Funny how a furniture style can creep up on us, edging its way into acceptance.
Take Mediterranean, for instance. This late '60s phenomenon became so badly overdone and boring that it was buried in the early '70s. At recent installments of the International Home Furnishings Market here, however, there were signs that the exuberant, usually ornate style was reappearing. Visitors would spot a piece or two in one showroom, a small grouping in another.A year ago, Thomasville took a major plunge with the ambitious Renaissance collection. And this spring, Mediterranean's fancier, romantic Old World designs, borrowed from southern European countries, arrived with gusto.
Smart manufacturers are capturing the spotlight with eclectic designs that work together but do not match. They finally have realized that fashion-minded consumers prefer to buy individual pieces and put their own looks together.
The new dress-up attitude also finds expression in the welcome re-emergence of modern furniture at its best, from clean-lined, easy-to-live-with contemporary styling to the slick and high-style.
Modern, like Mediterranean, offers exciting alternatives to a generation of consumers who do not remember these styles from the '60s and '70s.
The strength of mission styling was the biggest surprise at this giant furniture trade show, which draws manufacturers, dealers and designers from around the world. Considered an interesting look with limited appeal when it hit the market in the late '80s, this rectilinear style just kept growing.
From faithful reintroductions of Gustav Stickley's early 20th-century designs to adaptations of the early 1900s Arts and Crafts Movement furniture, these honest, no-nonsense pieces fit into the lifestyles of youthful consumers who exercise regularly and recycle routinely. Expect mission and other forerunners of modern, such as Shaker, to continue strong throughout the '90s.
Here's a look at the latest offerings in Mediterranean, modern and mission styles.
Mediterranean:
Lane grabbed attention and praise here with its new Hearst Castle Collection. This 82-piece group reproduces and adapts the furniture bought all over the world by publisher William Randolph Hearst for his fabled California estate at San Simeon.
The robust collection runs the gamut. An elaborate curio cabinet with metal scrolls and pediment is adapted from the castle's wrought-iron grilles. A simple wicker trunk is made into a table. A favorite piece adapts a 16th-century Italian traveling chest as an entertainment center or bar, sitting on a leggy table base.
Lane and the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, which is owned by the state of California, entered a licensing agreement to produce the collection two years ago, according to chief curator Hoyt Fields.
Royalties will go to the preservation of art at the Hearst estate.
Another major introduction inspired by southern European "romance countries" (a market euphemism for "Mediterranean," a label manufacturers hesitate to revive) comes from Hickory Chair. The collection is named for the Republic of San Marino, near Italy's Adriatic coast, but it takes inspiration from France, Spain and Portugal as well.
Hickory Chair's Bill Merrill called San Marino a "potpourri of designs" featuring various woods, wrought iron, fossil and mosaic stone, glass tops, hand-carvings, leather and painted finishes. The signature piece is the Foliage table, with a fancy ironwork base. It comes as console, cocktail and lamp tables.
Mediterranean is driven by style more than geography. Some new designs even come from England but fit this category's Old World look. Groups in this far-reaching realm include:
- Milling Road's Colonial Legends, troqical designs derived from European influences.
- Thomasville's River Roads, classic 19th-century French and English designs filtered through New Orleans.
- Drexel Heritage's Villager, Old World styling based on classical 18th- and 19th-century English and French designs.
Mission:
When Barbra Streisand paid an astounding $363,000 at auction for a 1903 Gustav Stickley sideboard in 1988, the furniture world embraced the plain-Jane furniture long dismissed as ugly except by the wisest collectors. The next year, Stickley reintroduced original Arts and Crafts designs.
Stickley's newest group, 21st Century Mission, builds on the original designs with a more refined look.
Most manufacturers in the mission category have produced medium-price lines, bringing the style to consumers who found Stickley beyond their budget. But a new high-end entry (that's market talk for "expensive") came from Henredon.
The bold, straight-laced designs of Frank Lloyd Wright are part of the Arts and Crafts legend. Bexley Heath Ltd. debuted 16 copies at market.
Classic pieces from the new, upscale manufacturer include a hefty dining table and tall-back chairs, a cantilevered sofa and a hexagonal cocktail table.
Aimed at a younger consumer on a tighter budget, Drexel Studio's new Dwellings group interprets mission and Shaker styling in easygoing cherry pieces, some accented with antique black finishes.
Modern:
Every market brings whispers that contemporary, or modern, is making a strong comeback. We wait and hope.
The furniture industry looks to the high-end manufacturers for glimpses into the future, so Baker's strong commitment to the sleek Archetype Collection more than a year ago offered hope. Today the classic modern group is Baker's No. 1 seller in designer showrooms and No. 3 in retail stores, according to its creator, Michael Vanderbyl.
Among the handsome European sycamore designs added to Archetype at this market is a striking, open-square bookcase that can be positioned as a see-through room divider or against a wall. It comes in a clear, light finish and a rich, dark tone.