By the 21st Century, no one seems to know what’s “in” these days. And frankly, not many are interested in being in the “in-crowd.” It’s all about self-expression and individuality now. It’s not like the 80’s where everyone had those neon spandex, or the 60s when poodle skirts were the height of fashion. Now fashion, and the very soul of modernity, lies within the buyer and creator. And it shows in the household. People are more inspired by the past decades then the present, which is why you find that old shag rug in the dining room from the 70s, and that wicked Eileen gray table in the living room. Instead of following a magazine on home decoration to define their homes, people are creating their own ideas of fashion based on their experiences.

Naturally, no one has forsaken the love for Modern furniture completely – just look at sales numbers! People still want the biggest, best, and most reliable items out there. Today’s furniture usually has the latest in reclining technology; hidden massage beads in armchairs, and retractable legs in kitchen tables, for example. However, just because the furniture of today has the technology of tomorrow, does not mean it can’t have the look of yesterday. In the growing fanaticism around bringing retro back, many designers have jumped on this bandwagon and modeled their finest furniture after those of past decades. And it sells!

Fortunately, there is no one definition of fashion in the modern world. Labels are being torn down with walls, leading people into the formerly unknown territory of intuition and expression. There is a freedom these days that people never had before with fashion. The idea of a Modern sofa these days could mea a sofa manufactured today, but built like the design of a couch in the 40s. With such liberation from set boundaries in fashion, people all over the nation are embracing the nuance of the old throughout households everywhere.

Of course, not everyone gets their retro coffee table from an expensive retail store downtown. A lot of people, especially in this current economy, look to the big city streets instead of the big city stores. People discard their old furniture all the time, whether because it’s too heavy to move or too old to sell as appealing. But you know what they say about one man’s trash being another man’s treasure. Waiting for a new owner to find them and put new meaning into them, pieces of furniture are just around the corner, ripe for the picking.

So go out there, to the streets, to the retail stores, and find yourself. Not just in the couches, but in the dining room tables, the coffee tables, and the lamps of decades past.

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