Public Servant Lifestyle

Choosing quality china used to be a simple task, but now not only can you choose from veteran manufacturers such as Lenox, Mikasa and Noritake, but there are a host of other designs available from a wide variety of sources in a profusion of styles and colours.

The traditional English chinamakers (including Royal Worcester, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert, Spode, Aynsley, Wedgwood, and Minton, now share the market with Villeroy & Boch, Haviland, Hutschenreuther, Meissen, Lalique and many more) all offer a mind-boggling display of color and pattern on retail shelves.

Designer China

But now, a new choice has hit the stores: designer china. This is a new term to describe tabletop collections by several popular clothing and lifestyle designers, such as Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Gianni Versache and Calvin Klein. Does this mean you can match your clothing to your bath towels and your footware to your fine dinnerware? Consumers will be the ones to decide how much is enough, as they snap up products by their favorite designers.

Clothing magnate Alexander Julian jumped the fashion fence a few years ago, designing furniture, fabrics and rugs in his signature blocks of color. The look is at once casual, whimsical and yet refined. And while his foray into the home furnishings market might signal a future expansion into linens and tableware, Julian has confidently declared "I don't want to design anything I can't put my feet up on."

He may be one of the few leading clothing designers to forgo dinnerware design, since many of his peers are turning to home products and tableware as natural extensions of their lifestyle and image creation. Many work with a prominent china manufacturer to produce their tabletop designs. Ralph Lauren china, for example, is made by Wedgewood, Paloma Picasso for Villeroy & Boch and Versace for Rosenthal.

Here are the movers and shakers in the world of designer china:

Ralph Lauren

There may be no other designer like Ralph Lauren, and there can not be many a household left without an RL product. From blazers to belts, towels to teacups, paint, furniture, linens, fabrics, china, stainless, sterling and more, his elegant tableware designs range from denim themes to the classically formal to a studied English country chic.

Rosenthal China

Rosenthal china produces china designs by both Gianni Versace and Bvlgari, famed for fine Italian jewellery design. Versace's tabletop designs are deeply coloured, ornate patterns with golden details, while Bvlgari shows simpler dinnerware shapes in two classic designs ringed with gold.
Calvin Klein, dubbed the "king of minimalism" by Vogue, has taken the home market by storm, with everything from bath towels to teapots. Fans of his earthen colours, spare shapes, and timeless design will want to collect some Calvin Klein tableware to compliment a minimalist, contemporary interior.

Block China

Block China has produced a whimsical Andy Warhol china collection in six red and black designs, with some plates featuring the famous Campbell's Tomato Soup can label.

In addition to these current lines, three other popular clothing designers have tableware collections in the works, including Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger and David Chu who is working with Pfaltzgraff on a Nautica tableware collection.

And, finally, if your taste runs decidedly casual, take a look at the dining collections of Debbie Mumm, Michael Graves and Martha Stewart. While not clothing designers, they prove once again that celebrity sells, and the public is eager to buy into the celebrity mystique.

More information available in Eating In, Entertaining, In Your Kitchen, Your Home