April 26, 2004

	RETRO MODERNISM A look at the allure of America's favorite era, the 1950s
	IKEA MILESTONES Giving the world access to great home design
	TRAVEL STYLES Here's what stylish globe trotters can't live without
	ABSOLUTELY PREFAB A new generation of architects is making prefab fun

It's no surprise then that some of the best designs from the past are being dusted off and reissued for today's consumer. Maharam, a century-old textile manufacturer, recently introduced its Textiles of the 20th Century series, which includes fabrics by mid-century icons like Alexander Girard and Ray and Charles Eames. "The fact that these were designed 50 years ago and are still as attractive as ever allows people to feel like they're not investing in something that is going to look like 2004 three years from now," says company co-owner Michael Maharam. George Nelson's oversize Eye Clock became an instant best seller when it was reintroduced last fall at the Museum of Modern Art store. And Vitra worked closely with Jean Prouve's family to reproduce the French designer's complete collection of mid-century furniture, down to the trademark lacquer finish.

Traces of the past are also turning up in new creations. Thomas O'Brien has transformed his New York City-based interior design company Aero Studios into a veritable retro-modern empire: there are vintage-inspired bedding and bath linens for Marshall Field's, a furniture collection for Hickory and textiles for Lee Jofa, to name just a few. Designer Marc Newson, whose creation for the restaurant at Lever House is among the boldest statements of retro modernism, incorporated Bakelite into his new line of cookware for Tefal. Jonathan Adler's eponymous line of needlepoint pillows, sculptural vases and Hollywood Regency-style furnishings winks to figures like Hicks and Girard. "For me, the interest in mid-century design really reflects a desire to get away from the dourness of minimalism, toward a maximalist, joyful aesthetic," says Adler. "I like to think that my stuff has an element of familiarity as well as a newness and freshness to it."

It's easy—seductive even—to dismiss some of these creations as derivative. There's something almost dirty about the word retro, as if recalling the past were inherently lazy. But, says Paul Thompson, director of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, "it's natural to look to antecedents and ancestors. They're acknowledging the quotations, not plagiarizing. Otherwise it's as boring as reading a 10th-grade essay pulled off the Internet."

Even a sophomoric reversion might be understandable at the moment, given that the past looks so much better than the future. But these backward glances aren't mere escapism. They help to ground us, to sort through the clutter that surrounds us—and they're there when we need to be reassured that technology can never replace human beings. "These reversions are essential to the evolutionary process of style and design," says Serralta. "They are the foundation, the building blocks on which to base the future. Without nostalgia, there is no closure and no way to move forward."

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