Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Ideabook Tuesday: Heritage

Heritage is a food trend and a trend in fashion, so I'm pretty sure it's about to be a new design buzzword, too. Here's what I had to say about it on Houzz:

The September issue of W arrived in my mailbox last week and when I opened it to the letter from the editor, one single word stared me right in the face: "heritage."

The letter wrote about "heritage" as the current buzzword in fashion, where it seems to refer to anything even remotely related to the past (and considering how quickly fashion trends evolve, the past could be about five minutes ago).

I like vintage clothes as much as the next girl, but my noticing has less to do with my interest in fashion trends than with my interest in food trends, though. "Heritage" has been all the rage in food for the past few years - just ask the heritage turkeys that grace every food mag around each November.

If it's hot in the fashion world and hot in the food world, you know what's next, right? That's right: heritage design.

In food, "heritage" means more than just "old" - it has something to do with pedigree and with knowing where a food item comes from. In this case, design is more like food than fashion, with trends that last longer than one season, and where a single piece - an armoire, for instance - can long outlive a pair of even the most finely made jeans (and requires a larger investment). Heritage in design is about the history of an item or even materials, and also about the history of the people who have interacted with those items.

So watch for it. I expect we'll start to see more articles and posts about "heritage" design - starting here:


3 comments:

tobyp said...

Hi Kit. Stumbled onto your post this morning as I'm flying out the door to work. The buzzword got me too, a few weeks ago. I shared here: http://polkadotreehouse.blogspot.com/2010/07/strategy-and-from-whence-did-it-come.html --
The history behind things adds a layer of interest that can't be beat!
I enjoy your work.
tobyp

Kit Pollard said...

Thanks, Toby - you're right - your post and mine are right along the same lines. What's funny, too, is that you mention provenance and one of the commenters on the actual ideabook on Houzz (that you get to if you click through) specifically suggested that term as one to watch...

tobyp said...

Speaking of heritage design... Check out my friend's bathing suits at http://www.1-9-7-9.com/. The high waisted bikini bottoms are hot!

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