In the early 1990s that began to change: In 1993, Knoll, a major manufacturer of iconic midcentury designs, opened its SoHo showroom, once to-the-trade only (meaning pieces were sold only to designers and architects, not to consumers), to retail shoppers. And even getting your hands on the pieces that were still being produced would have been challenging without an architect or a designer to order a piece for you. Some midcentury furniture designs, like the iconic Eames Lounge Chair, never went out of production, but many others had fallen out of production by the mid 90s.
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A year later, two George Nelson "pretzel" armchairs sold for just over $2,500 apiece, while a 1965 George Nakashima cabinet sold for $20,700. In December 1999, a George Nelson Marshmallow sofa sold for an unprecedented $66,000. A New York Times article notes that an original Eames molded plywood folding screen, which had been out of production, was worth as much as $10,000 in 1994. Within a decade, vintage midcentury designs were increasingly popular, and several events helped to boost midcentury modern's appeal from a niche group of design enthusiasts into the mainstream.īy the mid-90s, a niche market of collectors had already driven up prices of the original midcentury designs. Most of the designs of the midcentury had gone out of fashion by the late 60s, but in the early- to mid-eighties, interest in the period began to return. The popularity of midcentury modern design today has roots at the time of Greenberg's book. Cara Greenberg, the author of 'Mid- Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950's' ($30, Harmony Books) manages to convey the verve, imagination and the occasional pure zaniness of the period." The book was an immediate hit, selling more than 100,000 copies, and once "midcentury modern" entered the lexicon, the phrase was quickly adopted by both the design world and the mainstream. "Some love it and others simply can't stand it, but there is no denying that the 50's are back in vogue again. As for the phrase "midcentury modern," Greenberg "just made that up as the book's title," she says.Ī New York Times review of the book acknowledged that Greenberg's tome hit on a trend. In 1983, Greenberg had written a piece for Metropolitan Home about 1950s furniture, and an editor at Crown urged her to write a book on the topic.
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Image courtesy Herman Miller.Īuthor Cara Greenberg coined the phrase "midcentury modern" as the title for her 1984 book, Midcentury Modern: Furniture of the 1950s. The timeframe is a modifier for the larger modernist movement, which has roots in the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 19th century and also in the post-World War I period. It broadly describes architecture, furniture, and graphic design from the middle of the 20th century (roughly 1933 to 1965, though some would argue the period is specifically limited to 1947 to 1957). "Midcentury modern" itself is a difficult term to define. Over the past two decades, a term describing a specific period of design has become the marketing descriptor du jour. Meanwhile, type the words "midcentury" and "modern" into any furniture retailer's search pane, and you'll likely come up with dozens of pieces labeled with these design-world buzzwords-despite the fact that there is nothing "midcentury" about the items they describe. A few years back, you could stamp your mail with an Eames postage stamp. If you dine in a contemporary restaurant tonight, there's a good chance you'll be seated in a chair that was designed in the 1950s-whether it is an Eames, Bertoia, Cherner, or Saarinen. Turn on The Daily Show and you'll see the guests sitting in classic Knoll office chairs.
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Flip through the April issue of Elle Décor, and you'll find that more than half of the featured homes prominently include midcentury furniture pieces. DVRs are set to capture Mad Men's final season playing out on AMC. Today, more than ever, the midcentury modern look is everywhere.