This week, a meme circulated online, contending that home goods had officially supplanted sneakers as "the new flex." Like all memes, there was a certain amount of tongue-in-cheekness about it mixed with a healthy dollop of truth: Over the past few years, we've watched as lamp after lamp, mirror after mirror became the hot new "it" accessory. But, like sneakers, home goods tend to inspire the most fervor when they're a bit more rare and harder to come by. Drop a new (old) design into the marketplace, the thinking seems to go, however, and watch the feeding frenzy begin. I would venture to guess this is a large part of why brands have suddenly decided to reissue their old designs en masse, including MENU, which has relaunched a half-dozen mid-century designs in a collection they're calling Icons.
