Will the millennial aesthetic ever end?
March 3, 2020 7:36 AM Subscribe
As the millennial aesthetic grows omnipresent, as its consumers grow more design-fluent, our response grows more complex. We resent its absence (Why is this restaurant website so crappy?) but also resent its allure; we resent that knowing the term sans serif does not make you immune to sans serif’s appeal. The desire for individuality rebels against its sameness, even as the sameness feels reassuring, feels good.
“It kind of feels like a binky,” Deborah Needleman, the former editor of T, WSJ., and Domino, says of millennial interiors. (Boob-print pillows and bath mats are perhaps the most literal expression of a general tendency toward the comforts of babyhood.) Needleman sees not a trip to Greece but something more like childproofing.
Women's bodies are just.. never about women, are they?
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:53 AM on March 3, 2020 [22 favorites]
Women's bodies are just.. never about women, are they?
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:53 AM on March 3, 2020 [22 favorites]
In this era, you come to understand, design was the product. Whatever else you might be buying, you were buying design, and all the design looked the same.
I've been waiting and wishing for this piece, and trying to write it in my head. Good observations. The sameness of every "boutique" hotel and every "uncommon goods" store and every craft beer bar and every hair salon is not different, more uplifting, more life-enriching, than the sameness of every Home Depot and McDonald's. And it's so freaking tired.
posted by Miko at 7:57 AM on March 3, 2020 [27 favorites]
I've been waiting and wishing for this piece, and trying to write it in my head. Good observations. The sameness of every "boutique" hotel and every "uncommon goods" store and every craft beer bar and every hair salon is not different, more uplifting, more life-enriching, than the sameness of every Home Depot and McDonald's. And it's so freaking tired.
posted by Miko at 7:57 AM on March 3, 2020 [27 favorites]
Every sofa and soft-cup bra presents itself not as evidence of distinctive taste but as the most elegant, economical, and ethical solution to the problem of sofas or soft-cup bras.*Sheepishly closes a few Wirecutter browser tabs*
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 8:05 AM on March 3, 2020 [18 favorites]
Sorry, not to double post, but I kind of hate this. Being a millennial is just going through life in the stages that every generation before you has gone through, except now its your fault and you're ruining everything.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:06 AM on March 3, 2020 [106 favorites]
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:06 AM on March 3, 2020 [106 favorites]
"It's your fault and you're ruining everything" *has* been said before. Ask me how I know. We didn't give a shit then and I sure wish (more) people wouldn't give a shit now.
posted by aleph at 8:12 AM on March 3, 2020 [20 favorites]
posted by aleph at 8:12 AM on March 3, 2020 [20 favorites]
Eh, as a millennial who grew up in a neighborhood full of boomers who carpeted over their beautiful hardwood floors with the same colors of shag carpet, I welcome the minimal, pink trimmed, house plant aesthetic of urban outfitters et al. Ubiquitous minimalism is not necessarily characterless and I kind of like all of those industrial craft beer bars (except for the acoustics, ahem, which is also a function of their industrial-ness but I contain multitudes). It’s not like 30 years ago you had a bunch of unique character filled places, at least here. You had Golden Corral and Shoney’s, and I don’t particularly remember them for their unique design features. At least here a lot of the stark and minimal coffee shops and bars at least serve as galleries for local artists as well. I dunno, this kind of felt like another think piece about millennials by someone who just wants to complain about millennials. You don’t need to have anything pink or any house plants in your home if you don’t want to.
posted by Lutoslawski at 8:13 AM on March 3, 2020 [35 favorites]
posted by Lutoslawski at 8:13 AM on March 3, 2020 [35 favorites]
I feel that this article comes from the same as people who like modern architecture. Making the front door easy to find is so bland. Making it navigable without lots of signage is boring. Making it look like a building is so tiring. Making it visually appealing to commoners is wrong. Do the opposite of all that!
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:14 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:14 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
Google "1990s interior design" and then tell me we should not thank the youths for their contributions to design in the last decade or so.
posted by romanb at 8:16 AM on March 3, 2020 [38 favorites]
posted by romanb at 8:16 AM on March 3, 2020 [38 favorites]
The dominant aesthetic will always be fertile ground for whinging because it is dominant and inescapable. Such are the perils of winning the style wars!
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:18 AM on March 3, 2020 [13 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:18 AM on March 3, 2020 [13 favorites]
It's hard to be against a trend that reversed the 'Tuscan' look, to be fair.
posted by pipeski at 8:21 AM on March 3, 2020 [27 favorites]
posted by pipeski at 8:21 AM on March 3, 2020 [27 favorites]
All that time spent staring into a glowing screen makes the prospect of something gentle — something literally easier on the eye — enticing. The millennial palette is the opposite of glare; onscreen or off, it’s color softly veiled.
...OH. Hm. Most "phones, but too much" takes are sort of unconvincing, but this one feels like there might be something to it.
posted by jinjo at 8:24 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
...OH. Hm. Most "phones, but too much" takes are sort of unconvincing, but this one feels like there might be something to it.
posted by jinjo at 8:24 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Google "1990s interior design" and then tell me we should not thank the youths for their contributions to design in the last decade or so.
See also: McMansion Hell.
Every interior design trend between WWII and 2010 was objectively terrible, basically.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:24 AM on March 3, 2020 [9 favorites]
See also: McMansion Hell.
Every interior design trend between WWII and 2010 was objectively terrible, basically.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:24 AM on March 3, 2020 [9 favorites]
Really, google any decade interior design and there's something nauseating going on.
I am in favour of aesthetics where things generally disguise typical wear, are simple to clean, not particularly dangerous to the clumsy, have good accessibility to those with special needs, absorb slap echors, and are not too busy visually so that artwork of varying kinds can be appreciated.
I mean, seriously, fucking think about it: we don't havelive-in slaves/servants/housewives to keep our shit clean and organized any more. We need all the help we can get from our physical and built environment. I got two-three hours a week I'm willing to spend on maintenance and the people who share my space do about the same.
If that means things are kinda soft and kinda bland and kinda minimalist, that's ok by me. I got other shit to do. I want environmental drama, I'll hang some art.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [23 favorites]
I am in favour of aesthetics where things generally disguise typical wear, are simple to clean, not particularly dangerous to the clumsy, have good accessibility to those with special needs, absorb slap echors, and are not too busy visually so that artwork of varying kinds can be appreciated.
I mean, seriously, fucking think about it: we don't have
If that means things are kinda soft and kinda bland and kinda minimalist, that's ok by me. I got other shit to do. I want environmental drama, I'll hang some art.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [23 favorites]
And honestly the 2010s trends are probably terrible, too, but we don't yet have enough hindsight to be certain.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 8:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
going through life in the stages that every generation before you has gone through, except now its your fault and you're ruining everything.
the weird part is that at some point it is -- your generation's fault. I mean, I'm technically a baby boomer (born late to that demographic, did all my teen years in the 1970s etc, but still born at a time when a whole lotta babies were being born). My first sense of being part of any generation was a time of protest, of tearing the corrupt structures of our fathers and grandfathers down, making things better for everyone everywhere, yadda-yadda-yadda. This seemed to define us.
At some point (not a point at all really, more just a vague grey phase) this collective willful drive for progressive change seemed to get jettisoned. Priorities changed. Mortgages and investment schemes became the topic at dinner parties -- hell, dinner parties became a thing. At some point, you could look back and see banal evidence of the vague grey phase that we'd passed through, the change that happened, not wilful at all, or progressive, just ........?
Anyway, we were the corrupt ones now, the fathers and grandfathers (and mothers and grandmothers). And the thing is, it's never one thing that gets you to such a place. It's a vast complexity of increments. But if I had to tie it to one failing, I'd say it's conformity. The fear of one's own particular value, the learned tendency to always check, look around, look over your shoulder before committing to any aesthetic notion.
Better to be buried in sameness than pointed at, ridiculed.
posted by philip-random at 8:26 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
the weird part is that at some point it is -- your generation's fault. I mean, I'm technically a baby boomer (born late to that demographic, did all my teen years in the 1970s etc, but still born at a time when a whole lotta babies were being born). My first sense of being part of any generation was a time of protest, of tearing the corrupt structures of our fathers and grandfathers down, making things better for everyone everywhere, yadda-yadda-yadda. This seemed to define us.
At some point (not a point at all really, more just a vague grey phase) this collective willful drive for progressive change seemed to get jettisoned. Priorities changed. Mortgages and investment schemes became the topic at dinner parties -- hell, dinner parties became a thing. At some point, you could look back and see banal evidence of the vague grey phase that we'd passed through, the change that happened, not wilful at all, or progressive, just ........?
Anyway, we were the corrupt ones now, the fathers and grandfathers (and mothers and grandmothers). And the thing is, it's never one thing that gets you to such a place. It's a vast complexity of increments. But if I had to tie it to one failing, I'd say it's conformity. The fear of one's own particular value, the learned tendency to always check, look around, look over your shoulder before committing to any aesthetic notion.
Better to be buried in sameness than pointed at, ridiculed.
posted by philip-random at 8:26 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
Hm. I didn't read this as an attack on Millennials, but an essay about design trends of the Millennial era. And that's more than just shag carpet, it's an entire design and conceptual language.
I just never want to see the following ad or any permutation of it, ever again:
Underwear. Reinvented.
Real Estate. Reimagined.
That's as much "Millennial design" as "boob pillows" (I had to google boob pillows because I had never heard of boob pillows and they are mentioned in this article a few times).
posted by SoberHighland at 8:27 AM on March 3, 2020 [16 favorites]
I just never want to see the following ad or any permutation of it, ever again:
Underwear. Reinvented.
Real Estate. Reimagined.
That's as much "Millennial design" as "boob pillows" (I had to google boob pillows because I had never heard of boob pillows and they are mentioned in this article a few times).
posted by SoberHighland at 8:27 AM on March 3, 2020 [16 favorites]
See also Welcome to Airspace which covers this flattening of interior design trends but without blaming a specific age tranche of humans.
posted by q*ben at 8:29 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by q*ben at 8:29 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
philip-random: I've heard it's a common expression (don't know) in Asia: "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down". There are consequences for not doing what you said. Not surprising really. Especially in hard times.
posted by aleph at 8:30 AM on March 3, 2020
posted by aleph at 8:30 AM on March 3, 2020
"Design for Living," Flanders and Swann, 1956
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:31 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:31 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
Every interior design trend between WWII and 2010 ten years before this exact moment was objectively terrible, basically.
FTFY
posted by pullayup at 8:31 AM on March 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
FTFY
posted by pullayup at 8:31 AM on March 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
It's not surprising that this writer is sick of a look that has taken over more and more spaces. I don't have a good eye at all but when I went to a local restaurant that went all in on a pink & green theme (including the water glasses!) I knew they had taken it too far. Even I can tell your restaurant is overly trendy! And I am easily fooled by a clean space with matching colors to mean "this is good interior design".
I still like rose gold but I'm sure I will get over it.
I've never seen boob pillows.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:37 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
I still like rose gold but I'm sure I will get over it.
I've never seen boob pillows.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:37 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Is this the place where I can finally admit that I rather like the beige tiled 90s bathrooms? Obviously not all of them, but there's something about the light brown stone look that feels warm and comforting to me. The current all white + white marble trend looks so cold and stark in comparison. I'm not a fan.
Of course my personal design style is Victorian gothic so I'm already aggressively untrendy.
posted by stillnocturnal at 8:38 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
Of course my personal design style is Victorian gothic so I'm already aggressively untrendy.
posted by stillnocturnal at 8:38 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
I want to write a meta article in this vein - "when will then faux knowing takedown stop being written." They always feature a half dozen good, interesting points and then there's a huge whiff and all the air goes out of the pink balloon. Sans-serif ubiquity as...?
posted by 99_ at 8:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by 99_ at 8:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
I think that in reality, every design era has some stuff that ends up standing the test of time, and some stuff that we look back on and go: "... the fuck?!".
I haven't run into the pink/green thing much, from what I've seen of it I could see it dropping off. I also, for example, think blue cabinets, two-tone cabinets, and gold hardware are going to be big markers of "oh this was renovated in the 2010s, huh", and largely go away. But, minimalist design in general? Cleaner lines? I think those are going to find a place for a long time to come, even if melded with other older stuff or newer stuff.
posted by tocts at 8:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
I haven't run into the pink/green thing much, from what I've seen of it I could see it dropping off. I also, for example, think blue cabinets, two-tone cabinets, and gold hardware are going to be big markers of "oh this was renovated in the 2010s, huh", and largely go away. But, minimalist design in general? Cleaner lines? I think those are going to find a place for a long time to come, even if melded with other older stuff or newer stuff.
posted by tocts at 8:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
MetaFilter: I don't even own a boob tube pillow
posted by oulipian at 8:42 AM on March 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 8:42 AM on March 3, 2020 [8 favorites]
Well, here's the thing: I don't necessarily want edge or weirdness or clashing when I'm just trying to like, buy a falafel. The dominant design ideology is always going to have people declaring that it's uncool because it's popular, or has been for too long. But restaurant owners and ordinary people trying to make a pleasant space in their houses usually aren't really trying to make artistic statements with their decor, they just want a space pleasant enough to like.
I think people can dislike what they dislike, but also the justifications they use for their hatred of pink and roundness often have a whiff of misogyny under them. There's a suggestion that these things are infantile because they're too femme, and I don't really like it.
posted by storytam at 8:44 AM on March 3, 2020 [15 favorites]
I think people can dislike what they dislike, but also the justifications they use for their hatred of pink and roundness often have a whiff of misogyny under them. There's a suggestion that these things are infantile because they're too femme, and I don't really like it.
posted by storytam at 8:44 AM on March 3, 2020 [15 favorites]
Metafilter: It's your fault and you're ruining everything.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:48 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 8:48 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
philip-random: I've heard it's a common expression (don't know) in Asia: "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down". There are consequences for not doing what you said. Not surprising really. Especially in hard times.
I don't dispute any of this. But if you're looking for the why of how particular aesthetics become omnipresent, I'm pretty sure that this nail-hammering has to rate as one of the more evident elephants in the room.
posted by philip-random at 8:57 AM on March 3, 2020
I don't dispute any of this. But if you're looking for the why of how particular aesthetics become omnipresent, I'm pretty sure that this nail-hammering has to rate as one of the more evident elephants in the room.
posted by philip-random at 8:57 AM on March 3, 2020
The thing about all of the elements mentioned in the article, is that they can all be done well; they can also be really awful and overdone. For every element of interior design, it's really possible to have it done tastefully, or to miss the mark and for it to be kind of spent or soulless...even 'popular' and 'omnipresent' design trends have legit uses.
Certain elements might get a bit more worn, but I've had so many instances of being in front of interior design elements from bygone eras and been so fucking stoked to see them because they just work in a space. This happened most recently to me when I was in a space that had an old 90's smokey glass coffee table in it; it was peak 90's design and would've been totally at home in a mcmansion, but in the space it was in? Perfect. It just fit in so well, but in any other context it would've been cheap feeling. I dunno, design is weird, right?
I mean, so much of this is dependent on a buildings age and style itself too. I mean, if I was rolling into a 1950's atomic ranch, some of 'millennial design' would look pretty good! A craftsman from the same era, might not vibe well with that kind of interior design. This kind of design works really well in otherwise nondescript apartment buildings, where (surprise surprise) lots of millennials live.
I'm a far bigger critic of trying to force an aesthetic into a space that it doesn't work in than I am about trendy, popular design.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:57 AM on March 3, 2020 [10 favorites]
Certain elements might get a bit more worn, but I've had so many instances of being in front of interior design elements from bygone eras and been so fucking stoked to see them because they just work in a space. This happened most recently to me when I was in a space that had an old 90's smokey glass coffee table in it; it was peak 90's design and would've been totally at home in a mcmansion, but in the space it was in? Perfect. It just fit in so well, but in any other context it would've been cheap feeling. I dunno, design is weird, right?
I mean, so much of this is dependent on a buildings age and style itself too. I mean, if I was rolling into a 1950's atomic ranch, some of 'millennial design' would look pretty good! A craftsman from the same era, might not vibe well with that kind of interior design. This kind of design works really well in otherwise nondescript apartment buildings, where (surprise surprise) lots of millennials live.
I'm a far bigger critic of trying to force an aesthetic into a space that it doesn't work in than I am about trendy, popular design.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:57 AM on March 3, 2020 [10 favorites]
Seems like someone would have come up with an algorithm to determine the proper color and shape of everything by now.
posted by ixipkcams at 9:03 AM on March 3, 2020
posted by ixipkcams at 9:03 AM on March 3, 2020
I'm an old at 52. I actually really like this much of this aesthetic. Especially the house plants! Probably because of 1970s childhood memories of my mom's window full of house plants.
There's a restaurant space in my city that has housed two of my favorite restaurants (moved to bigger spaces) and now has a third, and their make-over of the space is very millennial and the best I've ever seen the place look. Very open, airy, and full of plants.
I did frown some when I was research "2020 color schemes" for some jewelry I was making and hit this page of sad, faded mcbland wedding color schemes, but I'm not getting married or anything so it's not my problem.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 9:04 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
There's a restaurant space in my city that has housed two of my favorite restaurants (moved to bigger spaces) and now has a third, and their make-over of the space is very millennial and the best I've ever seen the place look. Very open, airy, and full of plants.
I did frown some when I was research "2020 color schemes" for some jewelry I was making and hit this page of sad, faded mcbland wedding color schemes, but I'm not getting married or anything so it's not my problem.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 9:04 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
Isn't this just the life of (successful) design trends?
First it's kind of wow, they sure did take a gamble on something there didn't they?
Then it's kind of cool that it's not the Same Thing You See Everywhere.
Then it's oh yeah, that trend that everyone trying to be with it are using.
Then it's oh my god it's another thing done up like that?
Then it's just fucking everywhere.
At each step you have another iteration of less innovative designers taking design cues from the previous iteration, so the whole thing gets less interesting.
It takes about 10-15 years to go through the cycle, the first time you are paying attention you are young enough the old style is Just The Way It Is, the second time around you have some generational affinity to a style, and after that most people don't have the time or energy to keep up and they end up part of the it's just fucking everywhere problem because it takes that long for them to really notice/respond to how much the trends have changed.
posted by aspo at 9:06 AM on March 3, 2020 [12 favorites]
First it's kind of wow, they sure did take a gamble on something there didn't they?
Then it's kind of cool that it's not the Same Thing You See Everywhere.
Then it's oh yeah, that trend that everyone trying to be with it are using.
Then it's oh my god it's another thing done up like that?
Then it's just fucking everywhere.
At each step you have another iteration of less innovative designers taking design cues from the previous iteration, so the whole thing gets less interesting.
It takes about 10-15 years to go through the cycle, the first time you are paying attention you are young enough the old style is Just The Way It Is, the second time around you have some generational affinity to a style, and after that most people don't have the time or energy to keep up and they end up part of the it's just fucking everywhere problem because it takes that long for them to really notice/respond to how much the trends have changed.
posted by aspo at 9:06 AM on March 3, 2020 [12 favorites]
The thing about all of the elements mentioned in the article, is that they can all be done well
The difficulty (for this and every other trend) is that when so many people are doing it, it's no longer enough to do it 'well' - without the aesthetic charge that comes from having a degree of originality / unexpectedness, you need to do it very well indeed for it to be Actually Good, and most people can't or aren't. or on preview, what aspo said.
posted by inire at 9:08 AM on March 3, 2020
The difficulty (for this and every other trend) is that when so many people are doing it, it's no longer enough to do it 'well' - without the aesthetic charge that comes from having a degree of originality / unexpectedness, you need to do it very well indeed for it to be Actually Good, and most people can't or aren't. or on preview, what aspo said.
posted by inire at 9:08 AM on March 3, 2020
Being a millennial is just going through life in the stages that every generation before you has gone through, except now its your fault and you're ruining everything.
Oh, come, now, that's not fair. We're pioneering plenty of things! We're the first ones to have lower earning potential than our parents, the first ones without the prospect of widespread homeownership, the first ones to have been ratfucked by Reaganonomics for our entire lives, the first ones with insurmountable student debt that cab't be discharged in bankruptcy, the first ones existentially threatened by climate change... really, the list just goes on and on.
*weeps into boob pillows*
posted by Mayor West at 9:11 AM on March 3, 2020 [17 favorites]
Oh, come, now, that's not fair. We're pioneering plenty of things! We're the first ones to have lower earning potential than our parents, the first ones without the prospect of widespread homeownership, the first ones to have been ratfucked by Reaganonomics for our entire lives, the first ones with insurmountable student debt that cab't be discharged in bankruptcy, the first ones existentially threatened by climate change... really, the list just goes on and on.
*weeps into boob pillows*
posted by Mayor West at 9:11 AM on March 3, 2020 [17 favorites]
A lot of this aesthetic comes from interactive and DIY design.
Simpler imagery was possible and more appealing/useful because now you could click to dig in and see more. Simple color fields and rounded corners were a reaction against blocky web design, and the cleaner aesthetic was a reaction to crazy stuff seen in the late 90s, like from Kai's Power Tools (Photoshop plug-ins), or those crazy metallic/alien looking MP3 interfaces, bevels, flash tags, drop shadows, etc that used to be everywhere. DIY web design and affordable digital DIY photography led to a trend of simpler, cleaner compositions (easier to shoot yourself at home with available lighting).
Sans-serif is just easier to do DIY, and choosing short, pithy names like Casper, Blue, Play, Feast, etc are just easier ways to get a decent looking logo/lockup identity for a business. Go ahead and lay out an identity for a daycare company called "Provenzano's Childcare & Afterschool Tutoring" versus a name like "Play" and you'll see why even names and witticisms became shorter.
A lot of this so-called "Millennial" design I started seeing in the '90s living in uber-hip artsy-fartsy South Beach, so saying this stuff is ten years old is very short-sighted. Perhaps it hadn't made it to your neck of the woods until then, but these trends are long lived by now. They certainly pre-date "Millennials" unless those children were setting design trends back in grade school.
1950s designers like Charles and Ray Eames did a lot of this stuff way back then, clean surfaces, rounded edges, playful patterns against oddball curiosities carefully curated—and broad-leafed philodendrons.
Nothing is new, really. But yeah, I'm pretty tired of so many "cute" neighborhood places looking and sounding alike.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:12 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
Simpler imagery was possible and more appealing/useful because now you could click to dig in and see more. Simple color fields and rounded corners were a reaction against blocky web design, and the cleaner aesthetic was a reaction to crazy stuff seen in the late 90s, like from Kai's Power Tools (Photoshop plug-ins), or those crazy metallic/alien looking MP3 interfaces, bevels, flash tags, drop shadows, etc that used to be everywhere. DIY web design and affordable digital DIY photography led to a trend of simpler, cleaner compositions (easier to shoot yourself at home with available lighting).
Sans-serif is just easier to do DIY, and choosing short, pithy names like Casper, Blue, Play, Feast, etc are just easier ways to get a decent looking logo/lockup identity for a business. Go ahead and lay out an identity for a daycare company called "Provenzano's Childcare & Afterschool Tutoring" versus a name like "Play" and you'll see why even names and witticisms became shorter.
A lot of this so-called "Millennial" design I started seeing in the '90s living in uber-hip artsy-fartsy South Beach, so saying this stuff is ten years old is very short-sighted. Perhaps it hadn't made it to your neck of the woods until then, but these trends are long lived by now. They certainly pre-date "Millennials" unless those children were setting design trends back in grade school.
1950s designers like Charles and Ray Eames did a lot of this stuff way back then, clean surfaces, rounded edges, playful patterns against oddball curiosities carefully curated—and broad-leafed philodendrons.
Nothing is new, really. But yeah, I'm pretty tired of so many "cute" neighborhood places looking and sounding alike.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:12 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
But restaurant owners and ordinary people trying to make a pleasant space in their houses usually aren't really trying to make artistic statements with their decor, they just want a space pleasant enough to like
I just want to highlight and second this, specifically as a segue into a related thing (already mentioned in this thread): this above is why I've always been uncomfortable with McMansion Hell.
To explain, I have to mentioned another blog I think of as having been relatively contemporary to McMansion Hell: Cake Wrecks. Cake Wrecks could be pretty brutal. But, Cake Wrecks had a specific rule that meant the brutality was focused towards people who "should know better": they refused to review amateur work. The cakes they made fun of were always ones produced by professional bakeries, for profit.
Now you may be thinking: OK, but in what way are houses on McMansion Hell being built by amateurs? And the answer is, they're not, but often they're being bought and lived in by amateurs -- by people who aren't trying to make a design statement, but simply to find someplace for their family to live.
For me, McMansion hell, for as much as it tries to focus on what seem like punching up (against people with a lot of money but not the "right" taste), nevertheless always veers far too uncomfortably close to, "look at these rubes who just wanted a house that had features their family needed and didn't know enough that that stonework with that kind of gable is so déclassé ..."
posted by tocts at 9:17 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
I just want to highlight and second this, specifically as a segue into a related thing (already mentioned in this thread): this above is why I've always been uncomfortable with McMansion Hell.
To explain, I have to mentioned another blog I think of as having been relatively contemporary to McMansion Hell: Cake Wrecks. Cake Wrecks could be pretty brutal. But, Cake Wrecks had a specific rule that meant the brutality was focused towards people who "should know better": they refused to review amateur work. The cakes they made fun of were always ones produced by professional bakeries, for profit.
Now you may be thinking: OK, but in what way are houses on McMansion Hell being built by amateurs? And the answer is, they're not, but often they're being bought and lived in by amateurs -- by people who aren't trying to make a design statement, but simply to find someplace for their family to live.
For me, McMansion hell, for as much as it tries to focus on what seem like punching up (against people with a lot of money but not the "right" taste), nevertheless always veers far too uncomfortably close to, "look at these rubes who just wanted a house that had features their family needed and didn't know enough that that stonework with that kind of gable is so déclassé ..."
posted by tocts at 9:17 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
Except most of the things McMansion Hell calls out are explicitly functionless and serve only as a show of wealth? What practical, salt of the earth home has a fucking lawyer foyer with a giant window above the door? What home with "the features their family needed" has a roof with more angles than a geometry textbook?
posted by tobascodagama at 9:22 AM on March 3, 2020 [24 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 9:22 AM on March 3, 2020 [24 favorites]
I like well done examples of the kind this article provides for the dominant aesthetics as it is kinda important to notice and name what fills the background of our lives as that does inform and sometimes shape our way of perceiving the world. Things like the mention of "motivational" ad copy that reads like demands, or well ordered faux messiness within ad design are saying something different about the world today than that of the gen x era.
It isn't, I think, about blame or meant to be read as unique to any era, but how the aesthetic choices of each era respond to the previous ones and change ideas of what is expected and accepted by the dominant culture. These things will pass, like all previous aesthetics, with some elements lasting longer than others, but the collective effect of all this is worth reflecting on.
The mix of understated or softer elements along with acceptance of wider representation that were/was once considered outside the norm, wording and humor that is pared down without big "punchlines", less ornate but warmer design, all carry some sense of simplification and a more basic kind of comfort that is opposed to some of the choices from previous generations, or as mentioned in the article, like that of the hipster aesthetic. When irony loses its bite, the affectation can become affection.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
It isn't, I think, about blame or meant to be read as unique to any era, but how the aesthetic choices of each era respond to the previous ones and change ideas of what is expected and accepted by the dominant culture. These things will pass, like all previous aesthetics, with some elements lasting longer than others, but the collective effect of all this is worth reflecting on.
The mix of understated or softer elements along with acceptance of wider representation that were/was once considered outside the norm, wording and humor that is pared down without big "punchlines", less ornate but warmer design, all carry some sense of simplification and a more basic kind of comfort that is opposed to some of the choices from previous generations, or as mentioned in the article, like that of the hipster aesthetic. When irony loses its bite, the affectation can become affection.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Weep for the poor, oppressed families with a million-plus real estate budget.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 9:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
Except most of the things McMansion Hell calls out are explicitly functionless and serve only as a show of wealth?
You might have a point if that kind of naked contempt could actually stay focused on the most out there examples, as opposed to metastasizing into a generalized contempt for people buying a house built anytime recently that likely has features the buyer had no say on that nonetheless are influenced by the trends in those more extreme examples. My experiences with people who namedrop McMansion Hell has not led me to believe that was true.
posted by tocts at 9:27 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
You might have a point if that kind of naked contempt could actually stay focused on the most out there examples, as opposed to metastasizing into a generalized contempt for people buying a house built anytime recently that likely has features the buyer had no say on that nonetheless are influenced by the trends in those more extreme examples. My experiences with people who namedrop McMansion Hell has not led me to believe that was true.
posted by tocts at 9:27 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
I mean, regarding house and apartment interiors at least, isn't this a nigh-inevitable trend in face of a growing class of forever-renters? If you have to move every year or so to maintain economic viability in an era where you are chastised for not being able to pack up and peace out across state lines for a job at a moment's notice, why on EARTH would you bother with painting those white walls or owning any furniture that can't be easily disassembled? That fabric wall hanging rolls well for packing. That white bedspread will match whatever hideous design choices your next landlord has made, so you won't have to buy a new one just to bear your bedroom. I feel that the ubiquity of these aesthetic choices stems from a place of precariousness. Even the plants - it's nice to have a living item in your home, but if you have to abandon a plant it's a lot less hurtful on the soul than having to re-home a pet.
I don't know, I just think that being bothered by the aesthetic choices of a generation that has been chastised since birth to carefully make only the right choice every time about everything you've ever owned or done, because one tiny misstep will send you spiraling into an economic death-zone you'll never get out of, is kind of a weird take.
posted by DSime at 9:28 AM on March 3, 2020 [30 favorites]
I don't know, I just think that being bothered by the aesthetic choices of a generation that has been chastised since birth to carefully make only the right choice every time about everything you've ever owned or done, because one tiny misstep will send you spiraling into an economic death-zone you'll never get out of, is kind of a weird take.
posted by DSime at 9:28 AM on March 3, 2020 [30 favorites]
I worked for 20 years as an art director. So I've followed this stuff. Tagging "Millennials" (the group of humans of a certain age) as responsible for this is ludicrous. Which is the point I'm trying to make. Millennials (group of humans) simply came of age during this trend.
A HUGE leader in this style and aesthetic was Martha Stewart, who is even less Millennial than I am. Sure, she had younger designers working for her, but Martha Stewart was possibly the single biggest name behind this aesthetics popularity and overall cultural snow-balling. Martha Stewart is one of the most influential style leaders of the late 20th-early 21st centuries. She gets overlooked and joked about and thrown in jail because she's a woman, but I believe in hindsight, Stewart will be seen as a giant in the world of aesthetics, and very much ahead of her time: a true Leader and Trendsetter.
I really mean this.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:32 AM on March 3, 2020 [36 favorites]
A HUGE leader in this style and aesthetic was Martha Stewart, who is even less Millennial than I am. Sure, she had younger designers working for her, but Martha Stewart was possibly the single biggest name behind this aesthetics popularity and overall cultural snow-balling. Martha Stewart is one of the most influential style leaders of the late 20th-early 21st centuries. She gets overlooked and joked about and thrown in jail because she's a woman, but I believe in hindsight, Stewart will be seen as a giant in the world of aesthetics, and very much ahead of her time: a true Leader and Trendsetter.
I really mean this.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:32 AM on March 3, 2020 [36 favorites]
Now you may be thinking: OK, but in what way are houses on McMansion Hell being built by amateurs? And the answer is, they're not, but often they're being bought and lived in by amateurs -- by people who aren't trying to make a design statement, but simply to find someplace for their family to live.
I think the more common criticism of McMansion hell is it that it comes off like a bit of an attack on the nouveau riche, which implicitly reinforces the class hierarchy that old classy buildings are good and smart and not problematic, and McMansions are just trashy imitations. Wagner's socialist activism and interest in urban planning offsets that somewhat, but the feeling is still there.
This is a bit off topic (but maybe not entirely), but I get that feeling with a lot of leftist criticisms of design trends. It's a touch of the cool kids criticizing the mainstream for being so basic and following conventional fashion trends. Why don't these normies become cooler?
posted by Think_Long at 9:33 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
I think the more common criticism of McMansion hell is it that it comes off like a bit of an attack on the nouveau riche, which implicitly reinforces the class hierarchy that old classy buildings are good and smart and not problematic, and McMansions are just trashy imitations. Wagner's socialist activism and interest in urban planning offsets that somewhat, but the feeling is still there.
This is a bit off topic (but maybe not entirely), but I get that feeling with a lot of leftist criticisms of design trends. It's a touch of the cool kids criticizing the mainstream for being so basic and following conventional fashion trends. Why don't these normies become cooler?
posted by Think_Long at 9:33 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
generalized contempt
That may be true. Many of us will never be able to buy a house, so yes, ostentatiously large houses do bring the bile up for me, personally. Some are even being built in and gentrifying my neighborhood as we speak.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:38 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
That may be true. Many of us will never be able to buy a house, so yes, ostentatiously large houses do bring the bile up for me, personally. Some are even being built in and gentrifying my neighborhood as we speak.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:38 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
I just think that being bothered by the aesthetic choices of a generation [...] is kind of a weird take.
Eh. Naming and critically analysing a thing (justifiably or not) is not the same as being 'bothered' by it, and this article reads for me as the former, not the latter. Similarly, millennials can have all the reasons in the world for adopting a particular set of design trends, and it can still be true that those trends are - at this point - overexposed and boring, like every trend that is popular enough for long enough.
posted by inire at 9:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Eh. Naming and critically analysing a thing (justifiably or not) is not the same as being 'bothered' by it, and this article reads for me as the former, not the latter. Similarly, millennials can have all the reasons in the world for adopting a particular set of design trends, and it can still be true that those trends are - at this point - overexposed and boring, like every trend that is popular enough for long enough.
posted by inire at 9:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Most of the design you see since 2000 has not been done by the Millennial generation. And the design instruction wasn’t taught by Millennials. Most creative directors in the big agencies are X’er generation or older. So this isn’t about millennials. It’s about the decades the design is “alive.”
And I was really hoping Metafilter would be the one refuge from the reactionary generational axe grinding horseshit that implies individuals have any control over when and where our parents fucked or any subsequent control over decades of aggregate demographic trends.
posted by Everyone Expects The Spanish Influenza at 9:43 AM on March 3, 2020 [10 favorites]
And I was really hoping Metafilter would be the one refuge from the reactionary generational axe grinding horseshit that implies individuals have any control over when and where our parents fucked or any subsequent control over decades of aggregate demographic trends.
posted by Everyone Expects The Spanish Influenza at 9:43 AM on March 3, 2020 [10 favorites]
OP here, and I’m sorry that the article seems to have gone down like a cup of cold sick. I didn’t see it as beating on millennials (full disclosure: I’m a millennial myself and own a fiddle-leaf fig plant).
I feel that the ubiquity of these aesthetic choices stems from a place of precariousness. Even the plants - it's nice to have a living item in your home, but if you have to abandon a plant it's a lot less hurtful on the soul than having to re-home a pet.
I think... this is what the article is saying??
The other thing I found really interesting in the article was the hyperawareness about design choices, including typefaces. A lot of people of my age are very into visual arts like photography and graphic design. This might be because of their relative affordability in terms of access, and it might also be because of another point from the article:
I feel that the ubiquity of these aesthetic choices stems from a place of precariousness. Even the plants - it's nice to have a living item in your home, but if you have to abandon a plant it's a lot less hurtful on the soul than having to re-home a pet.
I think... this is what the article is saying??
If you simultaneously can’t afford any frills and can’t afford any failure, you end up with millennial design: crowd-pleasing, risk-averse, calling just enough attention to itself to make it clear that you tried. For a cohort reared to achieve and then released into an economy where achievement held no guarantees, the millennial aesthetic provides something that looks a little like bourgeois stability, at least. This is a style that makes basic success cheap and easy; it requires little in the way of special access, skills, or goods. It is style that can be borrowed, inhabited temporarily or virtually.What I got from the article is that, as a cohort, we want comfort from our leisure spaces at an economical price in terms of time and money (there was a really good point upthread about semi-minimalist spaces being the quickest and easiest to clean). That’s a result of precariousness, and the article distinguishes between the aggressive pre-crash hipster aesthetic and the soothing post-crash millennial aesthetic.
The other thing I found really interesting in the article was the hyperawareness about design choices, including typefaces. A lot of people of my age are very into visual arts like photography and graphic design. This might be because of their relative affordability in terms of access, and it might also be because of another point from the article:
It is a constantly self-conscious sensibility, that of someone who is always performing, always watching themselves be watched: Maybe that was once primarily the condition of women, but it seems increasingly to apply to us all.posted by chappell, ambrose at 9:43 AM on March 3, 2020 [17 favorites]
Martha Stewart is one of the most influential style leaders of the late 20th-early 21st centuries.
I could see that, at least in the US, and I agree that it shouldn't be thought of as really being about a specific age group of people exactly, more just a name for the era. The influence of celebrity designers and decor porn magazines, like Nest, and websites is undoubtedly a major one.
Naming and critically analysing a thing (justifiably or not) is not the same as being 'bothered' by it
True. I think it signals something of a shift in aesthetics when the dominant one does start to get recognized for its ubiquity and named as such, which suggests its time is passing and change is afoot, so it, to me, is all part of the process, as you also seem to suggest.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:47 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
I could see that, at least in the US, and I agree that it shouldn't be thought of as really being about a specific age group of people exactly, more just a name for the era. The influence of celebrity designers and decor porn magazines, like Nest, and websites is undoubtedly a major one.
Naming and critically analysing a thing (justifiably or not) is not the same as being 'bothered' by it
True. I think it signals something of a shift in aesthetics when the dominant one does start to get recognized for its ubiquity and named as such, which suggests its time is passing and change is afoot, so it, to me, is all part of the process, as you also seem to suggest.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:47 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
I’m sorry that the article seems to have gone down like a cup of cold sick
I liked it!
posted by inire at 9:49 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
I liked it!
posted by inire at 9:49 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
Millennials (group of humans) simply came of age during this trend.
Ultimately, the money behind "reinventing. underwear. choose your groove." is a bunch of 55-75-year-old rich white [expletive deleted]s on Sand Hill Rd., so...
posted by praemunire at 9:49 AM on March 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
Ultimately, the money behind "reinventing. underwear. choose your groove." is a bunch of 55-75-year-old rich white [expletive deleted]s on Sand Hill Rd., so...
posted by praemunire at 9:49 AM on March 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
Tagging "Millennials" (the group of humans of a certain age) as responsible for this is ludicrous. Which is the point I'm trying to make. Millennials (group of humans) simply came of age during this trend.
I think folks might consider the article as speaking to the MIlennial era, not to Milennials as a generation of humans. Whether or not you were born between 1981 and 1996, we are all still living in the Milennial era - that is, the era occurring following the turn of a new milennium- until we collectively decide we're not and we're on to something else. Which clearly we haven't yet. The oughts and the twenty-teens felt a lot the same as now, minus the post-2016 angst. In retrospect, maybe that's next and we're already in it. Hindsight.
posted by Miko at 9:53 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
I think folks might consider the article as speaking to the MIlennial era, not to Milennials as a generation of humans. Whether or not you were born between 1981 and 1996, we are all still living in the Milennial era - that is, the era occurring following the turn of a new milennium- until we collectively decide we're not and we're on to something else. Which clearly we haven't yet. The oughts and the twenty-teens felt a lot the same as now, minus the post-2016 angst. In retrospect, maybe that's next and we're already in it. Hindsight.
posted by Miko at 9:53 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
I wouldn’t damn McMansion Hell for other people using it as license to shame people for practical decisions in their private lives. Kate Wagner is a thoughtful and nuanced critic who is well aware of the sociopolitical forces at play. There is less shaming in that entire website than in the first three paragraphs of this article.
posted by q*ben at 9:53 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by q*ben at 9:53 AM on March 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
I made a hot-headed comment in this thread that was (rightfully) deleted. But I stridently agree with "chappell, ambrose" and "everyone Expects..." on these points, and misunderstandings on design really bother me (yeah, I'm That Guy).
I think the article is sloppy in that it's using Millennial in a sense of "occurring during the change of the Millennium" and confusing it with Millennial "the group of people."
Design trends to not appear out of a lab one day. A lot of so-called "hippie" aesthetic of psychedelia was repurposed and tweaked Art Nouveau typography from 60 years earlier, the artwork of Aubrey Beardsley from 1900 and such. The Grateful Dead didn't decide to make woodcuts of skeletons and roses out of the Clear Blue one day.
And Martha Stewart is far more than a "celebrity designer." She started this trend in publishing almost single-handedly, and it has exploded to almost ubiquity. Most truly influential designers never become "celebrities" at all. There's an entire Post-WW2 design philosophy that's EVEN BIGGER than boob-pillows and succulents in tiny jars. Look at any contemporary office building. Or school. Or airport. Or DMV. Or a snow-shovel. Or a pen. Or a cheap folding chair. Or a cheap blender. Or a plaster bucket. Or a beverage cooler. Or movie theater. The true design powerhouses of the 20th century were so powerful, so world-changing, that many of us can even SEE the influence they had on us, because their design is (figuratively) "the water we swim in." It (almost) cannot be escaped. It is (almost) invisible.
One cannot really understand design if they only look at 10-year increments. It's just a preposterous undertaking to even try.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:57 AM on March 3, 2020 [17 favorites]
I think the article is sloppy in that it's using Millennial in a sense of "occurring during the change of the Millennium" and confusing it with Millennial "the group of people."
Design trends to not appear out of a lab one day. A lot of so-called "hippie" aesthetic of psychedelia was repurposed and tweaked Art Nouveau typography from 60 years earlier, the artwork of Aubrey Beardsley from 1900 and such. The Grateful Dead didn't decide to make woodcuts of skeletons and roses out of the Clear Blue one day.
And Martha Stewart is far more than a "celebrity designer." She started this trend in publishing almost single-handedly, and it has exploded to almost ubiquity. Most truly influential designers never become "celebrities" at all. There's an entire Post-WW2 design philosophy that's EVEN BIGGER than boob-pillows and succulents in tiny jars. Look at any contemporary office building. Or school. Or airport. Or DMV. Or a snow-shovel. Or a pen. Or a cheap folding chair. Or a cheap blender. Or a plaster bucket. Or a beverage cooler. Or movie theater. The true design powerhouses of the 20th century were so powerful, so world-changing, that many of us can even SEE the influence they had on us, because their design is (figuratively) "the water we swim in." It (almost) cannot be escaped. It is (almost) invisible.
One cannot really understand design if they only look at 10-year increments. It's just a preposterous undertaking to even try.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:57 AM on March 3, 2020 [17 favorites]
Sigh... "that many of us cannot even SEE the influence they had on us,.."
I get worked up about this.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:06 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
I get worked up about this.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:06 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
...and I will add that Aubrey Beardsley was reviving a much older style of art from Japan (which a lot of contemporary Anime does as well), and the Art Nouveau style was partly a reaction against the Industrial Revolution...
etc.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:20 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
etc.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:20 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
"...that many of us cannot even SEE the influence they had on us,.."
Nobody sees all of it. You try the best you can. (Or you don't)
posted by aleph at 10:23 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Nobody sees all of it. You try the best you can. (Or you don't)
posted by aleph at 10:23 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
What practical, salt of the earth home has a fucking lawyer foyer with a giant window above the door? What home with "the features their family needed" has a roof with more angles than a geometry textbook?
reminds me of my time at the periphery of the wedding biz. Weddings being one of those big deal things (and expenditures) that people just don't do that often*, so it's hard to be expert. So you often hire an expert. But what if your expert keeps seducing you into bigger, more extravagant expenditures (which is exactly what I saw happening in some cases)?
* Also funerals.
posted by philip-random at 10:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
reminds me of my time at the periphery of the wedding biz. Weddings being one of those big deal things (and expenditures) that people just don't do that often*, so it's hard to be expert. So you often hire an expert. But what if your expert keeps seducing you into bigger, more extravagant expenditures (which is exactly what I saw happening in some cases)?
* Also funerals.
posted by philip-random at 10:25 AM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
And Martha Stewart is far more than a "celebrity designer." She started this trend in publishing almost single-handedly, and it has exploded to almost ubiquity.
As someone who used to be a magazine junkie, the thing that struck me about Stewart, and I agree with your classifying her as more than just a celebrity designer, is how she seemed to be such an important transitional figure in home aesthetics. Earlier mass market magazines about home decorating and the like were aimed very much more to the woman as homemaker or housewife, in the sense of taking care of a house for a husband and family, with the decorating suited to that end. Martha Stewart's magazine and show had some of that, but moved further and further towards decorating for "your" aesthetic rather than household as solely a family oriented space. It fit the changes in home life that were happening with women having ever more freedom to define their own lives and spaces.
The shift in aesthetics that followed came, in part, through others following that path, with more magazines and then websites devoted to making the place you want to live in that were aimed at a mass market audience rather than being something found more in high end Architecture magazines for the well off. Martha Stewart Living replaced Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, and the like as the coffee table magazine you'd see in a lot of homes and waiting rooms and redefined expectations around what a attractive home could be. What followed seemed to be a boom in advertising and aesthetics aimed more at that ideal, emphasizing the "you" and your ideals of comfort and beauty, which speaks to both the simplification and to the method of address in things like those motivational ads. At least that's how it appeared to me, watching it as it happened and beyond.
posted by gusottertrout at 10:40 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
As someone who used to be a magazine junkie, the thing that struck me about Stewart, and I agree with your classifying her as more than just a celebrity designer, is how she seemed to be such an important transitional figure in home aesthetics. Earlier mass market magazines about home decorating and the like were aimed very much more to the woman as homemaker or housewife, in the sense of taking care of a house for a husband and family, with the decorating suited to that end. Martha Stewart's magazine and show had some of that, but moved further and further towards decorating for "your" aesthetic rather than household as solely a family oriented space. It fit the changes in home life that were happening with women having ever more freedom to define their own lives and spaces.
The shift in aesthetics that followed came, in part, through others following that path, with more magazines and then websites devoted to making the place you want to live in that were aimed at a mass market audience rather than being something found more in high end Architecture magazines for the well off. Martha Stewart Living replaced Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, and the like as the coffee table magazine you'd see in a lot of homes and waiting rooms and redefined expectations around what a attractive home could be. What followed seemed to be a boom in advertising and aesthetics aimed more at that ideal, emphasizing the "you" and your ideals of comfort and beauty, which speaks to both the simplification and to the method of address in things like those motivational ads. At least that's how it appeared to me, watching it as it happened and beyond.
posted by gusottertrout at 10:40 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
SoberHighland: " … rounded corners were a reaction against blocky web design,"
In my experience, they were a consequence of design-illiterate marketing professionals reading Steve Jobs' biography.
posted by signal at 10:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
In my experience, they were a consequence of design-illiterate marketing professionals reading Steve Jobs' biography.
posted by signal at 10:41 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
One cannot really understand design if they only look at 10-year increments. It's just a preposterous undertaking to even try.
Yes design trends are evolutionary and draw inspiration from earlier trends – but they are also rather famously formed as a counter reaction to previous trends. William Morris (who grew up in a McMansion) disliked cheap industrial prints and goods of his time, and made brilliant work inspired by Middle Ages craftsmanship as a result.
"It's your fault and you're ruining everything" has been a great source of inspiration for generations.
posted by romanb at 10:47 AM on March 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
Yes design trends are evolutionary and draw inspiration from earlier trends – but they are also rather famously formed as a counter reaction to previous trends. William Morris (who grew up in a McMansion) disliked cheap industrial prints and goods of his time, and made brilliant work inspired by Middle Ages craftsmanship as a result.
"It's your fault and you're ruining everything" has been a great source of inspiration for generations.
posted by romanb at 10:47 AM on March 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
Stewart created the concept of celebrity designer. So while she qualifies as a "celeb designer" she's far more than that. In addition to design talent and hard work, she was (is) extremely attractive and good on camera.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:49 AM on March 3, 2020
posted by SoberHighland at 10:49 AM on March 3, 2020
Do any of you remember back in the 2000s when Michael Graves teamed up with Target to offer MoMA style design homegoods to the general public? It created a HUGE shift in how we perceived common every day goods -- that they could be both function *and* reflect an aesthetic. It created a movement that sparked people to begin to deeply consider every aspect of their living spaces, culminating in a pretentious and overthought 'bourgeoisie bohemian' style where everything in ones life had to be carefully curated, have a story, be artisianal, and create an overall impression that one was successful enough (i.e. had the time and money) to care about the design and origin of ones kitchen faucets. I read a book on this in the mid 2000s.
Now people have moved against the dark, import-shop style of the 2010 boho, the tuscan revival, and the dark wood transition period rebellion against scandinavian design and remade it into a bright, open, airy aesthetic, much how mid-century modern was a move against the heavy furniture of the victorian era. Also, with people living in much smaller spaces, the move to lighter, softer colors makes sense to give tiny apartments the illusion of being larger. There's a reason mid century modern is so influential today. Spare lines and thin legs on furniture make places look larger. Clutter is banished, and the few displayed objects blend into the background with their color schemes and form.
I could go into the influence of the color-coordinated, curated Instagram feed and its effect on the modern color palette, but this is already too long.
posted by ananci at 10:50 AM on March 3, 2020 [18 favorites]
Now people have moved against the dark, import-shop style of the 2010 boho, the tuscan revival, and the dark wood transition period rebellion against scandinavian design and remade it into a bright, open, airy aesthetic, much how mid-century modern was a move against the heavy furniture of the victorian era. Also, with people living in much smaller spaces, the move to lighter, softer colors makes sense to give tiny apartments the illusion of being larger. There's a reason mid century modern is so influential today. Spare lines and thin legs on furniture make places look larger. Clutter is banished, and the few displayed objects blend into the background with their color schemes and form.
I could go into the influence of the color-coordinated, curated Instagram feed and its effect on the modern color palette, but this is already too long.
posted by ananci at 10:50 AM on March 3, 2020 [18 favorites]
Nowhere to go. Sparse design aesthetic applied to casual fashion. I kind of want it, but I know that much white material is just asking for stains.
The same reason all of our furniture is patterned and/ or dark, to hide the wear and tear of life (with kids and pets).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:54 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
The same reason all of our furniture is patterned and/ or dark, to hide the wear and tear of life (with kids and pets).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:54 AM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Target is a fascinating story in itself! The logo, typography, photography and color scheme— and even its copywriting— is pulled whole cloth from Fascist and Communist propaganda and design of the 1910s-1940s. Black, red and white. That Bullseye is to contemporary American Consumerism as the Swastika was to a new, clean and future-forward Germany.
Nike famously kicked off that trend with its stand-alone Swoosh and "Just do it."
posted by SoberHighland at 10:56 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
Nike famously kicked off that trend with its stand-alone Swoosh and "Just do it."
posted by SoberHighland at 10:56 AM on March 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
To be fair to the Bauhaus designers that inspired Nazi design... most of them fled Germany to the USA and wanted nothing to do with Nazis, but their influence was already co-opted.
I could go on and on about how Bauhaus influence is so omni-present as to be invisible today...
posted by SoberHighland at 11:04 AM on March 3, 2020 [12 favorites]
I could go on and on about how Bauhaus influence is so omni-present as to be invisible today...
posted by SoberHighland at 11:04 AM on March 3, 2020 [12 favorites]
I was going to quote the passage that chappel, ambrose did because that is the heart of it to me: it looks good enough so you won't hate it, which is important because replacing something just because you don't like its look isn't in the budget. To me every article complaining about millennials has things backwards because they are just trying to make a virtue out of their diminished circumstances - they would love to support that industry that is dying if only they had the time/money/space for it.
The bit about the over-abundance of fruit was amusing. A mefite made a comment about how they put a bowl of fruit in the picture of whatever they are trying to sell online because it improves sales. I'd imagine the millennial design cabal is doing it for the same reason. Maybe they, or someone who read their comment, are a part of the cabal.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:09 AM on March 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
The bit about the over-abundance of fruit was amusing. A mefite made a comment about how they put a bowl of fruit in the picture of whatever they are trying to sell online because it improves sales. I'd imagine the millennial design cabal is doing it for the same reason. Maybe they, or someone who read their comment, are a part of the cabal.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:09 AM on March 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
Re: Target - yeah, Todd Oldham and Jonathan Adler are pretty significant omissions here.
posted by 99_ at 11:35 AM on March 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by 99_ at 11:35 AM on March 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
There is a bit of worry when you make a bolder design choice though. We decided to colour the exterior of our house navy blue and we're happy with it 1.5 years in, although I'm not sure what the people across the street from us think about it, but we did recognize that it would be a big hassle to change things if we ended up not liking it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:02 PM on March 3, 2020
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:02 PM on March 3, 2020
Where do fucking Edison bulbs fit into all of this?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:05 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:05 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Where do fucking Edison bulbs fit into all of this?
We own an Edison bulb lamp that we bought on clearance from a boutique store in Miami Beach back in 1994, so it was made some time before that. Nothing new or even 10 years old about retro-style Edison bulbs. Millennials were in diapers back when that lamp was new.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:12 PM on March 3, 2020
We own an Edison bulb lamp that we bought on clearance from a boutique store in Miami Beach back in 1994, so it was made some time before that. Nothing new or even 10 years old about retro-style Edison bulbs. Millennials were in diapers back when that lamp was new.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:12 PM on March 3, 2020
Someone tell me the design name/classification and history of the geometric cage-like element used in lamps, bookshelves, and trays (and side tables, earrings, and bracelets, etc. etc.) I see everywhere.
posted by oflinkey at 12:26 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by oflinkey at 12:26 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
(Why is this restaurant website so crappy?)
Because restaurant websites are all mysteriously stuck in 2002 web design, and restaurateurs have agreed at a secret meeting that three-fifths of the landing page should be devoted to hi-res HDR photos of food in case you do not know what a chicken fajita looks like, while things like the location and opening hours should be discreetly hidden away.
We're pioneering plenty of things! We're the first ones to have lower earning potential than our parents, the first ones without the prospect of widespread homeownership, the first ones to have been ratfucked by Reaganonomics for our entire lives, the first ones with insurmountable student debt that cab't be discharged in bankruptcy, the first ones existentially threatened by climate change... really, the list just goes on and on.
*Gen-X shoves hands into pockets, skulks away muttering darkly
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:48 PM on March 3, 2020 [12 favorites]
Because restaurant websites are all mysteriously stuck in 2002 web design, and restaurateurs have agreed at a secret meeting that three-fifths of the landing page should be devoted to hi-res HDR photos of food in case you do not know what a chicken fajita looks like, while things like the location and opening hours should be discreetly hidden away.
We're pioneering plenty of things! We're the first ones to have lower earning potential than our parents, the first ones without the prospect of widespread homeownership, the first ones to have been ratfucked by Reaganonomics for our entire lives, the first ones with insurmountable student debt that cab't be discharged in bankruptcy, the first ones existentially threatened by climate change... really, the list just goes on and on.
*Gen-X shoves hands into pockets, skulks away muttering darkly
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:48 PM on March 3, 2020 [12 favorites]
Why are bath mats are considered "comforts of babyhood?"
My mats guard against calamitous slips and falls (the province of the aged).
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:55 PM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
My mats guard against calamitous slips and falls (the province of the aged).
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:55 PM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
Truly, what is an old person if not merely a reverse baby?
posted by tobascodagama at 12:59 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 12:59 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
My mother and I were trying to guess how the white-with-pops style will look when it’s gone out of fashion. She’s old enough to remember mid century modern minimalism going out, and thinks it was too hard to maintain - when you don’t have the money to fix things, those smooth pale surfaces sure show the dings and dents.
The 1970s took up cluttery old stuff because they were so broke, say my parents - when everything’s a little worn and you can’t replace everything in a set, you make a virtue of mismatch and contrast.
I wish I had thought to ask my Yankee grandparents what Modernist styles looked like from the Depression. They never went full modernist because they wouldn’t have gotten rid of anything `still good', but when they did buy new things they were modern as often as not. Usually made of wood, though, so everything went together-ish and the same tools could repair the new furniture and the old. They also wouldn’t have thought of it as particularly spare, because they remembered homemade farmhouses with no unnecessary elements at all. (All of which were later than rail and industrial tat, so that was possibly an ethnic choice, or left over from the Great Depression. I remember the spareness from visits as a little kid, though. There were pressed-glass-and-cushions great aunts, and also the other kind. )
posted by clew at 1:02 PM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
The 1970s took up cluttery old stuff because they were so broke, say my parents - when everything’s a little worn and you can’t replace everything in a set, you make a virtue of mismatch and contrast.
I wish I had thought to ask my Yankee grandparents what Modernist styles looked like from the Depression. They never went full modernist because they wouldn’t have gotten rid of anything `still good', but when they did buy new things they were modern as often as not. Usually made of wood, though, so everything went together-ish and the same tools could repair the new furniture and the old. They also wouldn’t have thought of it as particularly spare, because they remembered homemade farmhouses with no unnecessary elements at all. (All of which were later than rail and industrial tat, so that was possibly an ethnic choice, or left over from the Great Depression. I remember the spareness from visits as a little kid, though. There were pressed-glass-and-cushions great aunts, and also the other kind. )
posted by clew at 1:02 PM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]
calamitous slips and falls (the province of the aged).
Not just a concern of the aged. If you use your bath for showers and you don't have a mat, you are the definition of an accident not waiting to happen, but an accident that will happen. And it will probably hurt, maybe a lot. I've moved a lot in my time and I always make a point of leaving my bathmat behind ... just so one will be there. The new resident may be disgusted, may stick it in a hazmat bag, but at least I tried.
posted by philip-random at 1:07 PM on March 3, 2020
Not just a concern of the aged. If you use your bath for showers and you don't have a mat, you are the definition of an accident not waiting to happen, but an accident that will happen. And it will probably hurt, maybe a lot. I've moved a lot in my time and I always make a point of leaving my bathmat behind ... just so one will be there. The new resident may be disgusted, may stick it in a hazmat bag, but at least I tried.
posted by philip-random at 1:07 PM on March 3, 2020
They also wouldn’t have thought of it as particularly spare, because they remembered homemade farmhouses with no unnecessary elements at all.
This is an interesting considering that 'modern mcmansions' are taking the 'farm house aesthetic' with a single (or two) rooflines, simpler window designs, one or two paint colors (often all white) and more narrow lot frontages while being roughly the same size in sq footage. How long will this aesthetic last before people decide it is boring?
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:08 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is an interesting considering that 'modern mcmansions' are taking the 'farm house aesthetic' with a single (or two) rooflines, simpler window designs, one or two paint colors (often all white) and more narrow lot frontages while being roughly the same size in sq footage. How long will this aesthetic last before people decide it is boring?
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:08 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Needs more history.
As someone who used to be a magazine junkie, the thing that struck me about Stewart, and I agree with your classifying her as more than just a celebrity designer, is how she seemed to be such an important transitional figure in home aesthetics
It's impossible to understand Martha without going to her sources, which are primarily people like Catherine Ward Beecher. Notice her title, even: American Woman's Home. Not American Family Home. Beecher's aesthetic - organized, labeled, rustic but elegant, spotlessly clean, sized and ordered, interrupted now and then with natural materials with irregular lines - is Martha's aesthetic. It's pretty much a direct ripoff, this time in color on glossy pages. The main innovation Martha added was in her magazine: the glossary, which really comes from systemic taxonomical displays in natural history museums and then made its way into ordered midcentury grids and panels.
For my work I've spent an inordinate amount of time reading 19th century women's magazines. It's amazing how often it happens that I run across articles, process instructions, even entire papercrafts or naturecrafts that have been ripped directly from those pages and recreated for Martha Stewart Living. She and her empire of RISD grads actively mined the 19th century for most of what she has repurposed and re-presented in updated form.
posted by Miko at 1:18 PM on March 3, 2020 [15 favorites]
As someone who used to be a magazine junkie, the thing that struck me about Stewart, and I agree with your classifying her as more than just a celebrity designer, is how she seemed to be such an important transitional figure in home aesthetics
It's impossible to understand Martha without going to her sources, which are primarily people like Catherine Ward Beecher. Notice her title, even: American Woman's Home. Not American Family Home. Beecher's aesthetic - organized, labeled, rustic but elegant, spotlessly clean, sized and ordered, interrupted now and then with natural materials with irregular lines - is Martha's aesthetic. It's pretty much a direct ripoff, this time in color on glossy pages. The main innovation Martha added was in her magazine: the glossary, which really comes from systemic taxonomical displays in natural history museums and then made its way into ordered midcentury grids and panels.
For my work I've spent an inordinate amount of time reading 19th century women's magazines. It's amazing how often it happens that I run across articles, process instructions, even entire papercrafts or naturecrafts that have been ripped directly from those pages and recreated for Martha Stewart Living. She and her empire of RISD grads actively mined the 19th century for most of what she has repurposed and re-presented in updated form.
posted by Miko at 1:18 PM on March 3, 2020 [15 favorites]
99_ , you're right! I'd forgotten those two. I also recall a number of other designers teaming up with Target for clothing lines (Issey Miyaki springs to mind, I'm sure there were lots more) around that time. Hiring known designers really became a thing for big box stores, and is still going strong.
posted by ananci at 1:23 PM on March 3, 2020
posted by ananci at 1:23 PM on March 3, 2020
And incidentally...Mrs Beecher was writing at a similarly liberating time for women, when the Industrial Revolution for the first time removed middle-class men en masse from their homes for the bulk of the day, and brought infrastructure that reduced some of the burden of housework, along with super low wages that allowed almost all middle-class women to have servants. Women now had more free time at home and could use that time to decorate and optimize their environments, which became a point of status and social expectation; they also started doing more entertaining and organizing in their homes, in the form of teas and luncheons. These entertainments were an essential component of organizing around suffrage, abolition, women's rights and other social causes - and being able to invite women with access to power and money meant keeping a presentable and attractive house. Not for the family - for other women.
posted by Miko at 1:26 PM on March 3, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by Miko at 1:26 PM on March 3, 2020 [9 favorites]
I thought Target and Design was a thing in 1990. The democratization of design or something. Not using design to make things look crappy so you could sell other things for more but instead making cheap stuff "nice."
posted by Pembquist at 1:29 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Pembquist at 1:29 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
It's interesting that they harp on the pink thing, to me, because I regularly think about how when I was young we were always asked "What's your favourite colour?" (well, I grew up in the US, so really it was "What's your favorite color?" but I've lived here so long that's actually painful to type now)
And the notion that I'd have a single favourite colour, just named generally, baffles me. Like they're not asking for "cerulean" or "robin's-egg" but just "blue". And the older I get, the more meaningless that question becomes.
Take for starters the fact that brown basically doesn't exist. I mean, not in the sense that fuchsia or magenta don't exist, but just that it's actually "dark orange, with context" as that video puts it. Darken orange and put it against a white field and suddenly it becomes brown. And if you take even moderately dull colours and use them to pepper the edges of a dark shape on a black field, they can seem to glow like phosphorescence in a cave. All colour is context.
And that context means that even palettes are only half-meaningful. Which colour is the field on which all the others are accents? That defines so much. And what textures are involved? Taking just colours from a rugged brick wall or a lush velvet cushion robs the scene of texture and makes it unrecognisable.
So it's more than just "pink", and more like "rose gold, metallic sheen, with magenta highlights", or "dusty rose in peach-skin texture" or "glossy putty" and many more besides. And you can love some of these and be sick of others.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:59 PM on March 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
And the notion that I'd have a single favourite colour, just named generally, baffles me. Like they're not asking for "cerulean" or "robin's-egg" but just "blue". And the older I get, the more meaningless that question becomes.
Take for starters the fact that brown basically doesn't exist. I mean, not in the sense that fuchsia or magenta don't exist, but just that it's actually "dark orange, with context" as that video puts it. Darken orange and put it against a white field and suddenly it becomes brown. And if you take even moderately dull colours and use them to pepper the edges of a dark shape on a black field, they can seem to glow like phosphorescence in a cave. All colour is context.
And that context means that even palettes are only half-meaningful. Which colour is the field on which all the others are accents? That defines so much. And what textures are involved? Taking just colours from a rugged brick wall or a lush velvet cushion robs the scene of texture and makes it unrecognisable.
So it's more than just "pink", and more like "rose gold, metallic sheen, with magenta highlights", or "dusty rose in peach-skin texture" or "glossy putty" and many more besides. And you can love some of these and be sick of others.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:59 PM on March 3, 2020 [7 favorites]
Kids get asked about their favorite ______ constantly, though, rum-soaked space hobo. They can be super-focused in their enthusiasms naturally, and encouraging a favorite whatever primes them for the competitive ranking systems that will govern their lives.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:04 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:04 PM on March 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
*Gen-X shoves hands into pockets, skulks away muttering darkly
On the edge of hearing, a sullen, "whatever."
posted by Fleebnork at 5:56 AM on March 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
On the edge of hearing, a sullen, "whatever."
posted by Fleebnork at 5:56 AM on March 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
This line really resonated with me: "In this era, you come to understand, design was the product. Whatever else you might be buying, you were buying design, and all the design looked the same."
I actually do blame IKEA far more than Martha Stewart or Target for pretty much everything to do with this. I particularly detest the combination of austerity-imposed minimalism and somewhat-attractive-but-ultimately-single-use furniture that has dominated the last fifteen years and change. It's hard because cheap furniture in the nineties was even shittier - I'm not sure IKEA invented flat pack furniture, but as they penetrated they gave it an aesthetic beyond mobile home fiberboard laminate.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:56 AM on March 4, 2020
I actually do blame IKEA far more than Martha Stewart or Target for pretty much everything to do with this. I particularly detest the combination of austerity-imposed minimalism and somewhat-attractive-but-ultimately-single-use furniture that has dominated the last fifteen years and change. It's hard because cheap furniture in the nineties was even shittier - I'm not sure IKEA invented flat pack furniture, but as they penetrated they gave it an aesthetic beyond mobile home fiberboard laminate.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:56 AM on March 4, 2020
why do i suddenly feel like an asshole for liking plants
posted by moons in june at 12:45 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by moons in june at 12:45 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
isn't it an unusual era that doesn't like plants? The Wardian case! The hanging fern! The African violet!
Better cheaper bulbs have made it a lot easier to keep houseplants anywhere you like indoors. But people used to crave cut flowers, cities had whole flower-markets.
posted by clew at 3:50 PM on March 4, 2020
Better cheaper bulbs have made it a lot easier to keep houseplants anywhere you like indoors. But people used to crave cut flowers, cities had whole flower-markets.
posted by clew at 3:50 PM on March 4, 2020
I'm not sure IKEA invented flat pack furniture, but as they penetrated they gave it an aesthetic beyond mobile home fiberboard lamiNate
Yeah. They made it acceptable and even kind of fun and sort of a status marker (“I may be broke, but I have taste”), where the Sauder beaver board furniture that came before spoke only of sadness.
posted by Miko at 6:34 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
Yeah. They made it acceptable and even kind of fun and sort of a status marker (“I may be broke, but I have taste”), where the Sauder beaver board furniture that came before spoke only of sadness.
posted by Miko at 6:34 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
OP here, and I’m sorry that the article seems to have gone down like a cup of cold sick. I didn’t see it as beating on millennials (full disclosure: I’m a millennial myself and own a fiddle-leaf fig plant).
On a small side note, this post lead me to try out new color schemes in my project, with positive results. Using softer reds towards something more pinkish does what one would expect: the output is more delicate, less raging. With the current political environment being so full of anger and fascism, it sends a different message. As inire posted upthread: I liked the article.
One hypothesis about how long this trend will last: perhaps it will go away once the fascists make heavy use of it. Until then, ...
posted by romanb at 12:36 AM on March 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
On a small side note, this post lead me to try out new color schemes in my project, with positive results. Using softer reds towards something more pinkish does what one would expect: the output is more delicate, less raging. With the current political environment being so full of anger and fascism, it sends a different message. As inire posted upthread: I liked the article.
One hypothesis about how long this trend will last: perhaps it will go away once the fascists make heavy use of it. Until then, ...
posted by romanb at 12:36 AM on March 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
Oh, the Sauder "wood"working. Whatever the overall merit of this article, you can't but be grateful that Ikea forced through an upgrade on that aesthetic.
posted by praemunire at 10:40 AM on March 5, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 10:40 AM on March 5, 2020 [4 favorites]
Mid-century modern veneered kitsch is coming back, so be careful what you wish for and/or hate on.
Also the article misses that the cliched Millennial style is varied enough to also encompass Pinteresty arts and crafts/beach-house/farmhouse shabby-chic, at the very least.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:23 PM on March 5, 2020
Also the article misses that the cliched Millennial style is varied enough to also encompass Pinteresty arts and crafts/beach-house/farmhouse shabby-chic, at the very least.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:23 PM on March 5, 2020
Not to be an old lady, but if anyone wants to follow my design inspiration pinterest, here it is: Homes for Homos
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:29 AM on March 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:29 AM on March 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
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Oh, and you don't become an "individual" by being defined by what you don't like/are against. Though a lot do. Don't "rebel", just go your own way. Figuring out what that is is a much bigger job. Especially if you have to create a lot of it wo much help from the surrounding culture.
posted by aleph at 7:50 AM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]