Maison & Objet 2009: A Brit blesses America

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Design dispatch from Paris, No. 4: The Maison & Objet design show booth of Andrew Martin, one of Britain’s largest privately owned textile and furniture companies, added some new looks to its signature mix of vintage-inspired pieces, oversize animal sculptures and cheeky sofas and chairs printed with Union Jack motifs. This year, bold fabrics also included prints with New York subway signs. One chair showed off London-based designer Martin Waller’s new God Bless America fabric, the phrase hand-scribbled in chalky capital letters on a brown background.

So just what did that all-American phrase mean to this particular Englishman? “Well I suppose to me it’s just a quintessential piece of Americana, like ‘Dragnet’ and Ford Motor cars and Coca-Cola and cowboy movies,” Waller said. “I guess ‘God Bless America’ is just a phrase I heard that got stuck deep inside my psyche.”

In Los Angeles, Andrew Martin is available at H.D. Buttercup. Waller insisted that the company’s new God Bless America fabric was merely a design statement, no political or religious agenda intended. ‘Then again, I probably wouldn’t have dared to do it when people were rioting in the streets of London protesting against the war,” he said. “But that mood has changed.” Any Obama-themed fabric in the pipeline? “Not yet,” he said with a grin.

-- Kristin Hohenadel

Photo credits: Kristin Hohenadel