Stuck On Memphis

In 1981, a collaboration of about 30 international designers started a movement of Fifties-inspired, one-of-a-kind furniture that took the name Memphis. Ettore Sottsass, the group's leader, says its point was to "get rid of institutional rhetoric." (The name comes from the Bob Dylan lyric "Stuck inside of Mobile with these Memphis blues again.") It was also intended to introduce into the home objects that are unstrained and fanciful--not unlike the sleek lines of 1983 Playmate of the Year Marianne Gravatte and Playmate Susie Scott. Memphis' materials are an unlikely marriage of such things as marble, glass and plastic. Colors are a frenzied rainbow. This is furniture you can sink your eyeteeth into.