Page 24 - Issue 29 - VE Magazine

Parker Knoll PK1020 recliner chair (pair), on sale at £850, and palm lamp by Maison Jansen appearing at Midcentury East from Moderne
T
‘We love people who specialise in certain areas and brighten up the place’
wall lights and mirrors, is achingly on-trend!
When push comes to shove, trends will always come and go – in our homes, cars or clobber – so ultimately it’s really just about buying the best example of what you love. And if you buy right, you may even make a pretty penny on it should you decide to love
something different!
Witness to this ever-changing de-
sign and decor thinking over the years is Modern Shows, run by dream team Petra Curtis and Lucy Ryder Richard-
son. As our trading arm Molecula is a regular exhibitor at their Dulwich Show, we’ve seen the changes in the Mid-cen- tury buying trends play out there over the years. And while their shows still attract a core following of true modern design nuts, today it’s become a one-stop-shop for anyone with an eye for kitting out their home – offering anything from repur-
posed designer pieces to a bit of Hollywood glamour. I asked Petra and Lucy – both massive collectors themselves – about the more eclectic and diverse look at their shows these days. This is what they had to say.
LRR: “The years between the 1930s to the late 1970s is a very eclectic period, touching so many styles. You only have to visit Palm Springs as I do and do the round of cocktail parties at peoples’ houses to see how eclectic it actually is. While you can go for a Scandi- navian template – as we ourselves did more in our earlier shows – now we like to mix it up with metal and enamel and bright prints, as happened at the time in the Mid-century, when everyone was using redundant materials from the war.
Ernest Race and the Eameses used all sorts of fab- rics – we like to as well. You’ll find dealers such as the amazing BB Bespoke; there’s our resident Pineapple man (which is about as kitsch as we get but he does it with style!), and our industrial guys Metro Retro and Vintage Unit as well as the bright poster people Travel on Paper and Orson & Welles. Then there are the Mo- roccan rugs – those Berber rugs championed by Aalto and Eames. We have them at the show too.
“Petra and I bring a style that has evolved in our own houses and through our work doing up the odd restaurant, property or office – but also a style our customer asks for. We love people who specialise in certain areas and brighten up the place. We are keen to use people who are popular on social media as they
HE WAY THE MARKETPLACE for past treasures ebbs and flows is fascinating – and very evident to us here, writing about antiques and now vintage too, over the past 16 years. It wasn’t so long ago that the antiques trade declared that ‘brown fur- niture’ was dead, killed in part by that painted, shabby chic look. Now thankfully, solid craftsmanship has sprung back into favour, and when combined with a classic Mid-century chair and highly decorative brass
24 / August-September 2016 / ve
www.vintagexplorer.co.uk
Above: Modernist wall light attributed to Maison Jansen in the form of a desert succulent, priced at £1,450 from Moderne. Routemaster bus blind - first stop Marble Arch - priced at £240 from Metro Retro. Left: Industrial German 1950s mechanic’s drawers priced at £285 from Vintage Unit