S T Y L E  &  D E S I G N
How Retro Can You Go?
Fifties style is stalking the runways, and mid-century design is making its way into every room of the house. A look at the allure of America's favorite era
By Kate Novack & Nadia Mustafa

April 26, 2004

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Most people don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about their relationship with their toaster. But KitchenAid does. When the company was testing its new line of retro-inspired appliances, researchers crisscrossed the country asking consumers to describe their kitchenware. "What we said was 'Think of this product as a person and you're meeting him for the first time at a cocktail party,'" says Charles Jones, vice president of global consumer design at Whirlpool, KitchenAid's parent company. "What we kept hearing was 'Solid, dependable, makes me smile, someone I can trust.'"

Meet the new face of design. It's friendly, whimsical, durable and, it turns out, looks much as it did in the 1950s. Just as twinsets and pencil skirts ruled the recent fall runways, the mid-century look is finding its way into every room of the house, from the campy opulence of '60s interior designer David Hicks to the high design of newly re-issued Dunbar furniture. Marshall Field's has introduced interior-design guru Thomas O'Brien's updated take on Fiestaware for the table. For the kitchen, there are bubble-gum pink stand mixers from KitchenAid and chubby refrigerators from Elmira Stove Works. In the driveway, there's even a reissued Mini Cooper in a retro-perfect shade of teal.

"Most people think this is just a trend," says Marshal Cohen of the NPD Group, a global marketing company. "It's not. It's really about a lifestyle change. When you see it start to reach the home, that's a longer-term commitment."

What is it about the postwar period that keeps pulling us back? Peace and prosperity may not have been the purview of that era alone—the '90s' bubble was good while it lasted—but the '50s hold a special place in America's collective imagination. At what other time in history did Hershey bars and nylon stockings—both in short supply during World War II—wield such transformative powers? The optimism was eventually shattered by the disillusionment of Vietnam and Watergate, but for a brief period America was the land of possibility.

"The things that are attractive are not particularly stylistic but have more to do with values," says Murray Moss, who owns Moss, a New York City design mecca. "It's a broader issue, that for lack of a better word we say the '50s [because] the closest we can relate to it are feelings that we haven't had since then." The mythology of the time looms so large that even the generations that didn't live through the era yearn for it today.

It's easy to point to Sept. 11 as the watershed moment when America turned into a nation of nesters and began eating chicken potpies at home while wearing pearls and sweater sets. But, says Francoise Serralta of Peclers Paris, an international trend-forecasting agency, the shift really started earlier, in anticipation of the new millennium: "Sept. 11 only speeded up a reaction to what was already happening." The ongoing terrorist threat, sluggish economy and war in Iraq have helped fuel the thirst for nostalgia, but there are other factors at work.

After the popularity of the more functional stainless-steel look of the '80s and high-tech thrust of the '90s, it's only natural that the pendulum would swing back toward products with the mark of the human hand. A similar return to warmer, more emotional design occurred in the 1950s in response to the cold minimalism that dominated the preceding decades. "It's the old caveman thing. We like reflections of ourselves," says Moss. "We can never get too far away from the recognition in these objects of human involvement." For example, KitchenAid's new Pro Line is designed to reinforce the notion that it's the cook, not the machine, that's making the difference in the kitchen. The displays on the espresso maker are analog, and the handles are robust and chunky. Still, it functions like high technology. This fusion of nostalgic design and up-to-the-minute functionality—often dubbed retro modernism—is "the strongest trend in all of the creative industries at the moment," says Serralta.

Retro designs are also a rejection of the 15-min. shelf life of most trends. Fashion is decidedly not an industry that likes to slow down. But even there, the '50s fascination has transcended the usual season-to-season dictates. Mid-century detailing first showed up in Marc Jacobs' spring 2003 collection, and it's still going strong, with Pringle of Scotland and Balenciaga both preparing to reissue '50s designs. "I think we're tired of being marketed to, told to buy stuff we don't need," says Rob Forbes, whose company, Design Within Reach, sells iconic modern furniture through its website and studios across the country. "There's a value underlying these designs which is consistent with how people want to live their lives. What are the things that have endurance and permanence? People want to believe the things they are buying can make a difference."

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