It’s silly to say that antiques are having a moment (like a great pair of 501’s or military khakis, antiques are always relevant), but it feels like interest in them is seriously bubbling among a new generation. The most interesting, creative, cool, and tasteful people I know are injecting their lives and spaces with overlooked antiques and idiosyncratic collections, infusing traditional interior design with a new spirit.
This notion has been top of mind since I clocked The New Antiquarians, published in 2023. The book highlighted a burgeoning class of young collectors creating delightful interiors in a new, antique-laden language. The overall impact was a departure from the previous generation’s notion of how antiques should be deployed; the new collector has an understanding of history married to an embrace of the weird, the wonderful, and the overlooked.
In the scant years since that book was released, it feels like this energy has only increased. The best interiors (at least among the design cognoscenti) make their case in response to the scourge of open floor plans and plasticine, assembly-line internet furniture with a richer, textured, personality-laden, antique-hued design. These rooms have a patrician, old money DNA (my favorite aesthetic) that collides with a vein of minimalism and an appetite for the absurd - they are looking to the past, but feel undeniably fresh and modern. This is Parish-Hadley meets Gummo - like a marriage of chintz and tramp art - and I love it.
Here are the people doing it well:
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