A few years ago I took a friend who was visiting from Europe, a very sophisticated lady, into the Anthropologie store near Union Square.  She stepped inside, looked around, and said, “Get me out of here."  The tweeness of the place and the products made her cringe.  She’d be happy to read the piece in last Sunday’s Times announcing that the craze for all things "authentic” is over.  That piece focuses on home furnishings, but I think the whimsical, hand-made aesthetic it describes has been bad for architecture, fashion, and graphic design too.  I’m tired of seeing mass-produced goods that are heavily crafted and poorly designed.  Bone china that’s prettily asymmetrical, hand-knitted scarves with nubby flaws, delicate glassware with artful splotches, and letter press cards with off-center motifs.  And, everywhere one turns, there are cats and owls and leafless trees.  What is it with the leafless trees?  While the aesthetic is fading, chains like Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters seem determined to keep it alive.

Another friend, an architect, observes that this “authentic” is “not so much about authenticity, as much as it is about downplaying our materialistic consumer inclinations by camouflaging them in thrift shops and ‘feel good’ pieces."  In addition, the aesthetic is about strengthening a buyer’s sense of their own creativity, as if buying something with a hand-crafted look is as good as making something with one’s own hands.  When I was a kid I did Shaker Makers, latch hook rugs, tie dye, decoupage, macrame, and counted cross stitch.  I loved working with my hands, and these pastimes gave the simple satisfaction of making things, however inconsequential they were.  It wasn’t art but it was something.  Now all a person has to do to feel crafty is to buy a cat pillow.  In these trying times, why don’t we want to make that pillow ourselves?