19 October 2009

in High Point-What's New? What's MADE GOODS?

.

(GEMMA)

Nothing High Point offers is truly new-there are sparks of fresh things-an accessory line, a furniture maker & alas-the next season -that will be what you see everywhere. There is a real problem with creativity in today's furniture world. It's copy, dilute, reduce.

A few things that have been OD'ed on are the spare look of iron or other & reclaimed wood. The stories about this coming from this place- a school house in Belgium, a barn in Sweden. Who knows? What looked fresh last market is now watered down to the point of mud puddles.

Another sad thing was the shock of ORANGE in the Global Views showroom. Wow talk about overkill. Orange got squeezed into every possible nook & cranny- and on every possible body type. In order to drive home the Orangeness of the place-all the sales reps. appeared to be wearing orange-as My companion said & not the most flattering color. I broke out my orange Hermes Kelly Bag for this trip & it seemed to become a shrinking violet in the midst of the Orange Sea. Poor HKB just kept gasping -
"get me out of here, I have been defiled, debauched- I never want to appear in public again."
Who could blame to little thing? Carrots in vases of water, candy corn, oranges in containers, stacked and every orange thing imaginable. I order from this company-I know how to navigate their website & they have some sweet, neat vases of all shapes, sizes & design. What fails me in the showroom is the grouping together of ALL the Greens, ALL the Oranges (but I've told you about that), ALL the Black, ALL the Turquoise. Are you getting the idea? It is a product push- a mentality of selling an entire Color Collection- No, I protest. This is the problem with design today. It translates to fashion in the form of a Burberry hat, bag, watch, scarf, umbrella. I love Burberry- three of my favourite coats are Burberry but Don't walk as an advertisement for any label unless you are getting paid well.

if you can put blinders on good things can be found. A good looking storage box from Global Views.




One company that gets my Love is MADE GOODS. I have had them in my sights for awhile now. MADE GOODS make MIRRORS. They make MIRRORS very very GOOD.

It is no easy task to rev up a mirror, but founders Oscar Yague and Chris De Witt have gotten it right. I am impressed with the line, the concept, the quality. Go here to peruse their great website. De Witt took a hip route to Mirrors from marketing and merchandising brands like Levi's Nike, Urban Outfitters & Free People. Yague, from Barcelona, moved to the States in '99, working in product development for Anthropologie and Oly Studio. These two make dynamic partnerships at home and at MADE GOODS.

The concept is to meld materials and production techniques to create mirrors that are original, familiar and timeless. Take a look at some of my favourites in their Interhall space at Market & their website.



good orange
BROOKE
Real full grain leather with double rows of stitching inspired by vintage leather accessories and luggage



GORKA. Here, shown in antique gold & in a monumental size 44 x 60. Wood covered in metal-hammered & etched with intricate floral patterns. Circles of tiny mirrors in increasing sizes encircle a central mirror.



GORKA in its 36" round size. Here in silver. Love both sizes. The larger GORKA is quite something!




KATHERINE is an intricate mosaic of cut shells -all hand applied. 37" x 48". Wouldn't this be spectacular in a powder room? The design is translated into a drum chandelier with a sleek cream linen drop shade inset.





ERATOS is made of aged velvet with hand beading in a Greek Key design made of natural color bone beads.




SOPHIE is a Made Goods take on the Trumeau. Shown in grey linen with hand embroidered flower appliques & hand stitched leaves with a few accents of glass beads of course. One of the prettiest.





MADENA is made of rows & rows of matchsticks. I love this one.

EDITH a realistic looking shagreen in Blue, bordered by a Palladian shape inset with a narrow sycamore wood edge.


LILIAN-a 28" diameter drum light made of real shells, heat pressed to create a tortoise look. MADE GOODS also does a mirror in the same finish. I would use this in a library to great effect.

XIMON is a series of scallop edged bone and resin geometric patterns. Diamonds and star shapes are alternately place creating an exotic mirror. This would be a perfect twist in a traditional room paired with an 18th century chest.



The chandelier shown at the heading of the post is by MADE GOODS. GEMMA is made of mother of pearl butterflies and capis butterflies suspended from coco beads. This piece has me thinking about the 1920's, a touch silk charmeuse, eglomise & shagreen.


The only other look in the MADE GOODS Showroom was by MARJORIE SKOURAS DESIGN.

I photographed her Silvio Juan Carlos Chandelier in lapiz lazuli. See more of her things here. Really quite something and she does it in turquoise too.


MARJORIE SKOURAS as seen in the MADE GOODS Showroom at Market.


from her website

Mirrored knobs from Marjorie Skouras

and this sharp looking silhouette portrait rug from her website is a Custom Order.



a few more things to share from High Point in my next postings.


12 comments:

  1. Yes! Made Goods are definitely a "yes".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carrots in vases? Really?

    Love the Katherine mirror.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes-Carrot is water? I could not bring myself to photograph. There was candy corn-which looked tasty but I was also watching the communal germ pool. G

    ReplyDelete
  4. What fun, what a great selection, I love the match sticks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The chandelier made of the mosaic of cut shells is very beautiful! I have never seen something like that before!
    Greet

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am not an orange fan. I inherited that from my mother-in-law. As a young girl, she so hated it she would have to wear gloves to turn magazine pages that had great splotches of orange photographs. Doesn't make sense, but the image still makes me smile. What Moses could have done with that Hermes bag...Would make a Gucci shoe look like a piffling. Carry on, McDuff and relay the big buzz in your native state this week.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Debra & Greet, they have some unique things. Greet I think you should explore their site for something wonderful in your Belgian castle. G

    ReplyDelete
  8. Home, Orange did seem to be the Color not to wear-dubbed as garish.I have a wonderful image of the MinL with the gloves! It has come a long way Baby. I do like it. The bag was a crazy whim and it comes out every now and then. I am sorry that anything like-Orange, reclaimed wood, Toile, animal skins, etc- gets maligned by the industry.Trend followers go for it wildly & then dump it- & it returns to its proper place-Use it when it works and you love it. Trends= booHiss. G

    ReplyDelete
  9. G ...
    I'll second that booHiss on Trends, especially in todays'world.
    I'll also second your favs on the Madena & Sophie. Opposite ends of the spectrum , but each so appealing.
    So happy to hear you'll be passing on post party recycling instructions to your niece on that petticoat .... .
    Jjjj

    ReplyDelete
  10. Doesn't the Madena matchstick mirror remind you very much of a porcupine-quill mirror that appeared in Elle Decor in a house in Morocco? And Gorka is a handsome copy/adaptation of a traditional Indian mirror. Not so original.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anon-I dont remember the Elle decor mirror-but have seen similar-In the press pages and website the designers acknowledge the sources of the mirror design- perhaps that is one that they expect us to find of the "familiar" kind. They def. draw from a base of historical knowledge. I think the Madena mirror caught my eye because of that very thing & should have mentioned it. High Point in general is mass marketing, mass produced-and fine-but it just renews me love of and preference for antiques or the almost antique.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Am dying for those Marjorie Skouras chandeliers. Swoon.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails