Dept. of Patrick. If you have recieved the new Crate & Barrel catalog, you may have noticed that something is shaking beneath the aging behemoth (we say that with love). Patrick nails it:
The new Crate & Barrel catalog is starting to read a little like a design who's who... Eva Ziesel, Jonathan Adler and Michael Graves all have products represented ...
Too true. Perhaps Gordon and Carole Segal out in Chicago were growing a little concerned at the rapid pace of fashion infusing the House and Home market? Perhaps Room & Board showed them how to successfully weave branded products into their own lineup? Perhaps Jonathan Adler told them that he wasn't overexposed enough?
At any rate, the new catalog is good, but not excellent, and we don't think the new designers are helping too much. Here are a few of our picks - classics, every one (okay, the table is just for fun):
(Thanks, Patrick!) MGR
I do like the idea of C&B reissuing and/or resurrecting some design classics, like what they've been doing with Marimekko the past few seasons, and what they have done with the Eva Ziesel dinnerware. But the Adler/Graves stuff seems beneath them (C&B), to me. If they want to go name-brand designer, I'd rather see something by some less exposed talents (like Martha Sturdy, for example, who seems to be more a fit there.)
But collect it up now, nonetheless, as it seems Adler and Graves are jockeying to be the Russell Wright/C&R Eames of our generation...
PS-- When Karim Rashid joins the C&B party, THEN they have gone too far.