NORTHERN PLANNER

Until very recently, I spent a lot of time working on a sofa retailing brand. I don’t regret a single minute, but I won’t miss it that much. That’s not because it’s considered the creative doldrums, more do with the wrongheaded way they stick to tshort term actics orather than developing fans. Ikea is an obvious exception of course! There is so much interesting territory to cover, but the norm is a focus on price and shoehorning upholstery into fashion.

A sofa is at once commonplace and luxury. It’s the one piece of furniture that cannot be flatpacked – very much at odds with instant gratification society. In the UK, the average leather sofa cost £1,118, not cheap, yet nearly every household has one. In many ways, the sofa mirrors the gradual democratisation of luxury and opulence throughout society.

Originally, in Arabic countries, the ‘suffah’ was a raised bit of floor festooned with lovely cloth and cushions. Only the very rich and important got to use them. It was symbol of luxury in Britain as well…only the postwar shifts to cheaper manufacturing and a different attitude to consumer credit brought them into most living rooms. This has been mirrored from the relaxing of the stiff, formal, rolled arms and spooned backs with ornate carvings into the low back, tall cushioned version we’re used to today. They’re all the same these. Only colour, fabric and size really distinguish them these days.

All that sameness explains the category norm of selling fashion – how else would you convince someone with their serviceable sofa that’s relatively comfy that they need a new one? Ikea polularised a designer life with ideas like ‘Chuck out your Chintz’ in the 1990’s. But there’s a lot more going on here. First, in style – we live in times when there’s a tension between the need for personal expression and the expertise and time to do this well. This is less about telling people what looks good, and allowing them to live an illusion that they’re choosing for themselves.

But there is far to talk about than looks. In a market saturated by style, they’re forgotten what a sofa is actually for – sitting on. And this has become more important than ever. A sofa has huge symbolic value – the living has become the the hub of the home, only the modern, multi tasking kitchen comes close. We watch telly on it, doze on it, surf the web, play video games…only the desk or the bed sees more of us. Yet most retailers throw style messages at us, as opposed to encouraging us to make sure that the thing we’ll be spending so much time on is absolutely right. Personal style is one thing, personal tastes in comfort and how we sit is one another.

We all sit in different ways, the days of formally sitting up straight are long gone – we slouch, sprawl, curl.whatever. A lived in sofa has a memory of the people that sit on it, from the short term warmth it retains from your body, to the way the springs don’t bounce back and the frame gets mishapped after awhile – the sofa has moulded around your body. No wonder we all have a favourite seat.

Sofa’s accumulate records of our lives – pet hairs. toe clipping, food stains, pens and, a financier has worked out, there about £1 billion down the backs of UK sofas in the form of loose change.

In the end, even the comfiest sofa gets too creaky and we drudge out to the retail park to get a new one. A new sofa has been fetishised in our culture – the interior design revolution and demacratisation of luxury means they’re a symbol of good taste, easy opulence and social belonging.

But this magic doesn’t last. The splendid new piece is delivered, and for two weeks is loved and admired as thing of beauty. Then it’s forgotten – just part of the everyday routine, something we watch Corrie on. That’s the real truth of these things – looks are fleeting, comfort should be forever. That everyday fabric of our existence that we only appreciate once it’s gone.

There’s so much about in culture to bring this to life – time not cash, the growing need for more time with loved ones, the idea of us all cocooning in an ever more complex and worrying time in history. Since we spend so much time on these things, and need for this has gone beyond the negative ‘couch potato’ idea (or it could) ,surely there’s a narrative that go beyond fashion and price? About time with people, about going more and not staying in? About working all day and ,loving to flop down and be with each other (or by yourself?)