"EXECUTIVE STYLE" AS DÉCOR; NO APOLOGIES TO THE VISION PRO; A GIVEAWAY
AN HOMAGE TO POWER DYNAMICS.
Dear Snoops,
Today, we ponder the incredible impact of CORPORATE HIERARCHY and CAPITALIST FANTASY, which produced for culture only one redeemable feature: EXECUTIVE STYLE.
In light of the world’s new APPLE VISION “PRO” – that wants your home to be but a background to a digitally-imposed solo-scape of digi-windows and any cacophony of distractions you can imagine – we explore the value of a décor that instead seeks to put YOU at its center. (And dictates to a great extent how you are treated by others invited into your domestic space.)
This is a style developed by the arrogance of “Business”, but to import into the homesphere is to extract from it notions of PERSONAL BOUNDARIES and command over space, and the fine BALANCE of OBJECTS and PEOPLE (who should rule, and when).
1 → “EXECUTIVE STYLE” REMINDS US THAT POWER-COMPETENCY DÉCOR MUST NOT “PUSH YOU OUT OF THE PICTURE”
FOUNDATIONAL TEXT by Judith Price: “EXECUTIVE” IS ALL PERFORMANCE
Judith Price’s 1980 book “EXECUTIVE STYLE” was, AT THE TIME, about “OFFICE” – most particularly, it was about how to find oneself in the context of PERFORMING POWER AND COMPETENCE FOR OTHERS. In a style that can easily sway as cold and generic, how might we evoke power and control AND express oneself? (We paraphrase, of course.)
Yet, “EXECUTIVE STYLE” (THE BOOK) also reads much like A SELF-HELP BOOK. As ever, décor is an expression of psychological needs. E.g.:
→ “[The office] must set you off but not dominate you.”
→ “Style comes only from recognizing your own best traits and exhibiting them with taste and flair in everything you do.”
→ “Executive Style is not a book about interior decorating. Instead, it’s a book about exterior reflection.” [A LOT TO UNPACK THERE!!!]
So perhaps - as we’d argue - the tenets of Price’s “executive” décor are (also) more intimate than “OFFICE” and dare we say even more suitably apply to “HOME”.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?:
EXECUTIVE STYLE is one of two polar responses to the stress of living. Let us illustrate:
Comfort and its “COTTAGE” execution is often referred to in mainstream décor media as “BOHEMIAN”, and is an approach captured by the likes of SALMON CREEK FARM, the J.B. BLUNK house, or Big Sur’s exceptional DEETJEN’S INN. (COTTAGE, as you can see, is very popular in California.)
One might say there is “balance” here, as a focus, but it balance of DOMESTIC and EARTH – i.e. it’s a lot of wood and ceramic; it’s womb-like; it’s jars of Mao Feng tea; etc.
The EXECUTIVE response is instead defined by its ability to balance SEVERE (even when ‘soft’), SEXY (even when ‘prim’), and FORMIDABLE (even when ‘democratic’). It does this to introduce dominance and control of the individual over décor.
SO:
1 → Because it invokes POWER, we can very easily explore the power relationship between US and DÉCOR. Where and when should we dominate, where and when should our things dominate?
2 → Bonus: ‘SEVERE, SEXY, FORMIDABLE”, compared to “COTTAGE”, has a certain masochistic allure for others, and can be a very magnetic personal marketing ploy
“SEVERE, SEXY, FORMIDABLE” EXAMPLES (i.e. THEY AREN’T ALWAYS HARSH!):
A)
This is the executive dining room at E. F. HUTTON & COMPANY.
It speaks to a sense of “privileged invitation”, achieved through its kind of ‘it’s-sorta-too-formal’ selection of furniture.
The table is granite, so abused today as kitchen countertops but wonderful here, and is from the mind of Gardner Lever – who also did the chairs, with a mix of “leather” (leather means wealth) with a certain aspect of the “rigid” (rigid prevents full relaxation).
B)
At first this might appear very relaxed and pseudo-domestic.
This is the office of former Atlantic Recording Corporation chairman Ahmet Ertegun. For Price, his executive style suggest “COZY EFFICIENCY”. Yet the primary position – Ahmet’s own chair – is in the corner, so as able to easily surveil all others in the room. (Much like Julianne Moore’s comand post.)
This is not Ahmet Among The People, this is Ahmet as Ringmaster, reinforced (as we shall see next) by the simplicity of his desk.
EXTRACTED PRINCIPLES OF “EXECUTIVE STYLE”
For Judith, there are three primary categories of THING that help to frame “POWER”.
In COTTAGE, you enter a sort of natural-texture-filled womb (of warm and ideally irregular woods, ceramics, natural dyes, yadda yadda).
In the décor of EXECUTIVE STYLE, however, the character of objects is more specifically chosen. Without being so explicit about it, Price’s three categories of THINGS are:
We would add to this the importance of ARRANGMENT (per Ahmet).
Certain arrangments allow us to FEEL executive energy and allow us to perform a command over space. Here, outsiders are not simply welcomed, they are GUIDED through their performance (i.e. now it is about “ME” vs. now it is about “US”; “I sit here, you sit there”), as well as only given limited but directional clues to engage (‘personal expression’ accessories to relieve the space of ‘generic’).
Take this room by HALSTON (this is his OFFICE, mind you, not a dining/conference room). A simple-ish table, but a center-of-room arrangement that kind of makes it “A THING!!”. Yet, it relieves some of what was likely Halston’s natural dominance, it asks for others to participate, and rise to his level:
Versus, that of this random other executive not worth naming (below). Nothing mutual here, far more one-directional, more akin to Jennifer Melfi’s SOPRANO’s therapy office – even when seated together in those stiff grey sofas, the presence of a command post affects behavior:
This provides a safety for some. i.e For those whose homesphere might be a refuge from humanity. A guest is certainly aware that they must come in second – and that keen observation must be paid to the direction and mood of the host.
2 → DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS:
HENRY’S LOFT:
To use the example of the loft of HENRY SMITH-MILLER, a rather minimally-furnished expanse. It demands: the quiet of a gallery, the impossibility of inviting a +1 (given 2-seat ‘living room’ set up), and the expectation of a kind of 1-on-1 interview-style conversation.
It is EXECUTIVE in its demand for you to comply.
RICHARD’S PARENT’S HOUSE:
In the astonishing home Richard Rogers built for his parents, there is one chair of motion – its Thonet rocking chair. In “COTTAGE” it would suit the fluidity, but in the highly right-angle’d Rogers House, it’s more like “OH, OKAY…!” It has an intrusive quality that prevents you from immediately “understanding” the décor, and more than that: can you imagine the audacity of the guest that walks in and chooses to sit in the Thonet?!
3 → TAKEAWAY:
The lesson is simply: consider power dynamics.
Consider “ARRANGEMENT” or discordance not just to be “individual”, but about communication that some spaces are JUST YOURS.
Never allow your furniture to dominate you, but equally, ensure it is not simply generic: personalization is crucial, as a humanization tactic. (We admit we didn’t really get into that.)
Understand that control can be nice for you to feel some sense of authority in this wild world, and the EXECUTIVE WORLD has honed this approach for decades.
4 → GIVEAWAY:
ENTER TO WIN THIS (ABOVE) – a bona fide FOR SCALE “FURNTIRE” HAT in “BEIGE WITH ORANGE”. (Worth $29 PLUS TAX PLUS SHIPPING BUT YOURS FOR THE PRICE OF $0)
YOU MUST:
1 → FOLLOW @FOR____SCALE ON INSTAGR*M
2 → POST ANYTHING (NICE) YOU’D LIKE ABOUT FOR SCALE (AND TAG US, OF COURSE !!!)
3 → YOU’LL BE ENTERED IN SOME KIND OF DRAW WHICH WILL HAPPEN FRIDAY 9 FEB 2024 at 12:00PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME
(IF YOU DON’T HAVE INSTAGR*M, GOOD FOR YOU!)
Until next time (TOILET REPORT!), love and good luck!
great post! I echo @chenarafaeli's sentiments - so many good points. I particularly liked the "stress response" polarity perspective.
great post, thank you
(so many things said, that I couldn't formulate myself)
PS I don't have Instagram..