10.02.2007
Plastic plate chic
 |
Clockwise from top left: Charles S. Anderson Design ($56), French Bull ($25), Bob’s Your Uncle ($28) and zak!designs at Target ($3.99). |
Plastic dishes. Yuck.
Right?
When I asked about melamine plates recently at a Restoration Hardware store, the clerk wrinkled her nose.
“No,” she said. Emphatically.
But melamine, the plastic so popular in the 1950s and ’60s, is back. Thanks to talented designers such as Thomas Paul, Jackie Shapiro and Charles S. Anderson, tableware cool enough to hang on a wall is everywhere. And for the price of one china dinner plate, the practical cook cum art lover can buy a whole set of melamine.
“Most of us have one, maybe two sets of good china,” says Amita Sharma, CEO of Spacify.com, a contemporary home furnishings retailer. “With melamine, you don’t have to be so careful, and you can set the table to suit your mood.”
Melamine is virtually unbreakable and unchippable, though it can get scratched by wear. It’s usually dishwasher-safe but never OK in the microwave or conventional oven, where it can melt. It often costs very little, a dollar or two for a plate, though designer pieces usually run a lot more.
“Ours is the most expensive,” says designer Anderson, boasting playfully — and accurately. A set of four of his kitschy dinner plates sells for $56 at loftparty.com. And they sell very well, he adds.
Anderson is founder of Charles S. Anderson Design Co. of New York, ranked one of the world’s 10 most influential design firms by respected trade magazine Graphis. The 18-year-old business creates logos, packaging, Web sites and more for clients ranging from Pottery Barn to Coca-Cola to Fossil.
As of two years ago, it also makes plastic plates.
Artsy Designs Feature Campy Humor
“I came to it through my love of all things plastic,” Anderson says. “Melamine is one of the safest, most perfect plastics. It doesn’t break easily; it never degrades.”
He and the company’s five other designers came up with 16 four-plate sets. Each set includes four different, complementary designs. Like many of the company’s other products, the plates merge “low art and high design,” playing on bad puns and campy humor.
They’re produced in the United States by a manufacturer that made melamine back in the ’50s and uses the original molds, so the plates are thick, with the dull finish of the oldies, Anderson says.
Most melamine on the market is produced in China. It’s glossy, fairly thin and light, and very inexpensive.
Shoppers can find fun designs for as little as $3.95 (on sale) at Anthropologie. They’re cheaper still at Target, where you have to be quick; styles come and go faster than you can say, “That’ll be cash.”
You may have heard melamine blamed in recent pet-food recalls, but that has nothing to do with the dishes. They’re perfectly safe for eating from. Melamine — the secret ingredient in everything from floor tiles to Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser — was never intended for ingestion.
Tough Product In Demand
It was developed in the mid-1930s and quickly was rationed for use by the Navy, which hungered for dishes that wouldn’t break in crashing waves or dent and transfer heat like metals. It’s still beloved by boaters — and the military.
After World War II, melamine production ramped up to satisfy ravenous consumer demand. It remained popular until the 1970s, when a new plastic, the type used in Tupperware, became the kitchen darling.
Today, designers such as Paul and Shapiro, who got their start in fashion, and Anderson have discovered melamine as a new canvas for their art.
Shapiro’s dishes, marketed as French Bull, have a ’70s feel, with bright, bold patterns and a touch of fantasy.
Many of Paul’s designs reflect his background as a silk printing mill colorist, creating neckwear for Bill Blass and Calvin Klein. His designs often have an element of nature; his Aviary set is particularly popular.
Plastic dishes — yuck. Right?
Wrong, says Anderson.
“Any object molded out of plastic, I look at it as a sculpture.”