Modern is making its move Crowded field
Aging baby boomers are feathering their empty nests with bent plywood chairs from Design Within Reach and bubble lamps fondly remembered from childhood. Their own offspring, who likely set up their first apartments with IKEA sofas and tables, are now shopping for kids’ furniture inspired by midcentury design.
It doesn’t seem premature to say it: For some consumers, modern is quickly becoming the new traditional. And a host of fairly new urban brands -- Williams-Sonoma’s West Elm and Crate & Barrel’s CB2, as well as the lesser-known Danish firm BoConcept and Canada’s EQ3 -- is proliferating, setting up shop with the hope that modern-for-the-masses will prove to be a classic decorating style.
Even as large furniture stores like Levitz and Wickes go under, these new manufacturer-retailers hope to become the Ethan Allens of modern design by stocking Barcelona-style loungers instead of roll-arm wing chairs. While none of them has the reach of an Ethan Allen, which boasts 300 design centers, several of them have more than doubled the number of U.S outlets in the last five years or less.
At a bit less than 100 years old, modern design is no longer a shocking departure from the norm. It exists as an established style alongside the antique designs that define traditional taste. Evoking the future with high-tech materials and manufacturing processes, streamlined modern designs are a now-familiar alternative to ornate period pieces.
Deploying an easy-to-identify vocabulary of shapes and colors, stores like CB2 and West Elm intend to cash in on the enduring eye candy of midcentury modernism that is so pervasive in popular culture. In Los Angeles, a center for design collectors, open-plan architecture fans and a burgeoning community of loft dwellers, the concept is gaining traction.
It has already proved successful for the 7-year-old West Elm brand, which offers a younger, cheaper, more streamlined design alternative to its more staid and costly predecessor, Williams-Sonoma’s Pottery Barn. Begun as a catalog and online endeavor, West Elm launched its first retail store in Brooklyn in 2004. Since then, it has fast-tracked 39 stores in North America and become the fastest-growing division of Williams-Sonoma. (By comparison, Swedish giant IKEA, which first hit the States in 1985, has 37 U.S. stores. BoConcept and Design Within Reach have more than doubled in size in the last five years or so, with 25 and 69 U.S. stores, respectively. CB2, primarily an online model, has opened six U.S. stores.)
At its Santa Monica location, West Elm’s classic items include daybeds with Asian-influenced fretwork frames for $929 and pared down Parsons-style lacquered side tables for $159.
“Simple, functional furniture is here to stay,” said Dave DeMattei, group president of West Elm, which pursues a “warm and comfy” modernism with organic textures and ethnic materials.
On a recent visit there, Ryan Pureza, a physician from Redondo Beach, was sizing up window treatments, armed with measurements and instructions from his wife. “She did all the research and said this is the place to come for the best price on the style we are looking for,” he said. The Dwell magazine devotee describes that style in one word: “Modern.”
Advertising accounts supervisor Kelly Gehrlein had two on-sale pillows under one arm as she browsed the store with her dog Ben. Also a fan of CB2, which she describes as “more modern, space-saving and Venice loft-y,” Gehrlein shops West Elm for “a splash of modern” in her 1920s Spanish residence. “Right now I am looking at price first, but I like the style -- clean-lined and colorful with a mixture of modern and woodsy,” she said.
“In this economy, the demand has changed greatly, and the combination of good design and good value is more relevant than ever,” DeMattei said. IKEA, which set the standard for design-to-go supermarkets, expects that its influence and market share will grow during this recession.
“IKEA starts with a price first, and we continue to work on lowering them even more,” said Mats Nilsson, U.S. creative director of home furnishings. “Our popular Poang chair for about $79.99 was over $100 several years ago.”
The company’s worldwide network of stores and its resources for materials and manufacturing enable it to make a profit, even at reduced prices, through large volume production and sales.
Cost is also a factor in design decisions for CB2, said president Marta-Maria Calle. “We always look at a product and say, ‘How much is it going to cost?’ We walk away from things that don’t meet the retail price we have in mind,” she said.
Cost-consciousness affects where products are made and what materials are used. Though the company sells some solid-wood furniture, many pieces -- such as the $499 Halogen credenza -- are made with less expensive medium-density fiberboard covered in veneers or boldly colored high-gloss paints. Metal, plastic and woven fibers are also used to ensure affordability.
Design purists, those who differentiate between the products of 20th century design movements and today’s consumer goods, are not entirely convinced that cheaper is better. To them, price-driven design is not necessarily in keeping with Modernist principles. (See accompanying story.)
Cost-conscious furniture was a challenge taken up by Charles and Ray Eames in the late 1940s, said Dr. Michael J. Golec, associate professor of the history of design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The new modern furniture descends from that tradition, “but I don’t think this is postwar nostalgia or postmodern pastiche,” he added. “Stores like IKEA and CB2 have raised design awareness at the turn of the century and are most likely going to emphasize affordability. This coincided with a rise in disposable income and easy credit. One might then say that the rise of a popular interest in modern design is an authentic expression of a culture of excess.”
Of course, easy credit and disposable income are not what they were a few years ago, but Madison Avenue and the media help keep alive the popular notion of modern -- a decidedly retro vocabulary of midcentury design and minimalism. It is an easily identifiable look that resonates across generations, said Eames Demetrios, director of the Eames Office in Santa Monica.
“One of the tragedies of pseudo-modern works is they use the style to get in the good graces of the customer, but then they are poorly made and deliver less,” he added.
There is a big gap in the market for the contemporary furniture that most Americans think of as modern, said Scott Klinker, artist in residence and head of 3-D design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, alma mater of midcentury masters including Eero Saarinen and the Eameses: “We have IKEA on the low end selling disposable furniture and Design Within Reach on the high end selling expensive classics and European imports. It’s like you can buy either a Kia or a BMW, with not much in between.”
Both the Canadian company EQ3 and Denmark’s BoConcept aim to bridge that gap.”Many of the customers are into casual luxury, the type of people that might buy a Mini instead of a Toyota,” said EQ3 founder Peter Tielmann.
In sharp contrast to the tightly edited, less expensive collections of CB2, which offers upholstered pieces in only a few fabrics, EQ3 stocks more than 100 fabrics to be used to customize pieces such as the James rocking chair, which has a starting price of $399.
Customer service also differentiates EQ3 from cash-and-carry stores.
“A huge segment of the marketplace does not want to have a big-box experience, where you have to assemble it yourself,” Tielmann said.
BoConcept, which has a store in Santa Monica, trades on a more refined look that more closely mirrors contemporary European design than vintage American modernism. It sells upholstered beds and sleek dining tables with flared pedestals for around $2,000 each. Although the company’s website offers a room layout program, customers must make purchases at BoConcept stores, where staff designers are on hand -- and also available to make house calls.
“You will always find the target group for modern design to be brand-conscious buyers on the high end and budget shoppers,” BoConcept North American President Carsten Pedersen said of the growth in modern design businesses.
Though he considers BoConcept “to be closer to Ligne Roset and Roche Bobois,” Pedersen believes that modern at all prices has established itself as a style that will become a tradition.
“Modern is going to increase tremendously,” he predicted, “due to everything we surround ourselves with -- TV shows, clothing, cars -- all of that seems to be much more contemporary in design.”
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Sold on an enduring aesthetic
Today’s modern-for-the-masses retailers might share an appreciation for clean, spare pieces coupled with affordability, but their distinct interpretations showcase modernism’s wide room for creativity.
IKEA
Who: Swedish design retailer
What: Furniture and accessories for every room in the house and the kitchen sink
Where: Big-box stores in more than three dozen countries; five in Southern California, including Burbank, Carson, Covina and Costa Mesa, plus catalog and Internet sales
How much: Wine glasses from $1.99; floor lamps from $9.99; duvet cover sets from $29.99; Poang chairs from $79; microwaves from $149
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West Elm
Who: Williams-Sonoma modern lifestyle store
What: Nature- and ethnic-inspired home furniture, entertaining accessories and barware, bed and bath textiles
Where: 39 stores in North America including Santa Monica, San Diego and Rancho Cucamonga, plus catalog and Internet sales
How much: Organic cotton bath towels from $19.99; coffee tables from $299; leather armless sofa, $1,199
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CB2
Who: Crate & Barrel contemporary design spinoff
What: Furniture and accessories for the living room, bedroom, dining room and home office
Where: In catalogs and online; recently opened its first L.A.-area store
How much: Place mats from $2.95; set of three plastic nesting tables, $199; sofas from $799
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BoConcept
Who: Upscale Danish furniture designer and retailer, sold worldwide
What: Sleek, more expensive European-influenced home furnishings
Where: Merchandise for sale in showrooms including Santa Monica and San Diego; no online sales
How much: Glass vases from $6; dining chairs from $199; pendant lamps starting at $289; bed frames, from $999; flat-screen entertainment unit, $2,049
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EQ3
Who: Canadian manufacturer and retailer
What: Upholstery, minimalist tables and cabinetry and accessories for the living room, dining room and bedroom
Where: North America, the Caribbean and Thailand, franchise store in Burbank, plus catalog and online sales
How much: 20-piece flatware set $49; rugs from $399; dressers from $499; queen sleeper sofa from $1,046
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Design Within Reach
Who: Distributor of expensive midcentury reissues and contemporary design classics
What: Furniture, lighting and accessories for home and office designed by the likes of Mies van der Rohe and Philippe Starck
Where: By catalog, online and in retail outlets, including nine Southern California locations
How much: Starck plastic stool, $110; George Nelson Atomic Age clocks, from $385; Arne Jacobsen Egg chair, from $5,934