Profiles: Desinging Mamas
July 31, 2005
Melissa Pfeiffer, Alison Wing, and Pazit Kagel are among a new breed of moms who, during the past two years, have taken an unsentimental turn toward contemporary designs for the nursery. Actually, as these entrepreneurial mothers agree, modern designs are not just for children, but for harried parents who want a respite from ungainly baby accoutrements that invade their space with the speed of mutating fungus.
If baby products are intended to assist parents, then making them aesthetically pleasing seems the logical next step. Still, plastic furniture and toys that come in shrieking primary red, yellow, or blue, or worse, in cloying pastels, abound. Cribs that resemble Victorian banisters, treacly toy-chest decals, walls, and corny ceiling decorations proliferate in alarming numbers. Such products comprise more than 95 percent of the market, but the changes, initiated by these mothers who love a more contemporary look, herald a new age...
Last year, at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, just a handful of businesses showed such contemporary products for children - among them David Netto - who produces what will certainly be the prevalent look in the nursery of the future...
