Yesterday’s New York Times included this article referencing the movement of men’s fashion – with some shout-outs to interior design – towards 19^th-century inspiration.  I love the article.  And I don’t. 

Honestly, I think I like the article mainly for vain reasons.  This year’s trends validate some of the more distinctive choices I’ve made in terms of fashion (Winter 2005: a fox collar for myself and an enormous, muskrat, trapper hat for Bertessa), as well as home design (antique china plates on my walls).  But I don’t like the idea that wearing old-fashioned styles, and having old stuff in your home, is cool just when carried out by Lower East Side and Brooklyn hipsters.  And I don’t say that because I live on the Upper West Side.  Vintage is cool when it’s authentic, but authentic is different for everyone.  It can’t be purchased in a few choice locales, no matter how well curated the stores’ merchandise may be.

Making the “19^th-century” an of-the-moment trend trivializes a very legitimate, untrendy, Tessin Rinpoche goal: living a modern life in a style that honors the best of our personal and cultural history.

I have always loved what the article terms “Victorian-era clutter.”  But I think it’s coolest is when it’s not actually clutter, but something that you personally value and appreciate having on display in your home.  For me, the bit of Victorian clutter I’m enjoying having in my living room right now is my grandfather’s old steamer trunk.

Victorian clutter in the living room

My grandfather was born in Perth, Australia in 1906, and immigrated to the U.S. as a very young man in the 1920s.  He and his brother Ken spent a number of years working and partying in New York, traveling all over the Americas, and generally growing up.  Then Hitler invaded Belgium and Holland in May of 1940; he and Ken immediately set sail for New Zealand, where their family lived, to enlist.  They were strongly opposed to the ongoing U.S. stance of neutrality and felt called to defend others’ freedom – incredibly courageous.  Ken was killed in North Africa; my grandfather served until the end of World War II, and then returned to the U.S. with my grandmother (his new New Zealander bride, who’d been his pen-pal through the war) in 1945.  His trunk, which I’m told he bought second-hand when he was young – possibly literally Victorian – accompanied him on many of these journeys.  It sat in my parents’ basement, under the stairs, for most of my childhood.  I was always intrigued by his hand-painted name and the many stamps and stickers from around the world.  There are even some train stickers from when Auntie B took it on a trip or two in the 1950s. 

Now it serves as a mini coffee table, and I really love having it there.  Can we agree that having something personally meaningful is better than buying an old trunk simply for the sake of having one?  Or buying a new one that’s trying to look old from Restoration Hardware, Horchow, or even one of my favorites, Jayson Home & Garden?

 I like homes that clearly reflect the identity – both present and historical – of the people who live there.  I guess it’s nice that 19^th-century decor is “in” … but it doesn’t really matter.  It is not a good reason to buy taxidermy, antlers, amateur portraits of strangers, and antique leather-bound books in bulk on eBay; that’s just silly.  Perhaps it IS a good reason, when you’re visiting family over the holidays, to identify some basement/attic clutter you particularly like … and perhaps request that it relocate to your living room! 

P.S. – No need to regale real-life guests with the tales of your clutter.  Just offer them a cocktail.