A 2010 Neo-baroque reaction to 1990s Minimalism

A 2010  illustration the neo-baroque furniture available from Maisons du Monde in Europe at that time(they have a fine website). In a reaction to 1990s austere minimalism  contemporary taste has swung to the bright,  theatrical and flamboyant. There is certainly the element of  Disneyland pastiche, and those who remember the animated Disney films of the 60s will recognise the source of some of the  Maisons du Monde products. Since then the monochrome of this image has been abandoned and 2016 taste demands complex texture, pattern and vibrant colour. “Clean lines” once an approbation, is now shorthand for the deeply unfashionable. As one of my 20something customers recently observed, his friends consider, “Minimalism is the new naff”. I am torn between the view on Minimalism and the use of the word naff. In the Museum of the Adolescent in Chicago, there is an exhibition about recurrent buzzwords. I can only recall that “hip” was the in word for 1904. Language, like clothing and interior fashion is such a joy, and such a fertile area for stimulating exploration.