I was sent a press release the other day by a local fashion boutique which now stocks one-off furniture items. I think it fancies itself as a "concept store" and not just an (overpriced) clothes shop. The release was debuting the designs of an "artist" who reworked ordinary coffee tables - originally the hexagonal-shaped collapsing side tables beloved in the region - by spraying them lime green and covering them in vintage newspapers and Egyptian film posters. The result is a quirky item which should automatically pronounce the eventual owner "beyond cool".
It's not the first such press release I've received in recent months and it's something which has led me to define or attempt to redefine the contemporary local style. It used to be something an interior designer colleague called "Louis Farouk", which I loved and thought hit the nail on the head - think gilded, baroque pieces matched with heavy wooden furniture. While the definition implies criticism, it's actually about availability. A decade ago, local furniture was limited to what was stocked at Pinky in Sharjah or the workshops of Al Quoz, and the result was that all homes seemed to be a carbon copy of each other, with matching "suitcase art".
The recent influx of younger residents, well-travelled professionals and more choice has changed the Emirates' home style. It can now be defined as boho-chic and the quirky furniture item is de rigueur. However, I have yet to purchase one. In case you're wondering, the quirky furniture item may be along the following lines: a footstool covered in a Magritte-style canvas boldly declaring "Ceci n'est pas une chaise", a giant matchstick in the corner of a room, a reworked chandelier reminiscent of a feather duster, a retro console table sprayed fuchsia and housing those impossibly obscure magazines you can only find at Colette, Paris, some vintage wallpaper lining a dresser, origami-style reindeer heads, a Maison de Vacances love cushion, Japanese toys or a Marcel Wanders item tucked away in a corner. If you want to be uber-quirky, have something embossed with Arabic calligraphy.
What all of these items are saying is that you are not into furniture labels per se. You're into furniture cool. I still haven't had nearly enough of labels - whether for clothes or furniture - and have yet to find a quirky item which seems to fit into my home. They seem to need a lot of space. My apartment has no lobby area and no underused space. Furthermore, I am not buying into the trend for using Arabic calligraphy on just about anything. I'm proud to say that I've never bought a necklace with my name in Arabic which seemed to be all the rage with expatriates several years ago (to me it was less Carrie, more chavvy).
I predict that when these cool kids finally grow up, they'll relegate the quirky item to the attic or sell it for a tidy sum some 20 years hence. All you have to do is check Damien Hirst, who's made a fortune and a cult art movement out of quirky despite half of the world failing to get it. Myself included.
