Did God Think of Style?
The 2006 New York Design Fair - Part 2 of 3
Well, here it is the second part of my survey about God as a designer. But how could I move on without thinking of the magic word that always intrigued my life? Style. The 2006 New York Fair sponsored by the upscale Departure Magazine took place at the same time as the Architectural Digest one at the Manhattan Park Avenue Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue.
It is basically a prestigious assemblage of different jewelers, antique stores, and designer’s showcases, all having an impact on us, the public, in relation to what we should identify as style. If any of you read my last post, you should be familiar by now about the weekly portion of the readings of Moses books, the Torah.
This week for some reason God still insists in the reading to describe the visual characteristics of the Kohen Gadol (high priest) garment and adornments as described in the Tetzaveh portion which are, the “efod”, an apron-like garment made of blue, purple and red-dyed wool, linen and gold thread; the “choshen”, a breastplate containing twelve precious stones inscribed with the names ofve tribes Israel; “me’il” — a cloak of blue wool, with gold bells and decorative pomegranates in it hem; the “tzitz” — a golden plate worn on the foreh bearing the inscription “Holy to God.”
I must tell you that my New York living room has had exactly the same color combination as the high priest garment, and still at the time I was picking them up I was not familiar with the Kabbalah book of splendors (with all respect, surely it would have made my life easier regarding making the right choices!!!) But going back to the design fair it seems to me that more than ever the revival of 1930 glamour to 1950 modern era are the headlines of what today can be called to be in style. But do we know what we are talking about when we mention this important word?
One of the semantic definitions of the word “style” is: manner of doing things, especially in a fashionable way. “Fashion” semantic definition is a current (constantly changing) trend, favored for frivolous in spite of by practical, logical, or intellectual reasons. Then you must explain it to me because I don’t understand if to be on style is frivolous and constantly changing, how come red and blue combination of colors from the times of the High Priests to the one of my living room created in 1997 and the 2006, 1930 revival at the New York Design fair still have the same visual and appealing impact?
When I find myself in times of struggle a great friend of mine has the habit of always repeating to me with an amused, challenging, provocative smile: “My dear Joelle, you must do like Madonna… You must REINVENT yourself! “
I always thought of him to be crazy, but obviously he has nothing of crazy, he just knows what Lavoiser was thinking when he wrote, “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed,” and Lavoisier would know what Einstein was thinking when he said, “I want to know God’s thoughts, the rest are details”
Related Links:
The exhibition:
http://www.newyorkdesignfair.com/index.html
The Galleries:
http://www.markmcdonald.biz/ceramicsrecent.html
http://www.joakimvonditmar.com/
http://www.20thcenturycollections.com/furniture_p2.html
http://www.markmcdonald.biz/
