“If I have to see one more ‘50s chair upholstered in ‘50s Jetsons fabric, I’ll kill myself,” says Kate Eisen. It’s not quite what you’d expect to hear from the owner of INabstracto, a furniture showroom that largely focuses on mid-century modern designs. We’re standing in the Design Exchange‘s newly opened pop-up shop curated by Eisen and Julie Jenkinson. It’s the second in a pilot series of partnerships with local designers; this summer the DX opened its first-floor shop to the Drake General Store, which packed the shelves with Canadiana-kitsch memorabilia and tchotchkes. This time, however, the space is filled with mid-century modern furniture bearing a contemporary twist–black and white upholstery comprised of interconnected line drawings of animals by artist Julie Jenkinson. And we’re getting the full treatment from Eisen herself. We start off at a cluster of Herman Miller modular seating created by American designer Don Chadwick in the 1970s, set outside the shop entrance. “They had them in a bunch of different sizes, like a square and pie slices, and if you had all the configurations you could make a snake. Airports bought them a lot and so they became known as airport seating.” They were the first pieces Eisen tried upholstering in Jenkinson’s chaotic Animaze fabric a year and a half ago–the pair started working together after Eisen staged a gallery showing of Jenkinson’s drawings. “We just hit it off right away and worked well together. And she had this pattern. It was a drawing that she had duplicated and mirrored and played with, and then turned into wallpaper. I said, why don’t we turn it into a textile?” Next up is a pair of rare 1960s sling chairs by American designer Jerry Johnson. “I’m so crazy about these chairs,” says Eisen. “They sold in pairs, one as a rocker and one as a lounge chair. When I bought them they had this ratty canvas material on them–like hammock material. They just sat for a year and a half before Julie suggested trying out the material again to see how it would work.” We linger near a 1950s dining chair by Canadian designer Russell Spanner. “Spanner was a really interesting furniture designer,” she says. “As far as I’m concerned some of the nicest chairs are Canadian. There were a lot of Europeans that came to Canada before and after the war to get out of Europe, so there were really skilled cabinetmakers and furniture makers starting their own furniture companies in the height of design. But Canada had really small production runs from when they were designing the really interesting stuff from 1945 to 1975. Which is I guess why there’s not a lot of recognition within Canada and the U.S.” Canadian designer Jacques Guillon’s iconic 1953 Cord Chair, which launched at the 1954 Milan Triennale, looks almost like a new design with the padded upholstered cushion set atop the seat’s stringed seat. Eisen shrugs at the suggestion that purists might object to these historical pieces being juxtaposed with such modern textiles. “I’m giving it a rebirth,” she says. “No one is doing this. Maybe people might be offended–in their minds I’d be wreaking the piece. But you know what? I get bored with the other stuff. Let’s change–let’s move forward with something.” Traditionalists needn’t fret, though: Eisen and Jenkinson also played with applying the pattern to a variety of other products–everything from bow ties by Dolbeau and pyjamas to glassware and handkerchiefs (“just for fun,” Eisen says). A children’s book based on one of Jenkinson’s characters is also in the works. They’re also not finished pairing bold textiles with mid-century pieces. A few furniture pieces upholstered in Jenkinson’s prints have already sold, and they’re ready to try another textile–Jenkinson’s abstract motif, Kissing Mooses. If this all isn’t enough, the pair is poised to start up another endeavour: a small furniture production company. “We influence with one another. We want to start with her patterns–some new, some old–and start making furniture with a strong mid-century modern feel. That’s my aesthetic.” When was the last time you popped into the Design Exchange Shop? It’s definitely worth the trip with these pop-up shops underway–Eisen’s and Jenkinson’s show runs until mid-November–not to mention the Capacity all-women design exhibit happening five metres away and the Play > Nation showcase of Canadian outdoorsy design installed upstairs until October 10. __ Paige Magarrey is a regular writer on design for Toronto Standard.
