As a preternaturally wise salesman once said, “When you get deeply into sales you find that every major transaction involves a mini-identity crisis for the buyer: “A green carpet? Am I really a green carpet person?” For 40 years, the British design company Habitat has been helping consumers through the green carpet question. But now, the company seems to be having an identity crisis of its own.
The original British design champion, Habitat, now appears to bow lower to celebrity than to design talent. Its brand-new anniversary range goes on sale tomorrow, and is not a soothingly sensible array of novel household items, designed by professionals and made exceptionally accessible for laypeople. It includes a flower-shaped lamp and a milking stool. Such practical pieces were envisioned by such eminent members of the design fraternity as the model Helena Christensen and the actor Ewan McGregor.
Back in 1982, a new Habitat range of 178 items was introduced, carrying the name “Habitat Basics”. Terence Conran, Habitat chairman, said then that the goods marked a return to basics, a re-emphasis of the company’s commitment to design, quality and price. Just what, it might be wondered, does the new hat-inspired £1,200 chair, whipped up by the milliner Philip Treacy, mark?
The design world has matured in the past four decades. Just as Conran — now Sir Terence — predicted, the practice of “own labelling” has been popularised. Retailers have developed a personality and power all their own. Shopping has become more pastime than chore. Meantime, celebrities have become omnipotent. But the design world has always put a premium on its own, specific, proprietary talents. It tends to resent interlopers, particularly those due to receive handsome royalty cheques, in their hallowed studios.
What will it make of retail junkies rushing to buy a £1,000 coffee table by the dance outfit Daft Punk? Bubbly champagne flutes designed by the freediver Tanya Streeter? How about Sir Stirling Moss’s home/office storage system? At least he has design credentials. “I am a Virgo,” he has said, “so I am very fussy about organisation.”
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This scheme suggests that everyone has one book and one piece of industrial design in him. If so, the design world should adapt. Habitat and peers have worked for years to convince us that design is worthy both of respect and lots of money, that everything from hotels to door handles is infinitely improved when touched by a real master. But if any old someone can create the very latest-look digital equipment — the boxer Lennox Lewis’s alarm clock, £39 — surely the price should be marked down, not up.