Decorating Ideas: The Vintage Modern Edward Wormley Way
Wormely was an outstanding furniture designer of the mid century modern period. He was designing furniture at the same time as George Nelson, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom. Wormleys philosophy was that "Modernism means freedom -freedom to mix - to choose, to change, to embrace the new but to hold fast to what is good."
Wormley knew very early on that he wanted to be involved in home furnishing and furniture. When the depression hit, he quit school and started to work for Marshall Fields in their furniture department. It wasn't long, before Wormely was designing furniture for the store's upholstery supplier.
Wormely started to work for the now famous furniture design company of Dunbar. When Wormely started to work for them they were unknown. At Wormley's suggesting, the Dunbar furniture company turned their vision to the modern furniture Wormley had come to know and love in Europe. Within five years of Wormely starting to work for Dunbar, the company was the leading modern furniture manufacturer in the United States.
Wormelys' time with Dunbar made him famous and he opened up his own business in New York City receiving commissions from such well known companies as Lightolier and Drexel. He is especially known for designing the famous "Precedent" line for Drexel.
Dunbar came back into Wormley's life by craftily signing him to an exclusive contract. After this, Wormely spent the rest of his professional career working for Dunbar. During this second stint with Dunbar, he cranked out hundreds of new designs which made Dunbar the unsurpassed source of luxury American furniture. His designs were timeless so they work as well today as they did in the 50s and 60s'.
Most of the mid century modern furniture designers held to the line that their furniture creations were works of art and an expression of who they were. Wormeley's furniture was art as well, but it was also classic and comfortable. Some of the furniture works of arts, designed by other mid century designers, were not comfortable to sit in or on for long. They were absolutely nice to look at though.
Wormley taught the high-end furniture world two important lessons. The first was that we should always innovate in our homes, but we should do this without abandoning what is good. The second lesson he taught the furniture design world was...do not compromise on quality.
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