Once upon a time, I interviewed Colin Cowie for a book on wedding flowers. This was before he had really hit the mainstream big time, but he was definitely on an upward track and it came through in his answers to my questions. I found him to be a little too focused on design over the wants of his clients, but I could understand why he would approach his work in that way. He was, after all, building a brand. Of course, now that he’s built his brand, he’s selling home decor on HSN, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.

What’s he selling? Let’s take a look.

The teak and synthetic wicker Westminster modular chair is apparently enduringly elegant. In fact, the ad copy tells me, you’ll be hesitant to leave once your butt is parked in this chair. Personally, I think the combo of the teak and the wicker is just too much. One or the other, please.

According to the description, I can put cocktails, soda, lemonade, juice, water and more in thisdouble-wall pitcher set. That’s good, I suppose, but what’s the green stuff? Only the food photography designer knows for sure.

I just like the color combos in this picture. The Westminster dining table? Eh, pass.

Decor items like this hammered metal bowl only really appeal to me if they’re useful. The decorative bowls I have now don’t do much, so I wouldn’t spring for this, but that’s just me.

I have to wonder… does ending up on the HSN web site or on the shelves of K*Mart make good designers suddenly less good?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 7:02 am by Christa Terry and is filed under Designers We Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.