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Jonathan Adler‘s Denver outpost, brimming with his trademark happy-chic home goods, has been making our chakras tingle from the moment it opened in summer 2012. Since then, we’ve talked Colorado style with the NYC-based design icon and coveted his signature pottery (and giggled over the oh-so-apropros “your 24-hour pot dealer” tagline outside the Cherry Creek North showroom). But not until last week did we get to meet the man—here on his first visit to the Mile High location to celebrate the launch of a new fall collection and rub elbows at an in-store soiree, hosted by Reign magazine and benefitting the Art Students League of Denver. We chatted trendy versus timeless, accessories, and the mountain aesthetic before getting the breakdown on Adler’s top picks for autumn.
5280: What trends we should be watching for this fall?
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Jonathan Adler: Lots of swanky sparkle, luxe materials, and brass, brass, brass, brass. I just love the warmth of brass. I’ve been rocking brass for years, and I’m happy to see that it’s a trend now.
5280: How do you curate the collection here differently than in other cities?
I respect Denver’s mountain-crafty earthiness, but I also think there is beaucoup glamour here as well. I hope we have a fun mix of craft and glamour, which I think is a rare combo. People think the two are usually mutually exclusive. I am here to say they’re not. They live and play together magnificently.
5280: Any tips for updating your home’s decor for fall?
I think that whatever you choose for your home should be timeless. I suppose the thing you can do is switch out some throw pillows. But the nice thing about home is that it needs to be a timeless environment. I use lots of neutral colors—it’s all about black, white, gray, and camel, natural materials, and then small pops of color are all that’s needed.
5280: It can be easy to get caught up in trends—how do we tell the difference between timeless and trendy?
I try to be both trendy and timeless. But how do you tell? I guess if you see something and you love it and it’s beautifully crafted, it’s timeless. That’s the nice thing about home; it’s not like fashion. Right now, if you wear a mom jean, basically, you’re either ironic or you’ve been buried for the last 20 years or…I don’t even know what you are. Mom jean equals death at this point. But in home, you can have cottage-style or English country or Italian futurist or mod; it can be anything and it can last forever. So that’s the great thing about home, is that it’s not ephemeral. So just pick your style and run with it. If it makes your chakras tingle, it’ll work forever.
5280: Tell us about your new accessories line.
I have always—this is gonna sound really wrong—I’ve always loved women’s handbags. They’re not dissimilar from a pot; it’s sort of the same idea, like a vessel, container, it’s about form and color. So it just seemed like a really logical world for me to dip into. And ties I wear a lot of. I feel like my spirit of irreverent luxury can be applied to so many different products and product categories. And I’m tireless. I kind of just want to do more—and just infuse radness into every element of your life. That’s my goal.
5280: So what’s next on the Jonathan Adler world domination tour?
Just more radness all the time. We’re doing socks, we’re doing everything. More radness.
5280: Have any favorite items in the new fall collection?
Do I ever!
View a slideshow of Adler’s top picks, accompanied by the designer’s ever-effusive commentary.
—Image courtesy of Jonathan Adler
Follow copy chief Jessica Farmwald on Twitter at @JessicaKF.