I can't tell if the following quotation about why Thomasville is using a new generation of stain-repellent fabrics is deep insight into the social effects of tragedy on consumption, a myopic oversimplification, crass sensationalism, or all three:
"After the events of 9-11, we decided collectively as a culture that it's our friends and our families that matter, not our stuff," says Sharon Bosworth, Thomasville's vice president of upholstery design."The best thing is to get people to come to our house. You can't have that kind of life unless you take the velvet ropes off. Children and pets can go anywhere. People are invited into every nook and cranny. Nobody is going to say, `I can't stand her because she spilled red wine on my sofa.' We count our riches these days in friendship."
From Superfabrics: Imagine a plush sofa that can repel mustard.
Posted by mikek at August 9, 2004 07:57 PM | TrackBackDoesn't it seem like everyone who is vaguely involved with trend-driven design likes to offer some perspective on trends that ties to current events? The color people, the paint people, the decorative surfaces, the flooring and the rest of them, they all talk about what is going on in our culture and therefore what we want out of our in some supposedly insightful manner. It never seems to bear much scrutiny for me, there's always this enormous bridge between what is happening and what we want.
As in "football season is ending and people are feeling euphoric, so there's a lot more shag carpet."
And maybe I'm being a bit of a snob slagging of someone else for connecting culture to consumption, since of course I'm a practitioner of finding those links, but it's something about how an entire industry does it that just ...doesn't...ring true....
Posted by: Steve Portigal at August 9, 2004 09:44 PM