Brits Coming With Blow-Up Furnishings
A boiled egg is cradled comfortably in a tiny pink and blue inner tube. The borders of a frame puff up to surround a picture. A few feathers float around in an inflatable pillow. A bulb glows from a soft, air-filled hanging lamp shade called the UFO.
The creations of Nick Crosbie are part of a new generation of British design that is winging to America. His portable and affordable home furnishings stretch the boundaries of the category of objects known as inflatables.
Currently the rage among college students, those under 30 and other mobile and value-conscious types, inflatable home items are reminiscent of the blow-up fun furniture that popped onto the scene in the Swinging Sixties.
“The products are perfect for people who are mobile,” says Dwight Huffman, whose Brooklyn firm, Haute House, imports Crosbie’s Inflate line.
Huffman says the products, shown at last month’s New York International Gift Fair, attract a young, hip customer.
He has sold the line, at prices ranging from about $5 to $90, to stores such as the Museum of Modern Art Museum Shop in New York and the Urban Outfitters chain.
Crosbie began designing blow-up handbags and jackets with inflatable panels about four years ago. The latest Inflate products include chairs and room dividers, at higher prices. The egg cup, however, a hit in Europe, is being discontinued in the United States.
“How many people do you know who still eat soft-boiled eggs?” says Huffman.