Is rattan from the 70s?

You&#;d be forgiven for not knowing designer Gabriella Crespi&#;s name. She did, after all, disappear from public life in to seek spiritual solace in India, leaving behind her glamorous life in Milan&#;where she was a muse to Valentino and counted everyone from Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy as friends&#;behind. ("I rid myself of everything," she said. "The showrooms, the warehouse, the Rome apartment, the house in Sardinia. Everything,&#; she previously told The New York Times.)

If you want to learn more, please visit our website EISHO.

But you know her designs: In the s and s she was the maker of choice for Maison Dior, crafting everything from home accessories to furniture for the French fashion house. Her collections (including &#;Plurimi,&#; which features the instantly recognizable Dama table) were coveted by everyone from Princess Grace of Monaco to Elizabeth Arden. Her creations were a masterclass in contrasts: they often shifted between clean lines and curves, bronze metals and natural materials, mid-century modern and baroque styles. On 1stDibs, many of her rarer pieces are offered at over $100,000. &#;&#;&#;She was really an inexhaustible source of ideas and never stopped&#;over the course of her career, she designed and built over two thousand models. Every piece she presented had a strong identity, and she was brilliant at knowing how to convey this in every one of her works,&#; Crespi&#;s daughter, Elisabetta, tells Vogue.

Is rattan the same as wicker? Not exactly, though the two sometimes get confused. Wicker actually refers to the method of weaving reeds together, rather than to the material itself. Today, most wicker furniture is woven using rattan, though some wicker makers prefer to use raffia, bamboo, or willow reeds.

Another close relative, cane, is actually made from the same plant as rattan. The furniture-making material we call rattan, however, comes from the inner reeds of the vine, while cane is made using the outer bark.

A brief history of rattan furniture and decor

Many species of rattan require exposure to biodiversity in order to flourish. In other words, they don&#;t thrive in a monoculture; they crave the dissimilar&#;which may be the reason Calamoideae has enjoyed such success living alongside people since ancient times. The large subfamily of palms currently includes over 600 individual plant species&#;all of which are found in the Afro-Eurasian tropics. That means habitat encroachment and climate change pose serious threats to the material&#;s existence. That being said, rattans are also brilliant adapters we could learn from&#;especially when it comes to thriving in dissonance.

Keystone-France/Getty Images

Following centuries of extensive use in tropical and subtropical Asia, species of rattan were first brought to the British Empire in the early 19th century by army and navy families returning from being stationed in the Pacific during World War II. Despite the cooler European climates, the rattan mementos they brought home held up nicely. As bamboo furniture and similar options gained popularity in Western decor, rattan became a staple for patios and decks, and eventually many of its admirers brought their rattan table-and-chairs sets indoors.

Want more information on Custom Made Rattan Furniture? Feel free to contact us.

By the next century, the material had reached the Americas: US homeowners jumped on the bandwagon and began importing rattan furniture from the Philippines via steamships. Despite the equatorial origins, rattan pieces from this time period (s, &#;30s, and &#;40s) tend to display Victorian tastes, as that was the popular preference at the time. But soon, rattan tables and chairs began showing up in Hollywood movies and TV sets, conjuring a vibe of laid-back, exotic-island luxury that led to a huge uptick in the material&#;s popularity and a new interior decor style (sometimes called Tropical Deco or Hawaiiana).

&#;I can&#;t recall my first encounter with a piece of rattan furniture, but to me it has always been incorporated into design as a form of relaxation and escapism,&#; says Jamie Bayer, a Nashville-based vintage collector and seller at Dashwood Vintage (who uses the handle @possumshouseofrattan on Instagram). &#;During the late s and early s, bamboo furniture (which most people called rattan, whether made from bamboo or not) was popularized as a response to World War II ending,&#; she says. Rattan became an aspirational symbol, as &#;America looked towards Polynesian culture to inspire an easy, breezy way of life&#;thus starting the ongoing American obsession with tiki culture.&#;

By the &#;40s and &#;50s, California furniture designers like Calif-Asia, Paul Frankl, Herbert Ritz, and Don Loper began developing new methods and silhouettes for rattan furniture. (Frankl&#;s iconic Pretzel Arm chair is one notable example.) Some even began experimenting with different colored alternatives to bury for wrapping the rattan poles. Unfortunately some of these changes may have contributed to the downfall of rattan&#;s popularity, as these newer, more modern rattan pieces were seen by some as inferior to the earlier styles.

72 Collection Rattan Sofa by Gabriella Crespi

According to Bayer, rattan became associated with bohemianism in the &#;60s and &#;70s, which she considers more closely aligned with the aesthetics of the current rattan resurgence. Big names in rattan in the &#;70s and &#;80s included architect and furniture maker Henro Olko&#;who created beautiful, sought-after tables, sofa frames, and chairs using pliable bamboo, willow, rattan, and leather-wraps&#;and Milanese designer Gabriella Crespi, whose cult-following recently rejoiced when the designer&#;s daughter put her rattan-and-bamboo-heavy Bohemian 72 Collection (previously only available to private clients) into production for the first time. Intricate rattan club chairs from Olko&#;s Tiara Collection still go for soaring prices on the vintage market.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Rattan Basket Vietnam Supplier. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.