Henry Bowman
Senior Member
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/home/articles/2006/01/19/misfire/
Misfire?
By Linda Matchan, Globe Staff | January 19, 2006
What's stylish this year in home design?
Bold graphic patterns. Blue and brown, used together. Bamboo. Green walls.
And guns.
Hel-lo?
Yes, design afficionados, it appears pistols, AK47s, and other graphically distinct firearms have become the latest cute, iconic silhouettes.
''For some odd reason, designers all seem to have come up with this idea at the same time," says Helene Ige, who designed a line of Victorian-themed pillows, including one with a pistol design, which she sells in her Los Angeles store, called Ige.
We will go out on a limb here and say this is perhaps not a nice message to be sending to consumers. At the risk of sounding anti-hip, isn't it remotely possible that gun design might be interpreted as the glorification of violence? Doesn't the home fashion industry -- like the clothing fashion industry -- recognize that their images pack a powerful subtext? (See: Mayor Thomas M. Menino's campaign against ''Stop Snitchin' " T-shirts.)
Obviously not everyone thinks so. Today's gun motifs are ''executed with more wink than menace," chirps the happy-go-lucky shopping mag Lucky, which featured the trend in its January issue.
We decided to talk to the gun-slinging sources.
''A gun is more than just a weapon," says Ige. The design of her silk pillow, she says, ''was based on the beauty of the object, not what the object was used for. The image is historical rather than violent."
And what's up with the Philippe Starck gun lamps? ''The guns collection is nothing but a sign of the times," the French designer wrote in a narrative poem about the lamps. ''Weapons are our new icons. Our lives are only worth a bullet."
The lamps are sold at a design store called Moss in New York and at mossonline.com. Moss president Franklin Getchell says Starck ''wanted to make a statement . . . about the way in which guns and gun imagery have insinuated itself into our everyday life." So does Moss, which has recently carried a series of war-themed products, such as gun soap and grenade votive candles. ''We want our store to comment on the pervasiveness of this stuff in our society, which we are not supporting."
But isn't there a danger that this subtle message might backfire, given that the average consumer does not drink from the fountain of Cool-ade?
''We've had people in the store from Texas who wanted to buy it because it was a gun," Getchell acknowledges. ''It was not an ironic lamp to them."
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
Misfire?
By Linda Matchan, Globe Staff | January 19, 2006
What's stylish this year in home design?
Bold graphic patterns. Blue and brown, used together. Bamboo. Green walls.
And guns.
Hel-lo?
Yes, design afficionados, it appears pistols, AK47s, and other graphically distinct firearms have become the latest cute, iconic silhouettes.
''For some odd reason, designers all seem to have come up with this idea at the same time," says Helene Ige, who designed a line of Victorian-themed pillows, including one with a pistol design, which she sells in her Los Angeles store, called Ige.
We will go out on a limb here and say this is perhaps not a nice message to be sending to consumers. At the risk of sounding anti-hip, isn't it remotely possible that gun design might be interpreted as the glorification of violence? Doesn't the home fashion industry -- like the clothing fashion industry -- recognize that their images pack a powerful subtext? (See: Mayor Thomas M. Menino's campaign against ''Stop Snitchin' " T-shirts.)
Obviously not everyone thinks so. Today's gun motifs are ''executed with more wink than menace," chirps the happy-go-lucky shopping mag Lucky, which featured the trend in its January issue.
We decided to talk to the gun-slinging sources.
''A gun is more than just a weapon," says Ige. The design of her silk pillow, she says, ''was based on the beauty of the object, not what the object was used for. The image is historical rather than violent."
And what's up with the Philippe Starck gun lamps? ''The guns collection is nothing but a sign of the times," the French designer wrote in a narrative poem about the lamps. ''Weapons are our new icons. Our lives are only worth a bullet."
The lamps are sold at a design store called Moss in New York and at mossonline.com. Moss president Franklin Getchell says Starck ''wanted to make a statement . . . about the way in which guns and gun imagery have insinuated itself into our everyday life." So does Moss, which has recently carried a series of war-themed products, such as gun soap and grenade votive candles. ''We want our store to comment on the pervasiveness of this stuff in our society, which we are not supporting."
But isn't there a danger that this subtle message might backfire, given that the average consumer does not drink from the fountain of Cool-ade?
''We've had people in the store from Texas who wanted to buy it because it was a gun," Getchell acknowledges. ''It was not an ironic lamp to them."
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
ing thought fascists.
