Modern furniture lets go of its hard edges

GAILE ROBINSON
The straight line in contemporary furniture had become

so taut, so hard-edged and brittle, it was bound to snap. The geometrics couldn’t get any more square, the legs any more straight or upholstery more taut. While beautiful in its simplicity, it had become so spare that there was no place left to pare.
It was only natural that the linear silhouette would begin to slither out of alignment. It began to bend slightly and, relishing the new freedom, the sinuous line began to undulate. The ramrod posture of the box became a curvy hourglass. What was masculine and bold morphed into something feminine and light.
The new furniture is decidedly womanly with twists and turns, curls and loops, spirals and spins. It is light on its feet, barely touching the floor, as if en pointe.
One of the first to feel the need of a feminine turn was Lisa Versacio, who began West Elm for Williams-Sonoma, first as a catalog and then as stores that specialize in sleek, ultramodern furnishings for the home. She was enticed away from the San Francisco-based retailer by Restoration Hardware to create a new company. Versacio named the new venture Brocade Home and launched the first catalog and Web site, www.brocadehome.com, in early fall. Stores are scheduled to come later.
“When I looked at the competitive landscape, I felt there was an opportunity for something more feminine or romantic,” she says. “What Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, and Room & Board were all doing felt like male energy, responding to a male aesthetic. The leather club chairs (and) big clunky furniture were all very heavy. I didn’t really see anybody focusing on what I refer to as a feminine aesthetic, something that looked clean and fresh, integrating the best of clean lines from the modern world and updating some things and ideas pulled from the past.”
Versacio took the fanciful decoration of the rococo period and applied it to pieces with contemporary proportions.
“I chose things that had a beautiful shape that complemented clean lines and added just a little touch of softness or decoration,” she says.
The results are beds with curlicue headboards and delicate legs, sofas with camel backs, and Parsons tables with a scrolled bottom line.
Some established brick-and-mortar retailers are in on the feminine trend. The Conran Shop, a fast-forward chain based in London with stores in Japan, Paris and New York City, is selling a much-embellished console table, the Poldo Como, with a shape that would please a king of France, but coated in a high-gloss lacquer colored in contemporary bright orange ($4,590, from www.conran.com.) They also have delicate side chairs that look to be modeled after the lightness and grace of a gazelle. Too insubstantial to be made of wood, the Charme chair is cast aluminum with a leather seat.
This hybridization of old shapes in new finishes can be seen in several instances at the high end of furniture design.
A typical Louis XV chair has been regenerated in cast aluminum with patent-leather upholstery by furniture designer Pascal Bevillard. Pricey at $3,250, designers love the way it looks. The Tommy Hilfiger store in New York has used it in multiples. The Marquis has made appearances in shelter magazines Domino and House and Garden. It has been featured on HGTV.
Bevillard, who is based in Bogart, Ga., used an authentic Louis XV chair to make the mold. It has even crossed the line from furniture to fashion item – the bright and shiny chair is scheduled to grace the pages of Vogue in January and Glamour in February. It has found favor in minimalist loft surroundings and in the collections of traditionalists who like the mix of unusual materials. Because it is weatherproof, some brave decorators have installed it outside, as porch furniture. It can be ordered directly from Bevillard at www.pascalfrenchfurniture.com.
Furniture designer Paul Mathieu has taken three nesting tables, which have a Louis XV antecedent, abbreviated their height, given them the curves of a midcentury movie star and bathed the hand-carved wood in a metal coating. He calls them his Louise tables. The new sheen, stature and swirls make these tables look refreshingly new. They can be ordered through the Stephanie Odegard Collection, 212-545-0069 in either a copper or brass for $5,360.
Even familiar stores, such as Haverty’s, are sensing the new lightness of being. An occasional chair has swooping arms that end in taut spirals. This chair is a little lighter and certainly a great deal more sensuous than the usual overstuffed, heavy lines common to recent furniture design. Called the Victoria, it is one of eight curvilinear chairs in a new line Haverty’s is launching to appeal directly to women. “It’s a combination of clean and curves,” says Brandi Robinson, manager of the Haverty’s Vista Ridge store. She says it will appeal to the Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers who now have homes and are looking for their own style.
As with so many things that will be attributed to the Xs and Ys, this furniture, like much of their music and fashion, has a strong antecedent. Only the surface gloss is new.