
The Death of Flair - samclemens
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-death-of-flair/
======
rdtsc
Establishments want to project an image of class. It used to be class was
associated with flair. The more intricate and multi-colored flower patterns
you had, the more wealthy you were. The more gold foil and ornate columns the
better.

Then at some point tables have flipped (furniture pun intended) and mid-
century modern, minimalist design became a sign of wealth. Which, funny enough
had started with "let's make things functional and simple", stuff regular folk
can use. So it got inverted a bit, the poor people like kitsch and flair, but
the rich to differentiate themselves, end up with blank white walls and dining
room furniture made from unfinished birch.

This in part accounts for why IKEA is so popular today. Now everyone can look
like they live in Palm Springs, CA, but it is also cheap.

> The biggest trend right now is industrial design, which creates the feeling
> of being in a warehouse or unfinished building—and that requires hunting
> down turn-of-the-century factory

At some point someone decided that unfinished walls, exposed wiring and air
conditioning pipes in the ceiling means "youthful" and "cool". Probably
because those warehouse-like places in abandoned industrial parts of town were
places artists would congregate, sometimes to have shows or performances.

Wonder if people will get tired of that eventually, and it will become the
epitome of what office open spaces are with associated implications: hard to
focus, noisy, ugly decor, loud. At some point we made fun of cubicles, and now
we'll make fun of industrial-looking open spaces.

~~~
ashark
> Establishments want to project an image of class. It used to be class was
> associated with flair. The more intricate and multi-colored flower patterns
> you had, the more wealthy you were. The more gold foil and ornate columns
> the better.

In the specific case of chain restaurants, I thought flair was an attempt to
replicate the cluttered-junk aesthetic that certain local joints acquired
organically over time, not to signal wealth.

~~~
rdtsc
I was thinking in general more about ornamentation and flair used in
architecture and industrial design, not just for the restaurants.

But even in the context of some of those chains. I noticed those places which
explicitly do the cluttered junk old-time whimsy are fine. Cracker Barrel for
example, has been doing great over the years. Its stock in the last 10 years
went from $30 to $160. The interesting thing about it, it doesn't aspire to be
cool in a fancy way. TGI Friday wants to be a bit classy-cool. But it can't
keep up with the times. Ruby Tuesday same thing. For example, in 10 years its
stock went from $30 to $6.

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simulate
During the 2008 financial crisis, I got a great deal on some lovely and
interesting commercial rental space for my 20 person software and consulting
company in the financial district of San Francisco. It was an old bank
building with lots of marble in the entrance and a nice view of the
Transamerica building.

The developers we hired from outside of San Francisco did not like the space
because a commercial bank building did not match their expectations of what a
Bay Area tech company should look like. After our lease was up, I let the
developers decide what space we would move to. We ended up in a minimalist
SOMA warehouse with unfinished walls and ceiling and sealed concrete floors.

~~~
mathattack
I've been at two companies which tore up the floors and ceilings to get the
unfinished look. It reminded me of friends in school who spent hours working
on making their hair look sufficiently unmanaged.

~~~
theoh
It isn't worrying so much as substantive of a totally image-driven lifestyle.
William Morris, for example, wasn't exactly a model of democratic equality but
he had an image of authenticity in mind which was achievable without
extreme/real contrivances. The problem now is that the neo-yuppie lifestyle
requires completely ersatz constructions: walls that look bricky, an urban
"buzz" when everyone is boring and elite... etc.

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GuiA
The old style is kitschy, but at least it's coherent.

The picture showing off the prototype location is just terrrible though - it
succeeds in mimicking the modern minimalistic aesthetic, but the result falls
completely flat. Weird colors, mismatched chairs and tables, it's just a
clutter of furniture... ugh. The booths, propped up menus, and haphazardly
placed pillars are all out of place here.

Some European McDonald's look better than that. I wonder how much they paid
for this concept, because a group of interior design senior students could do
better in a month.

~~~
danielvf
It looks exactly like the bland, mid range hotel dining rooms of thr 1990's.
In fact, I had to check the caption carefully to mske sure that was actually
the new design.

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RichardCA
Thanks, I can't tell you what a breath of fresh air it is to read such a well-
written long-form article, free from pop-ups, requests to sign up with my
email address for updates, or getting scolded for using Adblock. This made my
day.

~~~
benbreen
Collector's Weekly puts out surprisingly good long form writing. I first came
across them because they wrote an article about my home town [1] and keep
coming back because it's very hard to predict what topics they'll cover. It's
basically a history magazine in disguise as a website about collectibles.

[1] [http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-hippie-
daredevi...](http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-hippie-daredevils-
who-were-just-crazy-enough-to-invent-mountain-biking/)

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sizzzzlerz
Office Space came out in 1999. Fridays started removing the junk from their
walls in 2005 followed by Ruby Tuesday in 2007 because they were supposedly
embarrassed with the depiction of restaurants like theirs in a 6- or 8-year
old movie? Not a real strong temporal correlation there.

~~~
DanBC
Office Space is often cited as a slow burn sleeper movie, not so popular when
it was released, picking up fans over the years.

~~~
jschwartzi
A lot of Mike Judge's work is like this.

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coredog64
I work with a restaurant franchisee, and if you ever want to generate a long
and creative stream of expletives, ask him about corporate mandates to
remodel. I expect this type of remodelling will be the end of a bunch of
marginally profitable TGIF locations.

~~~
douche
Makes perfect sense, especially if they have a clientele that has gotten used
to things the way they are. People, on aggregate, tend to be kind of resistant
to change, and are creatures of habit. You go in and frig with the decor or
the menu, and people that have been going there as a regular thing for years
will get irritated and try other places.

------
Animats
Summary: Chain restaurants drop the cluttered old junk look. Fear in the
collectables market as the chains sell off all that junk.

~~~
ams6110
I honestly had no idea that the "antiques" at those restaurants were actually
real. I had assumed it was all reproductions made specifically for that
interior decor.

~~~
draw_down
Me too, I thought it was all shipped out from some warehouse in, like,
Missouri whenever they opened a new one.

~~~
Animats
Hollister, the poser surfer brand, tried that. At one time every store had a
fake copy of a surfboard made by a famous board maker. He sued. He won.

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jccalhoun
Whoever wrote that headline should be ashamed. The article is basically really
a history of TGIFridays and what happens to the antiques is basically only a
paragraph or two.

If you want that, fine. I was there to find out what happened to the antiques
and they don't even give a specific answer:

 _As old Friday’s closed or remodeled, what happened to all the unwanted
antiques? "The woman who was in charge of purchasing had to figure out what to
do with everything"_

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bigtunacan
Now Friday's looks just like the inside of a Perkins or IHOP... I don't see
how this is more appealing to millennials.

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agentgt
It reminds of of Seinfeld:

    
    
        PETERMAN: Morty. My stories are what sell these clothes.
    
        MORTY: Cheap fabric, and dim lighting. That's how you move merchandise.
    

Now the problem is TGIF will no longer have dim lighting (because apparently
modern is bright lighting). What a shame.

~~~
sizzzzlerz
or the episode in The Simpsons where Moe turns his bar into Uncle Moe's Family
Feedbag with "a whole bunch of crazy crap on the walls".

~~~
rhizome
Which is referenced and embedded in the article!

~~~
sizzzzlerz
oops! missed that.

nevermind.

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mc32
Both pictures look good but present a different atmosphere.

I think the main issue with restaurant décor is that they allow the furniture
etc to become apparently old and creaky. It becomes obvious someone is
skimping on maintenance. So, give that Corpus Christi location ten years
without proper maintenance and it too will look like a has been location.

------
draw_down
The caption for the top picture mentions "Tiffany-style lamps". So, Friday's
moved from aping the tastes of rich people of bygone eras to aping the tastes
of contemporary rich people.

In other words, the story is that over decades, rich people's tastes in decor
changed. Ho hum.

