Is it possible that English furniture is making a comeback in the world of fashion? Did it really go out of fashion? The two questions are of great interest to me for obvious reasons. The second question is more important, however. Because fashion, like Iraq’s WMD’s, is insubstantial and often imaginary, it is all to the better when the hullabaloo created by the press and auction houses subsides and people can think about what they want to live with, not with what some magazine says is hot.
Every English furniture dealer thinks that their inventory is the greatest and that is how it should be no matter what anyone else says. I certainly think mine is and yet it can always get better. Are their better inventories out there? It is the wrong question. What a buyer should focus on is understanding what they are buying and have some form of personal, intellectual or emotional, attachment to what they buy. Hotel lobbies are allowed, even strive to, be impersonal. Homes should not be.
Ultimately, decoarting is not about catching any old wave, it is about catching THE wave and feeling comfortable once the ride has begun. It takes confidence to know what you want, particularly when it is anything but cheap. People are showing that confidence now. I hope that there are a lot more surfers coming down the pipe line.