Vorndran !1 Melissa Vorndran Eric Wilson Integrative Seminar 2: Fashion 9 March 2017
Traditionally Modern: How the Depression Inspired Design Few pieces of furniture are encoded with as many ideas about femininity, beauty, and class as the vanity set. Once in practically every woman’s bedroom, the vanity played a large and symbolic role in a woman’s everyday routine, wherein she would sit at the mirrors and fix her hair and makeup until she appeared acceptable to the outside world. This particular vanity, designed by Gilbert Rohde in 1939 for the Herman Miller Furniture Company, embodies these traditional ideas in a more “modern” sensibility. Produced near the end of the Great Depression in the United States, this vanity is a profound example of the compromise between the traditional conservatism American consumers craved and the more cutting edge modern styles that designers such as Rohde preferred. The vanity itself is from the 3920 furniture series and is a mahogany colored wooden piece with three circular mirrors protruding from the rectangular table. The mirrors and their appendages are framed with brass, which is also the material for the circular drawer pulls on the three drawers on either side of the vanity. There is a semi-circular inset, made of oak, which would be where a chair fit into the vanity. The vanity is sparsely decorated with an emphasis on right angles and geometry but the circle is a dominant motif throughout the piece.
Vorndran !2 It was 1939, and the end of the worst economic crisis in American history. Middle class Americans were just beginning to financially recover and were not willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money on home furnishings that would soon be seen as dated. Abroad, there was a growing movement, which would be coined Modernism, that was being embraced by the English and the French, but less so by the American public. The American Modernists attempted to alter the movement order to translate it into American culture. According to Monica Obniski of the Design History Society, American Modernism emphasized “an aesthetic vocabulary of geometriciyzing proportions.” 1 This focus on geometry is clearly illustrated through Rohde’s vanity. The vanity is composed of only circular and right angled shapes; there are no naturally curving lines. This adds a strong sense of stability to the vanity, which would have assisted in its American marketing. As an American company based in Michigan, Herman Miller was finely attuned to the needs of the American middle class consumer and created goods accordingly. During the Depression era, there was a shift in the way that Americans were living. Fewer households employed servants, and there was a yearning for a more simplified way of life, which manifested itself in the interior of the home. 2 Traditionally, vanities were seen as luxurious items, filled with ornamentation and elaborate styles reflecting their role in a woman’s beauty routine. As the ability for the average American consumer to afford these luxurious pieces changed, the design of the pieces themselves shifted as well. The practicalities of Depression era design created space for a new approach to design to emerge, of which Rohde and Herman
1
Monica Obniski, "Exhibiting Modernity through the Lens of Tradition in Gilbert Rohde's Design for Living Interior." Journal of Design History 20, no. 3 (2007): 228. Kristina Wilson, "Middle-Class Modernism: A Vanity Table and Ottoman by Gilbert Rohde." Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2002): 107. 2
Vorndran !3 Miller took advantage. Smaller spaces inspired cleaner, more geometric pieces such as this vanity. According to Kristina Wilson of the Yale University Art Gallery, Modernist designers viewed their work as not only aesthetic but also moral, an “attempt at a streamlined, efficient, and enlightened mode of living.”3 However, this attempt was perhaps too specific to be accepted by the American public, so it was altered to include a wider audience. The traditional values and symbols associated with a vanity set are slightly at odds with the progressive ideas of the Modernist movement. However, in order to cater to the middle class American consumer at this time, designers had to incorporate tradition into their work. This vanity in particular is full of conservatively traditional feminine connotations, from the circular motifs of the mirrors and drawer pulls to the three mirrors themselves. The circle has had profound connotations throughout history, such as the idea of it being the only truly “perfect” shape.” This symbolic representation of the true function of the vanity adds emphasis on the female user of the object and reinforces the gender roles associated with the vanity itself. Although wood and metal are both used, Rohde himself asserted that “the colors of the wood are so delicate that the effect is unusually feminine and has none of the coldness or masculinity popularly associated with metal.” 4. The traditional feminine connotations were extremely comforting to consumers during the upheaval, both social and financial, of this period. Although the vanity is created with more complex materials, such as oak, Sequoia Burl, and East Indian Laurel, than Rohde’s other designs for Herman Miller in this period, the vanity itself is still very much a traditional piece. The feminine connotations were welcomed by the mostly female
3
Wilson, “Middle-Class Modernism,” 107.
4
Ibid.
Vorndran !4 customer base who furnished their homes during this period. 5 In this way, the traditional gender roles were both fostered and encouraged by society and represented through the vanity. Rohde’s emphasis on functional modernism, combined with the traditionalism of this vanity, eased the American middle class consumer into the modernist design style. The new, simplified geometric forms of the modern style were blended with traditional pieces in order to create a home suitable for the Depression era but also for the modern world. As a result, the 3920 series vanity not only represents ideas about beauty and femininity, but about the traditional American consumer as well.
5
Ibid, 108.
Vorndran !5 Bibliography Monica Obniski. "Exhibiting Modernity through the Lens of Tradition in Gilbert Rohde's Design for Living Interior." Journal of Design History 20, no. 3 (2007): 227-42. JSTOR. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/4540360. Wilson, Kristina. "Middle-Class Modernism: A Vanity Table and Ottoman by Gilbert Rohde." Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2002): 104-08. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 40514705.