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One can easily assume that International Style’s respect for the elements of the Modern Age would have spelled disaster for natural hides indoors, but the proponents of this school were not simply abandoning the natural for the artificial. To the contrary, International Style designers aimed to produce an overall harmony between industrial and natural elements in the home, and natural hides became a key complement to the industrial components of these new designs. By blending hides and leather with elements including stainless steel, aluminum, and lightstained woods, interior designers aimed to create a sleek and antitraditional elegance in furnishings that symbolized wealth and sophistication, while still adhering to their basic design principles of comfort and functionality.
Natural hides consequently became an important component of texture and softening in modern interior design. However, as with everything else, modern designers did re-evaluate the possibilities for natural hides in the home and workspace. Interior furnishings now used hair-on hides that possessed qualities that were more in tune with modern style. Many floor coverings and upholstery used hair-on hides in solid colors, especially all black and all-white, and used more salt-and-pepper, or speckled patterns instead of rustic brown and white Holstein patterns that were more attributable to regional Southwestern design.
Nonetheless, Le Corbusier’s fauteuil with adjustable back and chaise lounge (left) both incorporate natural hide elements to offset and contrast with the industrial constructions of his furniture. This continues to be an important tenet of modern design. As Frank Lloyd Wright put it, the aim of modern designers was to “bring out the nature of materials,” and “let their nature intimately into one’s scheme.” Formality was also a key design
consideration for proponents of International Style when choosing upholstery. The elegant lines of Mies Van Der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair would lend themselves to more austere and formal coverings.
The examples below have been covered in both natural leather and all-black hair-on hide. Both provide stunning and perfectly balanced aesthetic results. But hair-on hides had more utility than as a simple contrasting design element to interior furnishings. This material was also well-suited to help in transition spaces, in keeping with the International Style’s belief in blending exterior and interior themes to make a consistent experience for its users.
In 1926, Le Corbusier published what are now believed to be the 5 fundamental elements of modern architecture, and each of these elements lends itself to a
corresponding interior response. One of Le Corbusier’s most important elements was his belief that buildings should strive to have a free and open floor plan, achieved through the separation of the load-bearing columns from the walls subdividing the space. To fill these open plans, Le Corbusier and his proponents required large floor coverings and wall hangings to make the spaces more personal. Le Corbusier often used natural hair-on hides in well-lit entry spaces to create a natural transition from natural landscape elements into the construction elements of his interior spaces. These hides helped in transition areas and were an integral stylistic component of his free-flowing floor plans for many years.
As the modern interior design evolved through the 1950s, so too did the use of hair-on hides as design elements. After World War II, designers became partial to brighter, day-glow colors. But rather than sacrifice the tactile and multi-purpose assets of hair-on hides for other materials, designers instead began dying hides to suit their overall interior themes. With the growing scarcity of exotic hides, designers also began to incorporate artificial zebra and leopard patterns into natural cowhides to give them eclectic elements with which to accent newer, “mod” furniture without sacrificing the natural feel of the materials. Today, hair-on cowhides fill a number of roles in the modern home, all paying tribute to a particular period in modern design. While imitations of genuine natural hides have been created in recent years, designers still gravitate heavily towards the natural look. Purists of modern design believe it is inappropriate to use modern materials and processes to imitate earlier materials and processes. Many manufacturers try to make plastic look like wood, stone or anything else but plastic–the same is true with faux suedes and artificial leathers—but modern designers largely believe that all aesthetic criteria have something to do with honesty. Beauty has been to truth, and there can be little doubt that honestly expressed materials and manufacturing processes are far more beautiful than fakery and imitation.
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