The L.A. Furnishings Spectrum Revealed
What is the “California Look”?
That’s the question being addressed by a group of top Los Angeles interior designers in an exhibit aimed at proclaiming “We are here.”
“We want people to see what L.A. designers are capable of doing,” saidNicholas Walker, who helped spearhead the exhibit. “We are much more than decorators. We are designing furniture and accessories and textiles.”
That was the impetus for organizing the Los Angeles Design Group, launched three years ago to promote design excellence. “The idea was to put together a small group of leading designers in the city, to network, do some fund-raising and create a national or international image that L.A. is hot,” said Walker.
It’s also a select group--only 29 members in a city where membership in the Los Angeles chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers is about 1,000 and thousands more run the gamut from the very professional to the homemaker decorator. Their exhibit, “Style and Function,” opened Friday night at the UCLA Extension Gallery in Santa Monica and on Saturday many of the designers discussed their careers at a symposium.
For the exhibit, each member was asked to submit an item of design that reflected his or her interpretation of the “California Look.” Twenty-two of the members responded in an eclectic show of artistry that stretches far beyond the California stereotype of white-on-white oversized furniture with lots of indoor-outdoor greenery.
Rather, the collection is being applauded for its sculptural quality--”almost like an art show,” noted Walker. The styles range from a polished mahogany 1930s candlestick-turned-lamp to a trim gilt drum table. Chairs are adapted from Louis XVI, are sleekly modern ebony and leather, or oversized upholstered with a rough linen slipcover. Rich hand-screened fabrics on an antique Indonesian daybed contrast with the clean, curving lines of a contemporary rosewood chaise. A lined oak occasional table is inlaid with stainless steel and a coffee table adapted from a late 19th century bird cage stand has a black crackle lacquer base and gold leaf-accented tray.
“It surprised me--I don’t think anyone realizes how much vibrant work is coming out of California,” commented Newell Turner, style editor for House & Garden magazine. He saw the show when it was first mounted in June to promote Los Angeles work at Chicago’s prestigious Decorex USA. The exhibit made a splash, said Turner. “It was a beautiful mix from traditional to contemporary and it’s certainly not a stereotypical look,” he said.
Having opened successfully out-of-town, the exhibit was invited here by Jeff Daniels, director of the Architecture, Interior and Environmental Design Program at UCLA Extension. “We want people to recognize the quality and innovation going on right here in Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s always a temptation to think everything is happening somewhere else.”
“Designers aren’t really a household name,” he added. “Martha Stewart has kind of cornered the market. This show is for our students and for the public--it’s work that people even in the design community might not be aware of.”
Many of the Design Group members have their own furniture lines--some are working all over the world--and manufacturing capability, which is quite unusual, he said. “Others are primarily designers who do projects for clients and some do both. But whatever angle they come at it from, what interests me is the creativity and imagination and the openness to new ideas that to me typify the L.A. approach.”
The designers mostly work from the Westside’s Melrose-Robertson area, and name as their clients some of the world’s most wealthy entertainment and corporate executives. At Saturday’s symposium, they welcomed questions from the mostly student audience, commenting on issues ranging from client relationships to Martha Stewart’s success in terms of job opportunity.
Daniels kicked off the opening panel discussion with a question about the tricky relationship between client and designer. How do you resolve differences in artistic sensibility, he asked, especially whenever they clash? What if the client wants a piece of furniture that is truly ugly?
“That’s the crux of what we’re here to do,” said James Lumsden, whose work includes major residential projects in Mexico and his own furniture line. Like an engineer assigned to build a bridge, he said, the first task is to get it across the river, “but you can do it with grace and style.”
In a business based on referrals, said Kerry Joyce “you do your best work for your first customers and they will treat you well. It’s a pyramid.” Joyce, who has training in both architecture and design, looks after “every detail down to the light switches and molding,” on his projects.
Careful groundwork can minimize artistic disagreements. James Magni described an intensive preliminary program for his clients including a 17-page questionnaire to help establish client tastes before he formulates a cohesive project. And Magni--who recently launched his own line of modernistic furniture--does his own screening. “I wouldn’t take on a Victorian house because I wouldn’t do a very good job,” he said. “I’d refer it on.”
Jack Lowrance, who moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco in 1972 and is current president of the group, creates a “taste file” for first-time clients. He warned the design students not to be deceived when people say “I don’t know what I want,” because they actually do. “If the client’s happy, that’s what it’s all about.”
And the clients themselves are increasingly savvy, noted Daniels, steeped in advice from shelter magazines, television shows like Martha Stewart’s and such retailers as Restoration Hardware.
“Crate and Barrel is a godsend to the public,” said Lowrance. “Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren are getting into design. I think all this helps the upper-end of the business because people come to designers as better-educated clients.”
Weaver noted that the savviest consumers of all are his client’s children. Raised on MTV and bombarded with advertising images, “these kids know a Louis XVI chair,” he said. “They are really on top of it.”
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“Style and Function: The Los Angeles Design Group” exhibition runs through Dec. 31 at UCLA Extension Gallery: 1338 Third Street Promenade. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free.