ReplyDelete'So over' is a marketing vehicle to move business along, but I say way bother? Who makes those statements anyway?
Be true to yourself and it will show in a wonderful and personal home. That counts and how you feel in you four walls!
Interesting question Meg.
ReplyDeleteI think there are different phases in ones life,Imperial Trellis is just an example of bringing back an enduring design and giving it a new twist.
The industry is the ever changing vehicle that constantly churns out the next great thing.
Seperating yourself from what you like or do not like defines your style and taste.
Timeless design will prevail in the end,trends and newly designed fads are merely the sprinkles on the cup cake so to speak.
"The only thing that seperates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize" as stated by Claree Belcher.
There is a constant churning of finding a new or enduring style or phase of design.What may have been "hot" last year may not be seen by someone even now. They might not find it for another few years, and isn't that what makes design interesting and fun?
Good pro quo!
L.
I agree with Molly. However, one does develop fatigue at seeing certain things over and over and over. Makes sense to take a break, and then reconsider whether what I loved about it when I first saw it still is wonderful. Then it is timeless, I think.
ReplyDeleteI don't really concern myself with what's IN now. I do read the decorating magazines occasionally, mostly to find new ideas for using what I already have. If I like a colour or pattern or style I use it because it makes me happy to see it in my home. Your home should be a reflection of yourself, not what some interior fashion guru thinks everyone should live like.
ReplyDeleteGood morning Meg, really great question.
ReplyDeleteI am as most people excited to see what is new, but I pick through it when it comes to my own home. I have always loved the "slip covered" look, and think it never goes out of style. My home is a combination of old, new, expensive, and not so expensive. Comfortable not trendy.
Hi Meg, This is a truly inspirational question and one that I struggle with. Good design is always good. It may not be trendy, but it never goes out of style. That said, the Restoration Hardware love affair of all things Belgium and Target editions of classic designs does move the design aesthetics to new frontiers. At the same time, it elevates the common taste levels, educates and makes good design accessible to the not so endowed buyer. Personally, I think that any venue that educates and inspires the general buying public benefits all of the design industry. Of course, there is always the question of quality--which can never be equaled in mass produced objects. Thanks for making my brain work so early in the morning.
ReplyDeleteI used the green Imperial Trellis in a hallway a few years ago so I am not using it now but will in a few years when it has run its' course. It will always be a classic so I think it can be used any time.
ReplyDeleteDear Miss Meggie: OF COURSE trellis isn't "over"; otherwise, I'd have to change the wallpaper in my living room....Which I think you are very familiar with????
ReplyDeleteRemember when we put it up that we both agreed it's timeless? I still think of that, 3 years after it's been on the walls. Great choice, thanks to your advice.
-- Miss M.A.
Oh. I thought you meant blogging.
ReplyDeleteTrends start here when designers grab it from us and want more. Trends die here when a customer, clutching a pottery barn catalog, thinks they can find "the real thing" for less in our shop.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Molly, AND Reggie and a lot of what the other commenters offered. And I personally think that most creative people bore quite easily and are ever in search of new ideas to keep those juices flowing...so they may tire of something they have seen a lot just because they are hungry for change, and will continue to be.
ReplyDeleteIf you love something that is all that matters.
I agree with most above. Timeless is where its at. The Belgian thing in the new RH catologue caught me by surprise. I thought it was on its way out too. I think the Belgian thing is mostly trendy, but white slipcovers are classic.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent comment via e-mail from UKJAG:
ReplyDeleteYou asked a very good question. I often think something is so "over" when it hits the mass market outlets, however, I am often wrong. Look at all the ubiquitous animal prints, or the Stark Natura sisal rugs, or white kitchen cabinets, or granite everywhere counters. There is no end in sight. Maybe some designers are more interested in the next hot thing instead of appreciating the good things available to them or their clients want what they've seen in a shelter magazine. They may have to source a new trend that is unavailable in the mass market to up-sell it to a client. Not everyone wants to pay that middle man price or wait for 3 to 6 months for custom.
I don't pay any attention to trends, or what marketers are hyping as trends-before-the-fact, hoping to unload their warehouses of whatever they've just made a zillion of, which, at the moment, seems to be pillows with big numbers on them. No, thanks. The only thing at my house wih a number on it is the door.
ReplyDeleteBut just as I wouldn't buy something just because it's popular, I also wouldn't avoid buying something I happen to like, simply because lots of other people are buying it, too, for fear that somebody will think I'm following a trend--which is my living room has the same Cindy Crawford Chinoiserie stool that half of blogland seems to have. After a red-&-yellow makeover, it fits right in. And that won't change when, one of these days, the trendy crowd suddenly declares Chinoiserie dead-in-the-water. After all, most everything at my place has been in & out of style several times over, and if it had been in current fashion when I bought it, I probably couldn't have afforded it anyway, so why worry about one more outmoded piece? I buy what I buy & let everybody else catch up to me. It's cheaper that way.
As for trends in general, I think there's a difference, not only in look but in philosophy, between KW recyling a classic trellis design for yet one more go-round & RH trying to create a trend out of whole cloth. A few pretty KW pillows & a can of fresh coral paint can do a lot for a typical two-bedroom condo, but massively scaled pieces that look great photoshopped against a weathered, stone-walled set may seem crowded & dingy in that same condo.
If the Miss Havisham Collection were only one of a number of new different styles that RH was offering, it would be one thing, but to throw everything they have behind a single look--and such a dessicated, cheerless one at that--seems like a really bad idea: "Any color you want, as long as it's gray" may have worked for Henry Ford, but that was a hundred years ago. This seems like a classic case of wrong place, wrong time. I expect the style to wither & die before it ever really takes off, although, with its frostbitten look, it may be hard to tell.
The one I think is most over is Restoration Hardware. The catalog was positively ugly to me. I thought KWID trellis was overexposed two years ago, but I'm sure that someday I'll love it again. It is a strong piece of design after all. My biggest problem with Target is political, but I don't love this particular cutlery set either. However, to echo Molly, if anyone really loved a piece(not a cheaper by the dozen room), and filled a house that way one by one, it would likely work as an expression of them. This doesn't keep furniture companies in business, however.
ReplyDeleteI'm chiming in with the crowd. I will say, I think blog writers and readers have the opportunity to get saturated a little faster than most. Even just enthusiastic magazine readers are not exposed to the same degree. I brought home a sample of Flowering Quince not to long ago (which I could never afford) and just thought, "I've seen it too much," though really it is mostly the same few images again and again. I think we are a bad litmus test, I guess.
ReplyDeleteBut that bamboo flatware is the stuff dreams are made of while the Target version will end up in a garage sale in no time.
I often wonder the same thing...do I get tired of things more easily than the average consumer because as a blogger I see it everywhere online? The eternal question...I will never forget seeing imperial trellis wallpaper in Chloe Sevigny's NY apartment a couple of years ago and thinking it was FAB!
ReplyDeleteNever having been a huge fan of Belgian design or beige in particular, I am totally over it. Trends inspire me, stimulate my imagination, steer me toward something I might never have experienced or thought of before. I never use something in a design because it's popular. Trends come and go, and I'd never want a client to feel they are out of style in a year. Good style is timeless. Good design is geared toward the person/family it is being created for. Maybe none of my designs will ever be published in a magazine,but I can assure you that they are all comfortable and created for real lives and people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mrs. Blandings...I think as bloggers we are way more saturated than the general population. Like, I am so over seeing Chiang Mai.....but many of my friends would have no clue what I am talking about. I cannot watch a TV show w/o mentally sourcing the fabrics in a room....I don't think most people have this obsession.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I am househunting as well and recently looked at a house with O&L Summer Palace Wallpaper all over a two story foyer. We all looked at it and were like "this has to go." But, the blogger in me knew exactly what it was and how much it had cost the homeowner. Makes me wonder if everyone had known the cost and popularity if they would have suddenly liked it? Who knows.
For my own home, I tend to buy what I love and what I "hope" will endure. And, I spend far less on anything I use that might be considered a passing fad....
I've used it- KW Trellis a number of times-clients have requested it on occasion even. Several will never see it except in their own homes-they have no concept of trends. My clients never decorate on trend-it is too costly, and they can afford change if the Want it. Most Trends are just recycled from centuries past. I for one Hate trends-they should all be Out.It is just another way to Sell, Sell, Sell. toile,animal skins, trellis, suzani- all work and are timeless to those who love them and know good design. Terrific and thought provoking post Meg. pgt
ReplyDeleteSo fabulous Photograph!the second photo is obsession-worthy!so Fab and elegant,Gosh can't imagine how does it look like in person!So luxe!you have a wonderful Blog as well.thanks for sharing.inspiring.
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