The big-name designers were playing it safe as they unveiled their new lines at this fall’s International Home Furnishings Market design show.
“Safe” could be read as “same” when talking about sofas that looked like those shown here last spring–or in previous years, for that matter–and the classic period pieces that run rampant annually at the market.
But that doesn’t mean the 2,000 showrooms at this season’s market, held for designers, retail buyers and the press, didn’t have some finds.
The noteworthy debuts came from designers who were making real debuts. Showing their styles here for the first time–whether in showrooms whose reputations preceded them (like the Baker Furniture Co.) or in small makeshift setups–they came from New Jersey to Colorado to San Francisco.
Among them were Deborah Cota, Peter Anthony and Mike Cota with their Evergreen, Colo.-based Cocopa Inc.; Barbara Barry at Baker; Mary Witte and Joe Jeup at the newly formed Bexley Heath Ltd.; and Bradley Narduzzi at the 1 /2-year-old Ole ink.
No matter how diverse their backgrounds, these Young Turks are on common ground in venturing away from expected themes. And they are right on target with their willingness to adapt to changing lifestyles, industry experts say.
Furniture needs to be scaled back in size from the large oversize sofas and beds that have been shown recently, says Jerry Epperson, furniture analyst with Mann, Armistead & Epperson in Richmond, Va.
People are looking for furnishings that speak more to the way they live, he says, pointing to designers like Witte and Jeup for successfully meeting consumers’ needs.
The 29-year-old Narduzzi comes to the furniture world armed with a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Columbia University in New York and studies in architecture in Venice, Milan and New York. His love of Japanese architecture and design and Italy’s Memphis furniture of the ’80s is evident in his clean-lined and humor-filled pieces.
His furniture, like his company’s name (a light-hearted play on words with a nod to his partner Albert Frias’ Mexican heritage), is whimsical. The furniture, however, is also functional. It’s meant for the fashion-conscious person who needs a hip place to store his stuff when he has outgrown wicker baskets and plastic tubs.
One of the coolest looks from the 1 1/2-year-old Ole ink is the chest of 10 differently shaped and sized drawers. The chest looks slightly off kilter because of its trapezoidal shape. Made of caobo, a wood indigenous to Mexico, the chest stands on cast-aluminum legs and has cast-aluminum drawer pulls. When it hits stores in the spring (the sale time for all the pieces shown at this fall market), it will sell for about $1,500.
“For designers like myself whose work may be seen as strange or out there by some, we know that it isn’t, and that the people who are attracted to our work are people who want and expect change in design as well as in their lives,” says Narduzzi.
Proving again that furniture doesn’t have to take expected forms, he designed a coffee table that stands just about 13 inches high, compared to the usual 20-inch coffee table height.
“It’s supposed to be this low,” says Narduzzi, who manufactures in Mexico but is based in Little Ferry, N.J. “It’s meant for the person who enjoys a casual lifestyle, where sitting on the floor to eat a meal is not unusual. It’s also like an ottoman, providing a place where people can sit.”
Made of mahogany veneer plywood with a golden honey finish, the table has a drawer on each side; legs and pulls are in cast and polished aluminum. It will sell for about $1,000.
Of beds and baths
Like Narduzzi, designers Mary Witte, 44, and Joseph Jeup, 29, at Bexley Heath showed off designs fit for the ’90s lifestyle. For the Grand Rapids, Mich., company, this means a focus on what it calls the mini-apartment within the home: the bedroom and bathroom.
These are the rooms that provide the privacy and comfort so longed for at the end of a stress-filled day. The graceful and simplistic lines of Bexley Heath furnishings make each design an inviting place for rest and respite. And the dimensions make them suitable for smaller living spaces.
Favorites were the writing-dressing table and bench, $4,500, designed by Witte in her Mary Cassatt Collection; and the maple perfume chest, $3,240, with front cabriole legs, inlaid wood banding on top and bottom rails, and brass drawer pulls.
Founded by Jim DeVries, who is also partner and chairman of the well-established John Widdicomb Co., Bexley Heath is a new company formed three months ago just in time for this market.
There are four lines of furniture, BEBA, The Mary Cassatt Collection, Liberte and The Jeup Collection.
Graceful elegance
In the hands of Barbara Barry, design in the Baker Furniture showroom took a graceful and cultured turn.
With books, Italian newspapers and small photographs of Hollywood stars, the fictional spaces decorated with Barry’s designs seemed made for a person with a love of foreign and classic films–which, coincidentally, sounds a lot like the 44-year-old designer herself.
Barry, a San Francisco-born interior designer who comes from a family of painters and artists, is a fan of the films by Italian director Vittorio de Sica and classics such as those starring Audrey Hepburn and Paul Newman.
And like her favorite film stars, Barry’s pieces convey elegance, sophistication and vitality.
Unlike the 18th Century pieces that Baker is largely known for, Barry’s simply lined designs and gently curved legs are free of any crustiness or stiffness.
Her designs, which begin as watercolors and sketches, must “breathe life into a room,” she says. And they do.
Favorites here were simple in style and long on sophistication, like the Divided Chaise, two upholstered chairs paired with a long, tight ottoman on graceful, flared wooden legs. The two chairs will cost $2,202, the ottoman, $1,295. Other favorites: Barry’s low-height, green coffee table (like Narduzzi’s, this one stands at a demure 13 inches), which will sell for $5,286; and the mahogany nesting tables (“little high-heeled tables” as Barry refers to them) which will sell for about $1,577.
If you’re looking for grace, Barry’s are the pieces to turn to.
Multifunctional country
Now if you’re looking for country elegance, Deborah Cota, Peter Anthony and Mike Cota of the Evergreen, Colo.-based Cocopa Inc. think you should turn to their collection of vintage pine and iron pieces.
But country elegance is really only part of their story.
The other part is versatility. The sculptural shapes and colorful finishes from the 1 1/2-year-old company can fit in traditional or contemporary homes and can serve multiple functions.
The wine cabinet, which is made of 100- to 250-year-old pine recycled from barns, stands on a hand-forged iron base in a gun-metal blue patina. It will sell for about $2,000, and can be an attractive place to store wine or a creative place to keep bathroom linens.
Always the exception …
Exceptions to this season’s newcomer rule were Directional Inc.’s seasoned designer, Vladimir Kagan, and Ligia Jamieson and Tamara Tennant, whose designs were shown at Ligia for Nason Associates.
The 69-year-old Kagan, who began designing 40 years ago, boasts a client list that includes Marilyn Monroe, Xavier Cugat and Gary Cooper. His furniture was also in the private collections of pop-art icon Andy Warhol and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Among his newest pieces for the masses are a mellow butter and cream sofa with plump cushions and stylish curves. It will sell for about $3,000.
“For me, it’s quite exciting to have my designs appreciated by young people who weren’t even born when I started designing,” says Kagan. “It’s also exciting for me to take what I’ve done before and breathe new life into it for today.”
Breathing new life into a 20-year-old company was the challenge presented to Jamieson. Jamieson teamed with her friend and interior designer Tennant to create a collection that married leather with Turkish kilims for Ligia for Nason Associates.
“I was known for bringing the kilims into the homes in a different way in the ’80s,” says the 47-year-old Ligia. “The people who did business with me before took me out to dinner after the last furniture market (in April) and basically said they wanted to see something new or they were going elsewhere. I came up with the designs right there on the paper tablecloth at the restaurant.”
The result was Ligia’s collection of sofas, ottomans and benches.
The Harem Bench, which will sell for $3,300, combines brown saddle leather, chenille and kilims. The kilims are not only beautiful to look at but have symbolic meanings in their patterns, like the bird’s head that represents an expectation of good news, and the meandering vine, which represents the continuation of life.
BEST OF SHOW AT HOME FURNISHINGS MARKET
Everybody has an angle, and designers who gave standard looks different twists at this fall’s International Home Furnishings Market made our Best of Show list.
There’s always a bed that makes a statement. Ransom Culler designs such a bed for Thayer Coggin Inc. The bed, called Mystres (pronounced mistress), is a woven camel leather bed with a 7-foot-tall headboard adorned with platinum nailheads. It will sell for $7,835.
When enormous beds weren’t seducing us, designers who worked their magic with glass were.
At Curvet USA, the Italian-based company’s designers showed off their frosted glass table that reminds one of the vinyl dinette sets from the 1950s and early ’60s–only Curvet’s is classier. The table will sell for $649; chairs, $299 each.
Speaking of class, Barbara Barry delivers it for Baker Furniture Co. with the graceful, tapered legs on her “high-heeled” mahogany nesting tables.
Her tables, which will sell for about $1,577, easily could share space with the beautifully hand-painted apothecary chest by Duma for Heritage, a New York-based company owned by Reginald Powe. The chest will sell for about $1,025.
The four-drawer chest, painted by Design South in Toccoa, Ga., is inspired by African history and symbols. Red and green ram horns, Ghanaian symbols reminding one to rule not with his horns but with his heart, are painted on this chest.
