Details Magazine
That 70’s Show
March 2006

Console by Paul Evans, at Todd Merrill

Console by Paul Evans, at Todd Merrill

Table and Desk by Paul Evans, at Todd Merrill Antiques

Table and Desk by Paul Evans, at Todd Merrill Antiques

Table and Desk by Paul Evans, at Todd Merrill Antiques

Table and Desk by Paul Evans, at Todd Merrill Antiques

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THAT 70’S SHOW

By Maura Egan | Photos by Andrew Bettles

FOR MOST OF US, the phrase seventies decor brings to mind beanbag chairs, avocado-green wall-to-wall carpeting, and hard-candy plastics. But while the Disco Decade certainly had its share of schlock, it also bore artful furniture from designers like Paul Evans, Vladimir Kagan, Karl Springer, and Philip and Kelvin Laverne that is currently enjoying a renaissance–and has hawkeyed collectors rooting around basements from Long Island to Palm Springs.

The hallmarks of the haute seventies style are highly polished metals, expensive burled woods, precious animal skins, and maybe a Lucite leg or two. They are the fixings for swanky bachelor pads, like that of Tom Ford, who helped nudge Kagan back into the spotlight when he accessorized his Gucci stores with the designer’s sectional seating. “You look at some of these coffee tables, and you can imagine the Studio 54 crowd doing lines off them,” says Jim Walrod, the design consigliere who outfitted the Standard hotel in Los Angeles and the Park restaurant in Manhattan.

The revival of the coke-era aesthetic comes on the heels of a saturation point in the mid-century modern market. In today’s excitable climate, an Eames rocker reproduction holds, in some cases, the same value as the real thing. And with a classic Prouve desk commanding six figures, it was only a matter of time before design hounds looked to the Saturday Night Fever generation for more affordable treasures.

But cheaper doesn’t mean chintzier. New York–based designer Karl Springer was highly influenced by Art Deco and worked with exotic skins like python and goat. Kagan favored luxurious fabrics like suede and velvet, which makes his seating look more sophisticated than spaceage. Evans worked with complex media–resin and heavy industrial metals–creating big, bold consoles and tables in limited runs.

“Paul Evans was an artist” says Todd Merrill, owner of the eponymously named furniture store in SoHo. “Each of the pieces he crafted is unique like a sculpture, so it’s a two-for-one deal. You’re getting art and furniture.”

And your pockets don’t want to overdo it–choose one striking collectible to anchor a room. Plant a Verner Panton marshmallow chair next to your plasma screen, for example, and suddenly your living room is a tableau out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. And while a Vladimir Kagan lounge chair is plush enough for the penthouse, its simple lines mean it also looks at home in a more humble fourth-floor walk-up.

Wherever you put one of these pieces, the furniture’s refined pedigree means it’s bound to appreciate in value. You’re getting a collectible artifact for relative peanuts. “These are not off-the-shelf,” says Evan Lobel, a modern-furniture dealer in New York. “They were expensive back then, so when you are paying $8,000 to $10,000 for a Springer piece, dollar for dollar it’s cheaper than it was originally.” Tell that to the snooty aesthetes still talking up their bank-breaking Corbusier sofa.

Todd Merrill Studio
80 Lafayette Street
New York NY 10013
Phone: 212 673 0531
Website: www.ToddMerrillStudio.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Instagram: @ToddMerrillStudio
Todd Merrill Summer Studio
11 South Main Street
Southampton, NY 11968
Phone: 631 259 3601