The flip side of "BARBIE" décor is...
A summer of deconstructing the patri*rchy isn't complete without reconsidering the "RANCH" as an aesthetic, too.
A REMINDER
THIS THURSDAY, as in June 15, we are launching FOR SCALE XL, where we’ll hear from the truly one-of-a-kind Paper mag co-founder KIM HASTREITER on her mother’s best furniture, and hers; and we offer up EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS to some Roman flea market finds care of @RUB.ISH.NYC. (You have one week only to snap ‘em up!) You can ensure access to that here.
Onwards…
Dear Snoops,
Hello from Eastern Washington state, where we’ve just seen Joni Mitchell in concert at The Gorge.
As you likely have noted, because it’s (pleasantly) UNAVOIDABLE: we are entering the Summer of Barbie. And, as much as that is a perfectly perfect lens through which to critique The Patri*rchy, we also still are being fed this: COWBOY KEN for GQ
Where had R.G. gone, GQ seems to ask – a relevant question given his previous credit is from way back in 2022… ancient history! Plus, of course, the general fashion absurdity of “rugged” $1,200 Gucci denim, and shirt “price upon request” – which is FULL MOCKERY and so we approve.
The countervailing force to “BARBIE” is “RANCH”. Even though both like horses.
So odd that Ryan’s PR team probably wanted to, like, diffuse the Barbie pink with some ‘masc’ Ranch peach. AND YET: RANCH presents another space in which we can tackle power structures through (in our case) décor.
RANCH is part of the long shadow of American “Pioneer” colonialism and the insane prison of masculinity that it reinforced. But, as we know from THE POWER OF THE DOG, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi queerness about RANCH – for example, its ability to translate into long peach fashion coats.
There’s also a particular je ne sais quoi queerness when we talk about “RANCH” when it’s appropriated into the annals of camp home decor – because, well, it’s decorating.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
We just want to be achingly clear: we’re talking RANCH here, not “WILD WEST”. “WILD WEST” as a concept and as a history is deeply ick. So, let’s just keep in mind the frame of RANCH, please, and pretty much “QUEER RANCH” at that.
WHY?
We shall explore the following:
1. That RANCH is “cottage”, but way more horizontal
2. That RANCH is “rough”, but with daisies
3. That RANCH is full “feet up” because ranch labor is excruciating
4. That RANCH prizes “indefatigable will”
THE ESSENCE OF RANCH: “THE PLAINS” x2
RANCH is captured, ultimately, in both the sense of a particular geography, “the Plains” (Upper case P), but also a particular feeling of implied rugged simplicity, i.e. “the plains” (Lower case P).
You might find RANCH on “the Plains”, but RANCH also gives you “the plains”: a grounding feeling that honors super simple things, but not in the pretentious “Minimalism”-Jonh Pawson kind of way. It’s kind of rugged, in that there are some things that feel kind of functional / by-hand, but ultimately it embodies a very specific sense of luxury because it is a respite from the brutality of manual labor, and also a glowing reflection of it.
THE RANCH FETISHISTS OF LOS ANGELES
Any excursion into the most “trend”-loving (they would say “trend-setting) neighborhoods in Los Angeles reveals quickly that RANCH FETISHISTS are abundant. The most obvious, public element of this proclivity is the number of super pristine vintage trucks that bounce down the avenues of Echo Park, etc. Their truck beds are inevitably unused and dirt- and detritus-free.
This is very indicative of how we shall proceed in our analysis of RANCH décor: it’s usually cosplay.
This is also evidenced also in the obsession of Mid-Century-ists with RANCH “STYLE” homes. The architect Cliff May, for example, introduced Ranch cosplay to post-war urban California through really sexy houses – but they are so wanky now we can’t even show you.
Wanky Mid-Century-ist “RANCH” is to be avoided at all costs. The time isn’t now.
Acceptable “DESIGN” Ranch might, however, include:
Frank Gehry cardboard chairs basically look like some cattle chomped them up, and THAT works.
ALSO, just to note that RANCH is kind of about being a little messy:
F*ck THE REAGANS but isn’t their ranch delightfully, and kind of charmingly sh*t? The sh*tness of their RANCH may be their only redeeming quality.
ELEMENTS OF “RANCH” FOR TODAY
There are some clear and obvious ways to approach RANCH.
1. “VASTNESS” VIA HORIZONTALITY
RANCH, as we mentioned, does “cottage” in terms of its woody, weaving, quilty-ness. But, the vastness of the RANCH Plains landscape is captured in Super Horizontality in architecture and also in inside bits.
We propose the Kitchen as an entry point in EXPLORING VASTNESS. Here, a 1989 Pacific Northwest ranch moment. Despite its ceiling height, this is really a side-to-side room. It’s thanks to that army of white dishes, the one-after-another-ness of those baskets. “TALL” is forbidden – we scan Left-Right.
Scanning left-right is very ranch, because “surveying the landscape” is ranch.
N.B. This is achieved WITHOUT “exposed Mason Jar”, which can be done well, like HERE, but is altogether a super hard thing to do without being Early Kinfolk Magazine.
And to prove this is a kind of spiritual urban equivalent, this is a highrise in SEATTLE, i.e. in a notably not-rural zip code. But, it also has a kind of side-by-side-ness.
RED is a crucial ranch color because in movies the earth being surveyed left-right is always orange-red. For this urban setting, red has been reinterpreted as “MERLOT”. (Seattle LOVES a French wine bar – Le Caviste, Le Pichet.)
This backsplash may, in this image, appear to be tin or something – but it’s actually GLASS. (Paired with some “faux-dirty” sponge-painted cabinets, if we were to label them in RANCH terms, because RED EARTH DUST is definitely ranch.)
2. “ROUGH”, BUT WITH DAISIES
There must be a roughness to ranch, because for it to be successful it needs to exist in the light of “Manliness” (as Barbie exists in the light of Girlishness) but then totally subvert it. The ranch aesthetic does it with wildflowers.
Of course, wildflowers are very RANCH because wildflowers are how nature decorators the Plains.
Even when they can’t be found they are fashioned. For example, KODI SMIT-MCPHEE’s “PETER GORDON”’s paper flowers in JANE CAMPION’s Oscar-winning THE POWER OF THE DOG:
In 2017, cinema gave us the CMBYN peach moment; in 2021 it was this: as queer, but RANCH.
But, we’re not here to recommend florists and we don’t craft sadly. But, we can recommend LAMPS. And, here is the 1980s “FIORE” lamp by STUDIO PAF. And, as you know, we are great fans of the current floral resurgence.
NOT Ikea plastic – this is GLASS, folks! One, with a yellow center (whatever a flower center is called?) was just sold by FOR SCALE XL pal @rub.ish.nyc.
Considering the most common “glass floral lamp” is a f*cking TIFFANY, we’d say the FIORE ticks some different, more thrilling box for us. Plus, all Tiffany lamps on Earth are currently owned by Barbra Streisand to light the homes of her sprawling Malibu estate, and so are unavailable.
And, you know we’re also great fans of JOSEF FRANK, the Austrian architect who then became Swedish wallpaper designer – it’s true! Isn’t life funny?
But if a lamp isn’t committed enough for you, do a damn wall – why not?:
Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn, presumably from the 1930s – don’t ask us to be specific! YES, this screams “RICH, OLD SWEDE” but we’re thinking, like, a floral bathroom could be quite RANCH? Help us out with this one… we just want to give floral wallpaper air time.
3. THE PHILOSOPHY OF “FEET-UP”
Here we shan’t give too many examples, but of course the general vibe of a RANCH is that you’re f*cking tired from your harsh life, to be honest, and so it’s critical to Nourish (hence why we began with kitchens) but also kick off your boots and put your feet up.
Enter THE STOOL.
Los Angeles gallery MARTA plus the legendary vintage stuff sellers JF CHEN held this STOOL exhibition last year, just to remind you of the delicious range of stools available to us.
Many here are RANCH pre-approved: wood, leather, wicker-y woven stuff. All would be quite suitable.
BUT here we’ll let in a little “NEW”, which is the chair-and-stool-work of MARK MORONES (to whom we were introduced by F.S. pals FORMAS).
Hand-carved, butt-ready stools are ALSO, we presume, good for feet. In a RANCH context, we think a MORONES STOOL would be super ranch.
Kind of has that hand-worked, whittled-by-the-fire essence, but with a High Design twist – I mean, the joinery is chic.
And, also, while we’re at it, why not a SARAH BURNS stool, also shown to us by Los Angeles gallery MARTA. This is the CAP STOOL, which has a great Soft-ified Masculinity:
Plus, the colors are very Plains Grasses.
4. TRY FOR “INDEFATIGABLE WILL”
RANCH culture, per the popular imagination, is about making it against all odds – and not in the Silicon Valley way, where you destroy lives en route to billions of $$$. In a way more humble way.
And, so, just to say, RANCH sh*t has to exist to last; they must exude the desire to CARRY ON. Or at least be repaired. So, patch your cushions, et al.
But, it’s also a mental state: PERSERVERANCE. And RANCH is almost-unique in its ability to project perseverance and that is energy you can absorb to – for example - make it through the week. (We’re having an exhausting week.)
ASIDE.
We refuse to post a patched-up Quilt, even though we do love them. Just know that those things are totally indefatigable.
Anyway, it’s this JONI MITCHELL AT “THE GORGE” that has RANCH on the mind.
UNTIL NEXT TIME. LOVE AND GOOD LUCK,
I can’t tell you how much I love this
Giving new meaning to “Ranch Dressing”