The Comeback of Retro Furniture
It’s rather interesting how something once considered modern gets to
be considered retro in forty or fifty years time. Nowadays people are
rediscovering the modern furniture of the 50’s and 60’s, dubbing it
retro furniture and decorating their houses with it.
Retro furniture has become popular again, with people starting to use it
all throughout their houses, some of them actually collecting the
furniture of that period. Those now classic designs of chrome and vinyl
kitchen tables and chairs and the ever-present kidney shaped glass
coffee tables are back in style, and are actually being produced again.
Whether it’s nostalgia for a simpler time when people had more spare
time for spending with their friends in at cocktail parties, or whether
it’s just the somewhat cyclical nature of fashion and decoration trends,
retro furniture is just as functional as contemporary furniture but with
that extra touch of specific design and feel which makes it retro.
What we now consider to be retro furniture is in fact a combination of
furniture that was widely available from the fifties and the sixties
which continued all the way through the seventies as well. It is
interesting to note how the mostly simple lines used in designing the
furniture of all those decades can work together in creating an eclectic
design feel that doesn’t look out of place.
When talking about retro furniture some might get a bit confused because
of the term modern design which in fact shares the same time span as
retro. The difference is in the fact that while modernism refers to
furniture which is very refined and minimalist, retro looks at things
through a different scope not taking itself so seriously taking its cues
from as far bag as the Art Deco of the 30’s to the design choices of the
50’s sitcoms. What we call retro furniture started with Art Deco first
in France, then through Europe and finally it took America by storm
where everything and anything was decorated and built in exuberant Art
Deco. The style that initially was characterized by controlled rounded
line gradually became slimmer and sleeker and less decorated and this
later became known as “Moderne” style which as its name would imply
started what we now call Modern design. As it is plain to see now,
retro furniture has a rich and complex history baser around constant
evolution and development of a style, so there should be no wonder why
now it is making a comeback in such force. |
