BEFORE WE GET GOING:
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Plus, interviews with:
→ FOREVER CULTURE MAKER KIM HASTREITER, co-founder of PAPER MAGAZINE
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Dear Snoops,
We have been interested in BUTTS for a very long time, for many reasons – some of which shall remain private, and others which we will expose here.
We shall attempt to avoid BUTT puns, but we will refer to butt in several ways including: the ASS (see: Headline), the BUTTOCKS, the BUM, the REAR END, and the BOTTOM.
The socio-cultural history of the BUTT is really quite f*cked up as soon as you step into it – because, like, history gets really racist and grope-y and Beauty-Standards-y very quickly. And, we’re not ready to tackle this. (Though we have one aside about art and magazines.) This is not the essence of the buttocks as we intend it.
The bum in the décor world is, as far as you are concerned, simply ONE OF THREE CRITICAL BODY PARTS TO CONSIDER.
They are:
The EYE. This is obvious. For those with sight, actually enjoying what you see is very satisfying
The FINGERTIP, for its touch capabilities. This will be a future theme because we’re completely unsure why the world isn’t RADICALLY OBSESSED with door handles and knobs and buttons and such. In the domestic sphere and beyond, we touch those things all the time, and ergo they get so much sensory attention, and yet so often they are very dull indeed
The BUTT. In some ways the ultimate. Because what is home other than a place to enjoy putting your butt down? To sit, to stretch out in a supine position, even as a built-in cushion for the all-important counter lean during a “watching-someone-else-cook” kitchen gab
We beg you, dear Snoops, to make sure the butt is taken care of. But in fact this issue is not dedicated to the Butt’s comfort, but to suggest that we celebrate ass more officially and explicitly.
AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN THE CELEBRATION OF THE BUTT (FOR US)
A REAR END turning point came in February, thanks to HANDLED ESTATES, one of Los Angeles’s most noteworthy handlers of estate sales, as their name suggests.
They had this place in Beverly Hills, which by most measures was a very conservative kinda place, i.e. things were really bougie, but also generally unremarkable, i.e. sans twist. And what is full bougie home without a Twist? It’s Reagan Republican, it’s Polite Society, it’s really kind of a hellscape. We are advocates of a twist.
And this was the twist there:
Yes, a set of a gold-embossed ASS plates. This is what FOR SCALE shall inaugurate as our very first “HOME RUN”: truly, truly an inspired contribution to Fine Dining and to that Bev Hills home’s décor. It is unapologetic. It is ASS unmitigated by between-letter dots. It is a study in contrasts, the high and the Bottom. It is a breaking of barriers (the ASS is not just for sitting, it is also for EATING).
We have since dreamt about ASS plates.
ASIDE: TWO MONTHS LATER, ANOTHER MOMENT IN THE CELEBRATION OF THE BUTT (FOR US)
This time, we’re in New York’s UPPER EAST SIDE, and we’re side by side with FOR SCALE super pal KATE LINDELLO, the founder of NOIHSAF BAZAAR.
There, in the conspicuous corridors of the gallery LGDR, was “REAR VIEW” a very wide-ranging celebration of the butt in art. This included a 78 min and 51 sec 1967 film by YOKO ONO called “FILM NO.4 (BOTTOMS)” of which YOKO has said:
This film, in fact, is like an aimless petition signed by people with their anuses. Next time we wish to make an appeal, we should send this film as the signature list.
Ok?
A still from NO.4:
Anyway, the point is: if the aesthetic realms of the avant garde such as YOKO can include the bottom so significantly – why are we so slow (or reluctant) to explore this in the world of DÉCOR?
Of course the list of BUTTs in art is INIFINITY long, so we won’t get into BUTTS IN ART. But, we’ll make a note of one of our favorite now-defunct indie mags, BITE ME, that launched with a BUTT issue and also the queer super-mag, “BUTT” which is actually more about d*cks. ANYWAY: butt is culture.
(ASIDE from the ASIDE: we once saw YOKO perform in a small cafe in London, and it was… terrifying. In case you haven’t heard the song she wrote for her estragned daughter KYOKO, it’s… terrifying.)
INTEGRATING “BUTT” INTO DÉCOR
There is good butt and bad, as in life. It’s the same with feet:
And, equally, there have been some nice and subtle experimentations surrounding THE BUTT, and how it’s understood and received – a lot of which are by one of our favorite experimenters in commercial-grade STUFF, IKEA!:
In the realm of the “OK, NOW THAT IS A BUTT!”, a favorite, VERY GOOD BUTT is the Kazuo Shinohara MISS BUTTERFLY chair, 1985:
Just as a comment here, we think it valuable to note that KAZUO was, for the most part, pretty chill as an architect. So, a butt chair really signifies “THE BUTT IS ESSENTIAL”, because he was all about ESSENTIALS ONLY. Note this house:
But, the butt has also found a place in CURRENT CHAIR DESIGN - it’s not just for the wacky ‘80s. It’s also very current.
Some New Stuff that fits into the “IT’S A BUTT” category is this: Chris Wolston. An apparently fan of the butt, here a chair and lounger:
And also one step down from this (or five), in the “YEAH, I GUESS I GET A BUTT VIBE?” category, a couple of chairs by MINJAE KIM:
These cuties have:
→ The classic butt-shape grooves in the seat, as is typical of a LOT of wood chairs
→ AND, the double-bublousness of the ass is repeated in the conjoined circles that form a part of the back
A great approach for those who aren’t quite committed to the BUTT as much as Kazuo or Chris.
I BET YOU THOUGHT EVERYTHING WOULD BE STRAIGHT-UP BUTT-SHAPED, “BUT…”
Of course, we could G**GLE as easily as you could “BUTT-SHAPED + CHAIR”, etc., but that doesn’t really give you much dimension to this ODE TO BUTT, does it? That’s what an intern would come up with.
So, some alternative ODES TO BUTT:
1. THE IMPRINT
An incredibly important aspect of the BUTT’S IMPACT ON DÉCOR is made in some unsuspecting places. It can APPEAR out of nowhere in the plain-’ol-upholstered: the leather chair cushion, the suede or velvet chair or sofa are both particularly conducive to THE BUTT IMPRINT.
This is actually great a great power play, because few things in furniture are as embarrassing as this. We can’t say it’s our vibe, but what is a BUTT POST without exploring the ephemeral, crowd-sourced ART that is the imprint?
2. THE HIDDEN BUTT
One need’t immediately see “BUTT” to think "BUTT”. For example, though we have focused on seating, a butt might be found elsewhere.
Let us take a look at this lamp by GAE AULENTI (remember her? We talked a lot about her in REARRANGING AS A SPORT). It is the ultra-everywhere PIPSTRELLO, designed in 1965.
Here, we have contrasted it with A BUTT found on a statue in the architect PAUL RUDOLPH’s home in New York on Beekman Place (for all the gays out there, that’s the same street where fictional character AUNTIE MAME DENNIS lives)… ANYWAY, the apartment is from around the same time as the lamp (ish):
See what we mean? Round, and with crack. That’s a butt, in short. Gae Aulenti surely wasn’t aiming for that, because the lamp is named for the bat (animal, not sporting equipment), but if we were to go for a FULL BUTT interior, we’d opt for the Pip.
REASONS TO DO “BUTT”
What we hope you feel, with out the need for any convincing, is that the butt is a great part of your body. Also, so much of the domestic space is design to work for the butt (because the butt works so hard for us), and so:
We must honor THE BUTT
The BUTT can appear in obvious ways (KAZUO, CHRIS), but equally, the hidden butt can do the trick in a pinch (MINJAE, GAE)
The BUTT has range: the avant garde (YOKO) loves it, but so too can it fit into the conservative situ of Beverly Hills (ASS plates)
SO, thank your butt with some butt décor, and experience how diverse the world of butt can be.
Well, that’s all we have to say about that for now, we think. The main takeaway being: gosh the butt is important.
And, as one final bonus, here is a 1988 ad for the Arco lamp by FLOS just to prove that butts are also used to sell décor (and not just perfume, or whatever?):
Love and GOOD BUTT,