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With The Conran Shop hosting our homepage, offering mydeco visitors an exclusive discount and competition, and featuring in our newsletter, I’ve taken a look back at their Conran Classic Collection which I had exclusive coverage of.
During the auction of ten Conran Classics, I interviewed managing director Nick Moore for his thoughts on the Collection:
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Can you tell me what prompted the auction and the Conran Classic Collection?
‘We wanted to give our customers an edited collection, which now consists of 54 pieces of the very best of 20th century design, and we thought ‘what better way to launch it than to have an auction,’ where we collected ten pieces to auction off. All the proceeds are going to the Centrepoint charity with the starting price, interestingly, to be the price that they were when they were first launched many years ago.’
And this is a lot less than they are now, isn’t it?
‘A hell of a lot less. And that’s one of the reasons why we decided to launch the collection in this way as it educates customers on how these classic pieces of design can be an investment piece and increase in value.’
So how did you choose these ten classic designs?
‘That was a simple exercise because they’re the ten pieces we chose to model in the Conran catalogue book with members of Terence’s family.’
Tom and Victoria Conran with their favourites from the Conran Classic Collection:
Image credit: The Conran Shop
How did you get the Collection as a whole down to 54 because there must have been a lot to choose from?
‘Yes, that was a rather more difficult exercise and it was quite a lengthy process. A number of us from The Conran Shop got together and had some thoughts from customers and selected 100 pieces, from furniture to lighting, but really it was Terence’s decision to say ‘that’s the 54′. And it’s not exhaustive by any means, so we aim to add to the Collection over the coming months.’
So there were items that you could have classed as classics and didn’t?
‘Yes, because the Collection is not designed to be exhaustive at all, but at this time we had to limit ourselves to 54 pieces. We wanted to give customers a good mix of classics: some that they are aware of and some classic pieces that they are not aware of, plus ones that we would class as ‘today’s classics’.’
Image credit: The Conran Shop
Staying with today’s classics, what does make a classic in modern design?
‘That’s a very difficult question! It’s a number of things really. First of all the design has to be elegant, simple, and functional. It has to do what it’s supposed to do and above all it has to stand the test of time. A customer was asking me what makes an Eames lounge chair a classic, and knowing that he had one, I asked him ‘well, you tell me’. He said ‘my grandfather had one,’ so in this instance it was passed down through generations making it a classic.’
The items in the Collection do stand the test of time, and they are certainly iconic. Which is your favourite piece?
‘A very hard question, and I’m not sure I’m allowed to have a favourite piece! All 54 are fantastic, though I do have a soft spot for chairs. You can never have enough chairs, but I need a bigger house for them all. I guess any number of chairs would be my favourite from the Conran Classic Collection.’
Image credit: mydeco.com
Though I think Sir Terence models my favourite from the Collection, the Karuselli chair and ottoman, with a little more panache…
Image credit: The Conran Shop
Haven’t seen enough? Take a look at our video of the Conran auction, showcasing our favourites from the Collection and hosted by yours truly:
Make sure you take advantage of our exclusive 15% off The Conran Shop and enter our Conran competition to win £1000.
Stay tuned for more exclusive coverage, events and interviews, only on mydeco.
Ellie was mydeco.com's fabulous Editor for three years, and is now off exploring South America. Read more posts by Ellie.
