Shimmering accents and mirrored walls are found throughout a lounge area at the Riviera Resort & Spa in Palm Springs. The resort’s midcentury decor -- popular in Palm Springs and around the world -- features a palette of vibrant colors, unique accents and graphic shapes. / Crystal Chatham/The Desert Sun
Erik Rosenow of Palm Springs tries on a vintage coat as his wife, Ashley, adjusts his collar at the opening of Deja Vu Vintage Finery in Palm Springs. / Wade Byars/The Desert Sun
Modern love at mydesert.com
Kick off Modernism Week Thursday with a video tour of the Elrod House, notably featured in the James Bond movie, “Diamonds Are Forever.”
For more coverage of Modernism Week, visit www.mydesert.com/modernism.
This 1950 Airfloat Land Yacht was featured during a 2011 Modernism Week event at the Riviera Resort in Palm Springs. / Wade Byars/The Desert Sun
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PALM SPRINGS — Just like Lucy and Desi, Tricia Porter and Victor Otero enjoy the chatty cocktail parties, sleek furnishings, kitschy tiki accessories and the sunburst colors of midcentury Americana.
“I don't know if I was born after my time or have an unresolved past-life issue, but my wife and I are definitely attracted to the '50s and '60s era,” Otero said.
The 30-something couple is among the growing numbers of younger retro-fans who were born decades after “I Love Lucy” first went into reruns, growing up in the era of Reagan, not Kennedy.
They are helping to propel the popularity of Modernism Week in Palm Springs, which starts this week and is expecting to draw more than 25,000 architecture buffs, fashionistas, collectors and the curious with promises of an immersion in martinis and kidney-shaped pools.
“Palm Springs has become a midcentury modern theme park,” said Charles Phoenix, a pop culture humorist and author who will be offering a semi-serious tutorial on the elements of midcentury cool during Modernism Week, which kicks off Thursday.
“Palm Springs has the nuts and bolts for it and the society there that thrives on never saying goodbye,” he said.
Six years in, it is clear the appeal of Modernism Week is transcending architecture. The 10-day event is attracting a broad range of visitors who wouldn't know an Alexander home from a KB Home, and they're interested in everything: clothes, food, cocktails, music, cars and the space-age, pre-Vietnam optimism that is woven through such shows as “Mad Men” and “Pan Am.”
“In the midcentury era, everything was reinvented and packaged brighter and shinier,” Phoenix said. “It was a shopping spree extravaganza of Americana that exploded in everybody's life at that time … and it's become a good style guide for festive, fun living that people in Palm Springs love.”
But the recent embrace of '60s culture in everything from music videos to advertising shows that the appeal of midcentury modern has a reach far beyond Palm Springs and even America.
“It's absolutely remarkable the people I know of who come into town just for this event from out of the country,” said Peter Moruzzi, author of the 2009 book “Palm Springs Holiday: A Vintage Tour from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea” and founding president of the Palm Springs Modern Committee.
In 2009, Modernism Week drew 9,000 people to Palm Springs, nearly doubling the year after and then jumping to 25,000 in 2011.
This year, the event has already passed its benchmark of selling 10,000 tickets, putting the event on the path toward breaking another attendance record.
“We've seen huge leaps in attendance ... and there's no plateau in sight,” said Jacques-Pierre Caussin, chairman of Modernism Week. “It's incredible.”
For many, especially the younger crowd, Caussin said “it's not about nostalgia, it's genuine interest.”
“People realize that modernism is almost timeless now, and a lot of things they're interested in their generation has its root back in the 1950s and '60s,” Caussin said.
A mother's ‘wild collection of clothes'
Victor Otero is a self-proclaimed “architecture nerd,” but Tricia Porter got hooked on modern design by the cool threads she took out of her mother's closet.
“When I was in high school, I wore a lot of my mom's clothes. She had a wild collection of clothes,” Porter said.
Now, Porter quips that she tunes into shows like “Mad Men” to see what the cast wears to get more inspiration for her outfits.
Porter said even her sister and her friends, who are 10 years younger, are becoming enthralled by the midcentury modern style.
“It's incredible how popular it's becoming,” Porter said. “There has definitely been people who have been into it for decades, but it's hitting this really big resurgence among the younger generations.”
Otero and Porter often call themselves the new generation's Lucy and Desi not only because Otero is Cuban and Porter has the fair skin and curly hair, but because the couple got married on what would have been Ball and Arnaz's 70th wedding anniversary.
Porter wore a vintage sea-foam green dress and the couple exchanged vows in a tiki restaurant in Florida.
Last year, Otero and Porter opened the Donald Wexler-designed home they rent in the Racquet Club Estates neighborhood as a tour stop during Modernism Week. Both were surprised to see who came through their door.
“So many young people came through for the tour of our house and I was just floored,” Porter said. “I thought we'd get a lot of gray-hairs who wanted to reminisce about the homes they grew up in, but that wasn't the case at all.”
‘Great design can make you feel good'
Erik and Ashley Rosenow are in their late 30s and are among those who share the modernist lifestyle Otero and Porter love.
“It's an era that really speaks to us in a way that it just seemed more sophisticated in fashion and in life in general,” said Erik Rosenow.
The couple moved from Seattle in 2008 to live in Palm Springs, what Erik Rosenow calls the “epicenter of midcentury modernism.” They live in a Wexler home in the El Rancho Vista Estates neighborhood.
“It resonates with so many people because it's a good design, and I think good design makes your life better. Whether it's the house you live in, or the coffee cup you drink out of every morning or the car you drive, ” said fashion designer Trina Turk, whose clothing line is inspired by the Palm Springs modern style and her own streamline moderne home, known as the Ship of the Desert.
“Great design can make you feel good and the modernist architecture in Palm Springs shows you can live well without being excessive. What was considered luxurious then was much more sensible than what's considered luxurious now.”
‘The Zen approach'
Some say the power of midcentury modern design has been heightened by the excesses of the recession and the pain of its hangover.
Moruzzi likened modernism to “the Zen approach to life because it has a very minimal look and the idea is to not add extra ornamentation.”
Caussin said he believes Modernism Week and the celebration of that era provides an escape from the seemingly intractable problems of the 21st century.
“Overall, the spirit of the country during that time seemed better. The people were far more optimistic than they are nowadays and there was a whole lot more enthusiasm, “ Caussin said. “I think people like to turn to that era because it seemed life was more simple.”
But Caussin emphasized that the week's events are not “all about the good ol' days and playing The Beatles and hanging out the by pool — it's more serious than that.”
“It's a lot of things rolled into one,” Porter said. “You have the art, the clothes, the architecture, the cocktails, the music — and it's all here in Palm Springs.”
Mariecar Mendoza covers Palm Springs for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at (760) 778-4669 or mariecar.mendoza@thedesertsun.com. Follow her on Twitter @TDSMarMendoza.
