Some trends turn previous assumptions on their head - or do without them right away.
As in the case of the female torso, which is currently unavoidable: whether as a large vase or a small candle, lush curves and bare breasts have become a permanent fixture in furnishings.
At the same time, according to the consensus that has apparently been in effect since the “Me Too” debate at the latest, the female body should no longer be exploited or used purely as a decoration.
With this justification, the Manchester Art Gallery banned John William Waterhouse's painting “Hylas and the Nymphs” from its rooms for a week in February 2018.
Almost three years later, the sculptor Luciano Garbati had to face sharp criticism in New York for his - naked - "Medusa with the head of Perseus", which was temporarily presented in a court in Manhattan (the one in which the Weinstein case was tried).
And the artist Maggi Hambling caused displeasure last year when she erected an undressed monument to the feminist and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft in London.
Nudity in the criticism
Around the same time, an interior phenomenon was looming that at first glance could not seem more contradictory to these protests: First, simple, almost shy-looking illustrations of stylized breasts adorned such mundane objects as flower pots and coffee mugs, then vases took the abstract form of female abdomen and Candles from sweeping necklines. In the meantime, hardly any interior shop can do without at least one candle in the shape of a woman's torso, so-called “body candles”.
On the one hand, works of art are criticized for their nudity, on the other hand, home accessories in the form of naked and headless female bodies are celebrated as a trend. How could that happen? Anissa Kermiche is considered to be one of the main forces behind this phenomenon. The French-Algerian designer, who founded a jewelry label in 2015 after a career as a software engineer and has also been designing interior accessories since 2018, became famous with her "Love Handles" vases. They are modeled on the female body below the navel, stand out with their ample bottom and a very narrow waist.
With or without flowers in them, the vases are eye-catchers - and therefore a blessing for Instagram users with a large reach, who since the pandemic have had to take their photos at home instead of on dream beaches and luxury hotels. If several influencers who are considered to be style role models can be seen the same accessory in the living room, a desire arises in a very short time. This is also the case with Kermiche. In the British “Harper's Bazaar” she also explained her success as an almost logical stylistic consequence. Illustrations of bodies, especially in the minimalist line art style, have been a common design element for several years: "Our sculptural pieces are just a new interpretation of it."