Metropolitan Home June 2008 Editor's Page
Welcome to Met Home's 11th Design 100 issue. You'd think by now the process of assembling this annual tribute would run like a well-oiled machine. After all, many of the editors have worked on most of the past installments, and we have certainly refined the procedure (everyone now keeps folders and collects candidates from the minute we "close" the previous year's issue -- it's like planning for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade). But once again, we locked horns around the conference table over certain contentious objects/ideas.
As usual, we struggled to balance stylish products, community service, architecture, new ideas, responsible companies, food trends, the green movement and more. And I worry every year about each item we include ("Does it really represent something that's happening now?") and each one we reject ("But isn't that a classic in the offing?"). When I look back over all our earlier D100 issues , I'm amazed at how often we got it right -- even though it takes 14 college-educated magazine professionals an unbelievable number of attempts to count accurately to 100.
In our first D100, in 1990, we cited "Activism: Saving the Environment" alongside Ralph Lauren and Robert A.M. Stern (both of whom appear again on this year's list: Nos. 26 and 78). We also included Philippe Starck, Maya Lin, Ettore Sottsas, John Saladino, Mario Buatta, the Mazda Miata, the Gap, Donna Karan, Isaac Mizrahi, Giorgio Armani and Michael Graves -- and we still love all of them! We applauded Starbucks and Home Depot in 1994, along with Portand, Oregon (included again last year for its green conscience), Jack Lenor Larsen, William McDonough, Barneys, Orrefors, Tufenkian and Hermès (those last two Nos. 92 and 35 this year). Mitchell Gold showed up in 1997 (see No. 18), along with bamboo, cork, Herman Miller, Ethan Allen, Whole Foods, the Delano in South Beach and Barbara Barry. We started having a bit more fun in 2001, naming the compact disc, the Columbia space shuttle and Bette Midler alongside design luminaries like Holly Hunt, William Sofield and Pierre Roset. Starting in 2003, the list began to feel more like it does today: Items included "The Open Bathroom," Design Within Reach (No. 87) and Jet Blue.
Pictured with me here is Nancy Silverton in her new Los Angeles restaurant, Osteria Mozza (No. 99). In 2001, the first year we cited her, she was at Campanile, but I had originally met her in 1982, when she was Spago's pastry chef. I still remember watching her scrape chilled chocolate off the back of a cookie sheet, shaping chocolate curls. This same sense of concentration, perfection and style is behind the breads at La Brea Bakery, which she founded, the menu at Mozza and all her own recipes. Vision and passion are prime Design 100 qualities.
Each of the D100 issues is a clear sketch of how we lived, and what was important in our homes and our lives. I can only hope that D100 2008 reflects this moment in time as vividly 18 years from now.