Cheeky twists on tradition

New York City — FLORAL teacups, curlicue-trimmed highboys, formal candelabras. Did the wrong crates get delivered to the floor of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, the nation’s most prestigious showcase of modern design?

The four-day exhibition that ended Tuesday proved that contemporary designers are continuing to go more traditional, largely eschewing stark minimalism and instead dressing up furniture, lighting, walls and floors in classic motifs. Many of the 600 exhibitors at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center introduced products bearing the decoration, materials or production techniques of years past. After years of fierce futurism, retro made its return.

“The pendulum is swinging back, done in the spirit of play,” said Jill Canales, vice president of design at Salt Lake City-based 3form, (www.3-form.com), which introduced floral patterns and pink Capiz shells in its resin wall panels and room dividers.

While the Tomas Frenes Design Studio of Miami (www.tomasfrenes.com) exhibited spare ebony benches and bureaus, its booth was dominated by 5-foot-high nickel-plated candelabras that were classic in every sense. “No one wants just one style anymore. That gets boring,” Frenes said. “And even lovers of contemporary will always go back to a classic for the glamour.”

Designing for Baccarat (www.baccarat.com), Philippe Starck paired a Versailles candlestick with a jaunty smoked glass lampshade from Flos. “Dramatic tension is created when intertwining history and whimsy, and that accentuates the environment,” says Michael Belleveau, Baccarat’s chief executive for North America.

Tobias Wong, one of many California designers making a strong showing at the fair, exhibited a cheeky version of a standard crystal chandelier for San Francisco-based furnishings firm Citizen:Citizen (www.citizen-citizen.com). White industrial rubber softens the facets of the crystals and can be peeled off, revealing the sparkler beneath it and creating a customized look.

Other new riffs on old ideas included a French club chair made of teak and then sheathed in hammered copper and a seven-drawer dresser plated with 27 pounds of silver for New York-based Odegard (www.odegardinc.com).

It was almost impossible not to spot tradition in most of the show’s designs, said John Kelsey, co-editor of the book “Tradition in Contemporary Furniture.” Familiar forms -- even when made of anodized aluminum, glass or tangerine- and lime-colored fabric -- provide a sense of reassurance and continuity, especially to the estimated 80% of U.S. buyers who still prefer the kind of furniture their grandparents had, he said.

Provocative treatments of old designs were conversation starters. Douglas Homer of Lancaster, Penn. (www.douglashomer.com), hired Bronx graffiti artist Robert Michael Provenzano to tag 18th century highboys with slashes of purple, red and yellow -- an irreverent stunt that just might work in a stark room. The company also put a twist on Harry Bertoia’s Diamond chair by covering it with black, white, red, yellow or green plastic tubes for a shaggy effect: the Hairy Bertoia chair.

Old-fashioned lace was given new life by San Francisco designer Karl Zahn (www.karlzahn.com), who duplicated the classic ornamental pattern on clear tape that can be used as a border on walls or furniture. Zahn said that he’s focusing on reintroducing forgotten manufacturing techniques. Case in point: his $150 pendant lamp, the Protea, made of metal strips that spread open when heated by the light bulb. The thermally reactive metal is a midcentury discovery, “ignored in our ever-shrinking world of electronics,” he said.

PadLab of Los Angeles (www.padlab.com) adopted centuries-old glass blowing techniques from Sweden to trap air bubbles in panels used in doors, windows and and light fixtures. The company also showcased its honeycomb Flexicomb pendant, made by assembling 6,500 plastic drinking straws.

Not everyone, however, was interested in marrying the old with the new.

“Design shouldn’t be referential to the past but relative to this time,” said San Francisco-based industrial designer Yves Behar. His company, Fuseproject, introduced LED fixtures called the Leaf for Herman Miller (www.hermanmiller.com) and a baby’s highchair for San Rafael, Calif.-based Fleurville (www.fleurville.com) that seems to ignore all of its predecessors. Mixing traditional with modern design, he said, “doesn’t connect if it was done to be humorous, an inside joke for other designers.”

When Behar collaborated with Fleurville owners Catherine and Steve Granville, the result was a complete rethinking of the highchair.

“I wanted it without corners, a big, round, friendly space where kids can wave their hands and parents can get in close without hitting their knees on the legs,” Behar said.

His Calla chair has a Saarinen-like pedestal that bows outward to make room for parents’ knees or table legs to slide underneath it. The aluminum base is a Saturn-like ring, with polyurethane wheels that allow the chair to roll when the brakes are off. A tilted rail circles the seat and has a “utility toolbox” with clips for bibs, cloths and toys; the tray pops off for dishwasher cleaning.

Another design that attracted big crowds: a portable polyester spa that looks a bit like a psychedelic witch’s caldron and is heated by fire (www.dutchtub.com). Only 165 pounds when empty, the spa can even be tossed on top of a car and brought along on your vacation. Now there’s an idea traditionalists and modernists alike can embrace.