Design for living
ON WEDNESDAY EVENING, some 50 urbanites, bundled up to their rectangular Alain Mikli glasses, congregated at Design Within Reach's Harvard Square showroom to hear local fashion designer Elaine Perlov reveal the secrets of "modular dressing." The event was the latest Community Design Forum, held the second Wednesday of each month at DWR's Cambridge "studio," where the design-savvy gather to test-drive the San Francisco-based retailer's mid-century modern and contemporary furniture.
"I wanted to use this space as a forum for designers and fans of design to exchange ideas," explained studio manager Kristine Langevin, who originated the series. "People have this notion that design" -- she fluttered her eyelashes in mock awe -- "is something too exalted to discuss. But the people who show up here -- architects, furniture designers, industrial designers -- are interested in theory and technique, not just products."
Perlov, a 1991 Amherst College grad who stumbled upon her true vocation in `92 when the fabric-wrapped, hand-twisted galvanized-steel "Immortal Coil" hat she designed while working as a curatorial intern at the MFA was hailed as brilliant, did not disappoint. The assembled theory-hounds, who perched on Philippe Starck's aluminum Hudson chairs and Jess Gasca's "expressive, even voluptuous" chromed-steel-and-plywood Globuses, heard Perlov discuss her notion of "relativeness," which she defined as the interrelatedness of discrete objects within a specific context, like items of furniture in a room. But "it's not so theoretical that it's unwearable," Perlov said, pointing out that she was wearing her own eyelet tunic and plaid "shimmer pants" combo. For the benefit of aspiring designers, she also spoke animatedly of frog closures, darts, and kick pleats, and encouraged everyone to visit ElainePerlov.com for fashion tips.
At February's forum, Langevin will host the Champagne Chair Tour, which features the winners of DWR's pre-New Year's contest challenging participants to build a miniature chair using the cork and wire basket from a champagne bottle. Successful past forums on everything from "ambient technology" to New Balance sneakers, she told Ideas, only increased her determination to educate Bostonians about the nuts and bolts of design. "I plan to have a hairdresser give a talk soon -- and then take volunteers from the audience," she said.
