Thoughts on a Style Safari

Last Friday I was lucky enough to attend Home Magazine’s Style Safari, led by the warm and very charming editor of Home Magazine, Jeremy Hansen. If you didn’t catch my interview with Jeremy about the day, you can read it here.

The day was without saying an absolute visual indulgence and we admired some of the best of furniture and lighting design and craftsmanship today. Fifty of us met at Coutts Mercedes-Benz showroom in Newmarket and were then driven for briefings at Studio Italia, Backhouse Design, breaking for lunch in the lovely courtyard of Cibo followed by further briefings at Matisse and then Simon James Design. The presentations were engaging and informative with a treat at the end to learn about the design and creation process first hand from one of New Zealand’s leading designers, Simon James, of Simon James Design, who is also the founder and Creative Director of Resident. I won’t touch on all of the trend forecasts or my favourite items of design, although you can get a glimpse from my Instagram feed here. What I will write about is the common, unexpected theme that popped up throughout the day; sustainability.

I guess it’s without saying that if you were thinking of purchasing a Hans Wegner Wishbone Chair or anything like it, you’d be aware that not only are you purchasing a work of art with superior craftsmanship that will be just as relevant in sixty years time as it was sixty years ago. Adding to that, what you will also be purchasing is an investment that you get to enjoy now and pass on to your future generations, or something that you can always sell. Alan Bertenshaw, the founder and Director of Matisse, spoke of being offered twenty six times what he paid fifteen years prior for his Eames Soft Pad Lounger, which he bought as a vintage item at the time.

What truly opened my eyes was the issue of landfill. Richard Munao, founder and Managing Director of Corporate Culture who has a serious passion for Danish design, spoke of his commitment to sustainability and belief that the key to this is having products that are designed to last. He has recently launched Cultivated, a service available in Australia and soon to New Zealand that will give residential and commercial clients the guarantee for buy back in return for credit for a different purchase or for the product to be taken away, refurbished and returned to the customer. They estimate that there is 100,000 pieces of office furniture going into landfill in Australia annually alone and by clients using the Cultivated service, this should (hopefully) encourage more responsibility when purchasing, especially within the corporate world. He used the Danish government as an example where they are still using the same Fritz Hansen chairs that they were gifted almost a century ago.

Michelle Backhouse of Backhouse Interiors spoke of how beautifully designed furniture is there in your home to get the marks and scratches on it so that it can tell a story to future generations. I love her for saying that! I’d be so fearful of that but I guess it has to start somewhere, and we certainly didn’t hesitate to purchase our vintage design items that look fabulous with all of the scratches in the leather and worn chrome, it just adds to the charm.

So what are your thoughts? Do you think we should we go back to how generations lived before? They didn’t have that immediate gratitude mindset that we tend to have today. It was the norm to put money aside until they had enough to purchase that perfect, long-standing, quality product. We’d certainly have beautiful homes with items that appreciate in value, tell a story, not to mention a lot less landfill.

The Style Safari was such a fun, non-pretentious day that really got me thinking, not to mention a wonderful way to start the weekend.

It’s a public holiday here on Monday so like most of New Zealand, I’ll be taking the day off.  I’ll see you back here on Wednesday. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Mel x