Thanks to social media, collecting easily identifiable designer furniture, or replicas of it, is no longer a highbrow intellectual endeavor but an attention-seeking game that anyone can play. For those who approach home decor from a purely aesthetic standpoint, the popularization of vintage furniture on Instagram has opened the door to design history, or at least the idea that furniture can retain value and intellectual significance beyond its functionality. For the average consumer, Instagram furniture resellers offer an appealing alternative to the numbifying aesthetics found at contemporary retailers like West Elm or CB2. But for those who consider themselves experts in the field, this so-called democratization of taste has destructive potential.

Credits

Text: Taylore Scarabelli

Photo: courtesy PIN-UP

Magazine: PIN-UP

Publisher: FEBU Publishing LLC

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