Some chairs, including the Eames DCW and LCW, are in modern production and not out of reach for the average consumer. I could never hope to find or afford many of the chairs full-scale. Marc Newson’s slick Lockheed Lounge (sold at auction for $1.5 million in 2007) will always be outside my reach. Others are from small editions, some rare but nevertheless iconic in the history of modern furniture design.

Founded by Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum in 1989, the Vitra Design Museum has one of the largest collections of modern furniture design in the world. With more than 3,000 chairs from all major periods and styles, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present, this collection takes us from Breuer and Le Corbusier to Gehry and Starck.

The Vitra miniatures are not dollhouse furniture but precise reproductions of original masterpieces. Three-dimensional teaching objects for students, designers, and connoisseurs, they are useful tools of study about construction, craftsmanship and design. Their sales add to the financial budget of the Museum funding further miniatures and chair design by new designers.

Take the five inch high jewel perfection that is Hans Wegner’s 3-Benet Skalstol. Hold it carefully in your hands. The balance. The color. The touch. So perfect it might float away. How else could I own a 1898 Mackintosh Argyle Chair and a Taliesen West Chair by Frank Lloyd Wright? Impractical, you might think. Perhaps, but what perfection. What wonder and desire fulfilled simply sitting on there on the mantelpiece.

“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” is Jacques Demy’s 1964 classic film with music by Michel Legrand and starring the young and exquisitely beautiful Catherine Deneuve. The story of Genevieve, the daughter of a shop owner who falls in love with Guy, a handsome auto mechanic (played by the striking Nino Castelnuovo), with the war in Algeria, France’s Vietnam, thrown in for good measure.

Drawing on fairy tales and the Hollywood musical “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” is filled with stunning detail and visual impact. Instead of the austere Black and White cinematography typical of the French New Wave, Jacques Demy shot this film in over-saturated color. The sets and scenery, the costumes, the music and even the opening choreography are thrilling. Pinks, oranges, yellows, blues and greens transform the drab seaside town of Cherbourg, seen through the eyes of young love. Scarves, umbrellas, neckties, wallpaper, even Catherine Deneuve’s hair all complement then clash according to the mood and dramatic tension of the film.

Thank you Mike and Nancy for giving me this opportunity. I hope you all enjoy the film as much as I do.

Umbrellas of Cherbourg will be shown at The Showroom, 708 Cookman Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ Thursday, July 23 @ 8 pm &
Friday, July 24 @ 7 pm and 9 pm

Shelter Home will be giving out goodie bags to all moviegoers.

In the design world David Weeks is known for his elegant, high-end designs at Ralph Pucci International: delicate chandeliers reminiscent of Alexander Calder’s kinetic mobiles and the asymmetric Sculpt sofa inspired by topographical maps and the stone sculptures of Barbara Hepworth.

For Areaware, a New York-based design collective, David Weeks has designed Hanno the Gorilla and Ursa the Bear. Made from sustainably-harvested beech wood, the animals are held together with elastic bands allowing the limbs and head to be manipulated and take on expression. Both come in smaller versions, Hanno Jr. and Ursa Minor, and are accompanied by descriptive biographies and instructions for “Care and Feeding: Love Ursa! She was created to be your friend and protector.”

For Kikkerland, David Weeks has designed Castlight: a rubberized candleholder & LED flashlight all in one. The flashlight is hidden in the base of the candleholder. With a twist of the base of the candleholder, you have light. in the event of a power outage, you know exactly where to find the flashlight. No worrying which drawer it was stashed or who had the flashlight last. David’s design fits like a glove into Kikkerland’s creed that the most utilitarian object should be a discovery.

David Weeks clearly enjoys stepping outside the formality of his stunning work for Ralph Pucci. Working with less refined materials like chunky wood and black rubber, we are the beneficiaries of his sense of fun and play in the everyday.

Barbara Bestor in her 2006 book “Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake” described Bohemian Modern as a movement of a variety of “people who live happily and comfortably in modern environments without sacrificing their individuality.”

Her California community seems a sister city to Asbury Park. Silver Lake was initially settled by silent film stars (we had our own, Myrna Loy at the Santander), followed by progressives and artists. In the 1950s Silver Lake grew more conservative and more racially divided, followed by an influx of gays in the 1970s searching for an alternative to West Hollywood.

Although AP has little mid-century architecture, it shares the spirit as a place where diverse populations converge to regenerate and express their individuality.

What I especially love about BoMo is the dynamic interplay of design with personality. A few select pieces of mid-century furniture with a pinch of Marrakech; comfortable modern and a twist of self-expression.

Personal, non-conforming even idiosyncratic collections of photography, pottery or posters, express individuality. Display in either bold fashion for dramatic effect, or random clustering to build a history. The less formal the approach, the more comforting the environment.

Decide an overall theme for your home. A bold accent color that travels throughout your home. Perhaps bold wall colors but maintaining the baseboards the same color throughout. A particular designer could inspire you, perhaps Verner Panton. Or a Jack Lenore Larson fabric. Even a raw material like steel.

BoMo is about expression, not austerity. What is important in Bohemian Modern is clutter control, which in turn leads to the tranquil bohemian.

The beauty and humor of his REALITY line is compelling and contagious. Not only do his objects work in the most modern homes, but because of his almost baroque attention to detail, a pair of frosted candlesticks cast from his grandmother’s silver would look stunning in even the most traditional or Victorian room.

Harry Allen, an independent designer as well as a member of the hip New York City-based Areaware design collective, states:

“The search for decoration must go deep. Why apply arbitrary decoration when there are so many completely logical sources? Decoration from within. Materials. Structure. Process. A beautiful object is not decorated, it is the decoration.”

My Harry Allen favorites: the fruit bowl cast from a bunch of bananas and the groovy green roller skate Roller Stop, a doorstop or bookend cast from a roller skate (the nostalgia and happiness is almost instantaneous) which appeared on the cover of June 2009 Metropolitan Home and made the list of the top Design 10.

The simple act of touching an object changes the relationship with the viewer from passive to interactive. With Cardboardesign’s Liquid Cardboard the object, a small corrugated disc of cardboard, upon being held, transforms. The disc flips in your hands: a seemingly simple shape becomes another, then another, and again another of this handsomely tactile cardboard. The five Liquid Cardboard shapes can be combined together to build totems around bottles or vases – almost a toy for adults. Even the name Liquid Cardboard engages thought and creativity.

A simple touch and your mind is open to possibilities.

Cardboardesign also has a line of furniture: chairs, desks, stools, and toys all constructed of cardboard. Not only fun but eco-friendly. Their booth at the New York International Gift Fair was a mob scene last January.

There is something about cardboard.

I am reminded of Frank Gehry’s now classic Wiggle Side Chair & Wiggle Stool, both from 1972. The viewer contemplates (still) these designs almost doubting: can I really sit on either? Not only are they strong but the seams of exposed corrugated cardboard invite you to touch, to caress even, its surprisingly soft edges.

How exciting to find beauty in the everyday materials which we usually just throw away. Now at least with recycling, the design world is looking at ways to give waste another life.

Designers have begun to look at everyday objects, interpreting them in eco-friendly material: organic cotton, hemp, felt, recycled cardboard, cork, plastic bottles recycled into polyester, reused wood, repurposed glass bottles and even tires. Product packaging is even becoming eco-friendlier, utilizing more recyclable cardboard and less of the hard plastic.

Imagine: bowls, purses and lamp shades made from felt; stools and binders made from cork. Today, even furniture is being constructed from cardboard.

Good design also makes ecological sense. The better something is made and designed, the less likely we are to throw it away, as has often driven our mass consumer society. “Against Thowawayism” is the ad campaign of Iittala a Finnish company: design so good you hold on to it for years. Some of their glassware was designed 75 years ago, and is still cutting edge today.

Asbury Park can be viewed as a recycled, repurposed city. We have taken what other’s did not want and created homes and businesses for ourselves in the shell of a city. Street by street homes have been restored and local businesses are sprouting from Main Street, along Cookman and Bang Avenues, all the way to the Boardwalk. Many wrote off Asbury Park, but we are making a come back in spite of the economy.

Buying previously owned furniture is Green. Besides, what trip to Asbury Park would be complete without stopping by House of Modern Living @ 718 Cookman Avenue? Billy Meisch was a pioneer here in town for more than a decade, with great (even famous) mid-century furniture, collectibles you’d expect to see in SoHo or Palm Springs. Billy’s collection of Dansk wood classic serveware, which is for sale, would be at home in a fine mid-century museum. FS20, catty-corner across Cookman, is a great compliment to the mid-century look. FS20 recycles selling great stripped-down industrial pieces, old signage, and great glass fixtures. Porcelain latex glove molds, carnival clown heads, and funky 60’s bars. There is also Corazza Mid-Century on the boardwalk, for a wilder take. Owner Kathleen Banks even has pieces previously owned by Luther Vandross. Buying previously-owned furniture is great and is definitely Green.

New to Asbury Park, my partner and I are recent transplants from New York City. We loved the small town, urban feel of Asbury Park and the creativity of the people we still meet everyday. We opened our own store Shelter Home, just up from House of Modern Living, as an expression of our love for good design, in home decor, furniture, and unique gifts. People come to Asbury Park to create, to do something for themselves, to express and to connect. We are all different and all part of this wonderfully funky Mayberry-by-the-Sea. We are All Asbury Park.