003: FISH-THEMED EVERYTHING & THE HALF-LIFE OF A DESIGN TREND
"We are going to see hella fish"
In the last few weeks of summer, I texted my group chat: “I think fish decor is coming back in a big way.” At the time, I was annoyed with myself for not snagging this incredible vintage copper fish lamp from Alfie di Trolio of the London shop Oculus, and I was thinking about things like Sunfish’s sardine table and a round-up of fish brooches I’d stumbled upon earlier in the year.
Over the next few days, my friends came through, sending me links to vintage carnelian fish brooches, ceramic plates with fish glazed into their surfaces, a hand-forged iron chair whose back forms the shape of a fish, a salvaged metal chair whose back forms the shape of a fish skeleton, a shimmering mother-of-pearl fish bottle opener, Belgian linen placemats with fish stitched into an open lace border, and the entire catalog of Minjae Kim. I saved images of fish tureens, and flatware with scales imprinted on their handles. Ten days later, one of my friends sent me this summer fashion forecast which offered the hilariously deadpan pronouncement: “We are going to see hella fish.” “Sorry,” she texted. “Your spot is already blown.”
Of course I didn’t think I was the first person to identify that fish are currently trending. As a design journalist, it’s my job to be aware of trends floating through the Zeitgeist and to forecast which way the wind is blowing. But not only am I sometimes wrong, it can also be difficult to discern when a motif as common as fish — which are kind of always low-key trending, due to having been around since humanity’s first etchings and literally being used to symbolize Jesus — slips from Big Mouth Billy Bass kitsch into the realm of high design.
In today’s letter, I want to share all of my type-A, Virgo-ascendant fish-themed shopping intel. But I also want to talk about how maddeningly short the trend cycle has become — which everyone knows and acknowledges — and how that can sometimes make us feel like something is “over” or not worth exploring or buying into, which is not an idea I subscribe to.
This particular… poisson-aissance… has been in the works for a while now; in all likelihood, its latest incarnation has its roots in the tinned fish revival of the last few years. (If I ever coin a term like Sardine Girl Summer, please drop me off the nearest pier, although I suppose I did just say “poisson-aissance.”) But while design trends have traditionally found precedence in fashion, it lately seems that things are not only happening in both worlds at once, but that they’ve simultaneously trickled down to the mainstream as well.
A flow chart in paragraph form: In 2022, Bottega Veneta debuted its Sardine bag with a fish-shaped handle as part of the F/W collection (above), the same year Charlap Hyman & Herrero debuted Trucha, their trout-shaped abaca rug, with Patterson Flynn. Shane Gabier made his first fish vase early the following year. Florence Provencher-Proulx of Bruises Gallery released her Fishbone chair in the summer of 2023. Daniel Roseberry sent hammered brass fishbone accessories down the Schiaparelli runway in February of this year. Laurids Gallée debuted a side table of stacked bronze fish at June’s 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen. Bode made a fish pillow. Gohar World put out a fish-shaped lemon squeezer. Staud started selling a fish-shaped tote with raffia edging. Real Simple magazine is reportedly doing a fish-themed product round-up in its December issue. Bon Appetit already published its fish-themed gift guide. I wasn’t even going to bother looking at Urban Outfitters, typically the place design trends go to die, but curiosity got the better of me, and now here I am, sitting here looking at something that looks very much like Big Mouth Billy Bass, bookends edition. Considering that fish are often used as symbols of rebirth, it’s a fitting place for us to end up.
People usually have one of two reactions when a trend cycle flattens like this. Either they panic-buy reflexively in an attempt to feel like they’re not missing out on being a part of something — the same impulse that led 13-year-old me to tell my mother I’d be a social pariah if she didn’t buy me the brushed cotton Guess jeans — or they feel like they’ve so thoroughly missed the boat that there’s no reason to even try and participate.
As a noted design snob, I could easily scoff at the sudden mass adoption of this motif and move on to something else. But the correct reaction may be to ask yourself: Does this trend actually speak to me? Do I want to buy something fish-themed because it’s the thing to do? Or do I want to buy something fish-themed because there’s something about it that brings me joy? Or because I really love mid-century design and it’s a motif that recalls that era? The truth is, you can’t predict which trends are going to resonate, or the psychological pull that certain objects exert. When you feel drawn to an object, my feeling is, don’t waste your time trying to understand whether you ought to be or not. Take judgment out of the equation. Unless you’re planning on buying multiple fish-themed items, you’re going to be able to find a way to incorporate this, and any other trend, into your specific visual language. That’s what makes it style and not mimicry.
There’s a saying I heard recently: “It’s not the information, it’s the lens.” It’s what makes my fish-themed round-up different from whatever is happening over at Bon Appetit, and it’s what will make your adoption of this trend — or any trend — inherently personal.
A mini-convo with Minjae Kim, currently the design world’s pre-eminent purveyor of fish-themed furniture
Why do think it is that fish recur so frequently in your work?
I’m not sure. I was always going to fish markets with my dad; he’s from Busan, a big port town, and he grew up in a fish market. What I’ve noticed, though, is that fish always exist in suspension in my work.
Are fish a big theme in Korean culture?
It’s a theme in Buddhist culture. Fish never close their eyes; therefore, they represent a certain sense of awareness.
What’s the best fish-themed object or piece of furniture you’ve ever seen?
It has to be the Singing Bass.
What makes an object speak to you more generally?
I like it when an object is able to make an unexpected secondary reference whether intentional or not. This gives room for interpretation which makes the object more personal to me.
Why do you think fish is a theme that’s popular in this moment?
Maybe there’s a thirst for simple ways of life right now. Catching fish used to be a big deal and it’s very clear when you travel and see how older parts of the world were built.
What’s the best or most interesting thing you’ve bought lately?
A wooden figurine from a flea market in Paris. It looks like she’s riding an invisible motorcycle.
What do you like to buy for people as a gift?
I’ve been going to Seoul a lot recently and have been bringing back ceramics. Mostly little cups. I do enjoy getting my old roommate cat-related objects. She asked me to stop doing it but I still find it irresistible sometimes.
What do you wish you could make that you haven’t? (Doesn’t have to be fish-themed)
A rocking horse.
THE KITCHEN SINK
A selection of links to other news, objects, interiors, and more that have been on my mind this week.
I wouldn’t have thought I was the target audience for an auction called Machine Age Design, but I’m obsessed with several pieces from the Wright sale earlier this week. My favorite might be the flesh-toned Henry Dreyfuss toilet with deco hardware, but I also love the tiered Norman Bel Geddes chrome-plated desk tray and candlesticks, the restrained 1930s teak wall mirror by Ilonka Karasz (which doesn’t seem to have sold), the Donald Deskey vanity and stool (Deskey famously did the interiors at Radio City Music Hall, so the man knows from vanities), and these walnut and steel cocktail cups from which I’d very much like to drink punch this holiday season but wouldn’t have paid $1,000 for the pleasure. (I’m sorry I meant to get this link up before the auction happened but life intervened!)
The Long Island City–based vintage dealer Alan Eckstein of Somerset House was the subject of a story in the New York Times this week, and the narrative is framed as what happens when fashion designers leave their industry for interiors. I’m not sure in this case fashion has a lot to do with it, aside from the carry-over of clients; Eckstein simply has taste, which often transfers from one realm to the other. Nevertheless, we love an “obsessive and autodidactic knowledge” king.
Apparently the Enorme phone — an in-the-Met-collection, Memphis-era landline that debuted in 1985, the brainchild of Ettore Sottsass, Marco Zanini, Jean Pigozzi, and David Kelley, founder of IDEO — was resurrected earlier this year after a time capsule was found at Stanford University of 500 NIB models. But this weekend was the first I’d heard of it, when I went to the Basic.Space pop-up in NYC. Enorme is being rebooted into a whole-ass brand by the three living co-founders plus Iris Alonzo, formerly of Everybody.World, and right now it includes the phones and incredible merch, with more to come. Curiously, there’s a Bay Area phone number splashed across all of the marketing materials, which I called this morning and reached a Google Voice mailbox with a message from Enorme co-founder Jean Pigozzi. If anyone has anything pressing to tell the legendary Italian photographer, give him a ring!!
Leaving you today with this fish-themed Marianne Moore poem, an old favorite of mine.
oh man now I'm really missing a porcelain fish dish I had by Jeanne Grut (the scales were spectacular). I lowered the price and it sold but now I'm thinking I should have DOUBLED the price 😜
chef’s kiss market work