Arroyo May 2019

PHOTOS: (Top and bottom right) Courtesy of Peter Shire; (bottom left) Memphis-Milano.com
Sottsass’ multi-colored “Carlton” room divider, George James
Sowden’s plump red “Oberoi” chair and Masanori Umeda’s “Tawaraya”
square lounge or “conversation pit,” resembling a boxing
ring with striped sides.
The Nordstrom pop-up was initiated by Nordstrom’s VP of
Creative Projects, Olivia Kim. “I’ve been a huge Memphis fan
since I was a child,” she told Adpro, an online offshoot of Architectural
Digest. She herself has a collection of Memphis objects,
still being produced through an Italian company.
Furthermore, young designers today are being influenced
by Memphis. “There is a lot of revival going on,” says David
Mocarski, chair of graduate and undergraduate environmental
design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, “around
the world with the younger generation — in Los Angeles, New
York, Berlin and everywhere else.”
Memphis design was born some four decades ago. Many see it
as part of the postmodern movement in design and architecture.
In December 1980 Sottsass — a veteran designer who had worked
with modernist George Nelson and in the electronics division of
Olivetti, where he designed the famous red “Valentine” typewriter
— gathered together other young designers for discussion and
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