The Shag: A ‘70s Icon Spreads Out Again
The ‘70s are happening a second time around, in more ways than one. From flared jeans and platform shoes to geometric prints and oversized sunglasses, the exaggerated silhouettes of the decade have become staples of 21st century closets. Psychically, it’s something of a flashback as well: We’re adjusting our collective self-image in the wake of Sept. 11 and a steady diet of moral malfeasance, much as we did 30 years ago with the Vietnam War and Watergate.
It should come as no great surprise, then, that even shag carpets, those icons of ‘70s suburban bad taste, are back in style. The 21st century shag is more likely to be beige or cream than avocado green. It’s likely to be an accent for a hardwood floor and modern furnishings rather than a wall-to-wall monstrosity in a split-level. But it’s still got the unmistakably shaggy quality that, after all, makes a shag a shag.
Shags are popping up not only in hip design stores on Beverly Boulevard but also in mainstream outlets such as Pottery Barn. They are part of the same trend that brought back lava lamps, butterfly chairs and bright primary colors on everything from bedspreads to computer hardware.
Is it just a coincidence that shags have cycled back at this particular point in time? Or are people seeking out soft, fluffy rugs to soothe psyches damaged by the events of the last year?
“People are spending more time at home, less time out. It’s the nesting syndrome.... Obviously some of it is Sept. 11, but it was going on even two years before that. Some of it has to do with the economy and reprioritizing, all of the headlines, these things in the news that are about the wrong values,” says Monty Lawton of In House, a design store on Beverly Boulevard.
In the end, a search for larger significance starts to seem a little overblown when the topic is a rug, particularly a rug whose defining quality is a certain disheveled hairiness.
For many, the appeal of a shag comes down to one simple fact: it feels good on their feet. “People are coming back to a fluffy, lush feeling. People love to sit on it, love to walk on it,” says Brad Boucher, owner of Westwood Carpets on Beverly Boulevard, where shags made of New Zealand wool run about $750 for a 5-by-8 rug and $1,500 for an 8-by-10.
For those who can’t afford the high-end product, Pottery Barn wool shags are $399 for a 5-by-8 and $699 for an 8-by-10. At Urban Outfitters, a 6-by-9 chenille shag retails for $140.
Generation Xers who weren’t around for the first Age of Shag don’t have bad shag memories to get in the way of appreciating the new shag. “The generation born after the first trend is picking up on it. They just think it’s a really cool texture. It’s a texture they haven’t seen before,” says Bill Fleetwood, manager of Aga John Broadloom in the Pacific Design Center. Half of Aga John’s shag sales are to the 20-to-30-year-old demographic.
For older generations, the mere mention of the word “shag” can be enough to elicit a shudder. But the new shags are so different from the old that shag haters often find themselves transformed into shag lovers.
Los Angeles interior designer David Plante says his clients are often taken aback when he suggests using shag. One client scoffed that the rugs reminded him of furry toilet seat covers. “But once he touched it, put his feet on it, he realized he really liked it,” Plante says.
Now, Plante is installing an egg-shaped off-white shag in front of that client’s bedroom fireplace, along with some richly colored chenille pillows--a scene that would no doubt elicit an appreciative “Shagadelic!” from Austin Powers.
Sarah Chavez of Diva, a design store on Beverly Boulevard, put a red shag with orange and green highlights on a cherrywood floor to complement an avocado green settee and coffee table in a brand-new 7,000-square-foot Beverly Hills contemporary home. The color scheme hearkens back to the ‘70s, but the pared-down lines of the furnishings signal a contemporary aesthetic. In the living room, a cream-colored shag lightens the stark lines of a cream leather sofa and low-lying coffee table. “The rug warms up the whole ambience, invites you to enjoy the space,” says Alan Becker, commercial director of the Mexico City firm Moises Becker Architects, which built the house on spec.
The shag resurgence began several years ago, along with the general resurgence of ‘70s style in fashion and design. Shag’s close cousin, the flokati--a rug made of fur-like fibers, often cut in the shape of an animal skin--has also sold well in recent years. Most of the new shags are made of wool rather than the cheap nylon of years past and come in varieties unheard of 30 years ago--fibers as thick as pinkie fingers and so long they flop over like rabbits’ ears; fibers of different colors and thicknesses mixed in together; fibers that are wound around an inner core so that they resemble sea anemone tentacles.
There’s no need for the oft-derided shag rake, used in the old days to spruce up a tired-looking shag, since wool fibers don’t get matted like synthetic ones do. But shag owners will probably need to invest in an extra-strength vacuum cleaner that won’t get tripped up by long fibers.
The shag revival is not limited to the hippest of the hip. Shags appeal to the family-oriented because, as those who grew up romping on the family room shag can attest, children love shag. “Before, it was more the edgier people. Now it’s really family-friendly. We get young couples with 5-or 6-year-olds. They like the idea of having them for the kids. The kids love playing on them,” says Chavez of Diva. But those with pets, especially cats, might want to think twice about investing in a shag. A cat confronted with the luxuriant expanse of a high-quality wool shag will probably rejoice that its giant yarn ball fantasies have come true. And pet hairs shed onto a shag will probably prove impossible for even that shiny new mega-horsepower vacuum cleaner to suck up.
At ABC Carpet & Home in New York, shags and flokatis are selling briskly, says sales designer Richard Picher. Though neutrals are popular in Los Angeles, he says, New Yorkers are attracted to bright primary colors reminiscent of the ‘70s palette. “On the West Coast, architecture integrates with the outdoors. In New York, people don’t want anything to do with the outdoors, so they create obvious color schemes for their interiors,” Picher says.
The new shags--which designers say inject a room with a warm, soft vibe--are often used as a contrasting element against other objects in a room, whether it’s the clean lines of modern furniture or the somber wood of antique furnishings.
Maya Thesman, an interior designer who just moved into a 1923 Spanish-style house in Glendale, used wall-to-wall off-white shag in her master bedroom and walk-in closet to contrast with the dark wood of an antique bed and dresser. “It’s a wonderful juxtaposition. I wanted carpet but something retro, cool,” Thesman says.
The only problem Thesman has with her new shag is that she hasn’t yet figured out how to vacuum it. The $300 Hoover she bought recently doesn’t work on the shag, and she’s still trying to find a vacuum cleaner that will do the job. Among those recommended by some rug sellers is an Electrolux--the company’s vacuums sell for $1,000 and more, which might just out-price the rug.
Like it or not, shag is back. It still has the homey, comforting quality of the original but in an incarnation at once more luxurious and more understated. Austin Powers would feel right at home in the 21st century--in fact, he might just kick off his shoes and burrow in.
