Mediterranean Style Is Back…Like It Or Not

Flirtations with Modernism, move over. Like it or not, there is a new esthetic M-word - Mediterranean - thanks to the American furniture industry’s abrupt turn at the International Home Furnishings Market.

The twice-yearly event, the world’s largest furniture exposition, opened on April 10 and ends today. The ponderous furniture being introduced in many of the more than 2,000 showrooms was more than a little reminiscent of the Mediterranean style that was last popular in the 1960s, although manufacturers coyly searched the dictionary for any euphemism: southern European, casual Continental.

Baroque was back, from the Hearst Castle Collection by Lane (a homage to the brooding interiors of La Cuesta Encantada, William Randolph Hearst’s house-cum-cathedral) to the San Marino Collection by Hickory Chair (furnishings inspired by the republic near the Adriatic coast that is so small that it is known almost only to stamp collectors).

Finishes with names like Cappuccino and Adobe abounded, as did bulbous turned legs, elaborate carving, nailhead trim and bodacious silhouettes. If one curve was nice, then surely two, three or four were better.

This trend toward heavy ornament, some observers said, is being driven by real estate. As a flier from Hickory Chair said, “The pieces are generously scaled and proportioned, complementing today’s larger living styles.” In other words, big enough to fill the vastness of suburban housing developments, where some builders make up for limited square footage with double-height living rooms and manorial master suites.

For some manufacturers, hyper scaling seemed an outward manifestation of silent prayers: give customers more furniture for the money, and maybe they will buy.

The latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the average annual consumer spending on furniture at a disappointing $317 a person. That is less than a quarter of the $1,664 spent on dining out or the $1,626 spent on other entertainments.

One small but increasingly vocal segment of the home furnishings industry, where executives are predominantly male, offered its own solution to furniture’s problems: put more women in charge.

“It’s women who are buying this product,” said Judy George, the president of Domain, a chain of home-furnishings stores. “The men in the industry have to do a whole lot more than they’re doing for this woman they’re trying to sell to.”