An unexpected (?) trend for a Christmas in which everything, but really everything, is allowed, except being bored. Objects with the an ambiguous shape, but which are exactly what they look like, and do exactly what you think they do, are a challenge to the traditional Christmas gift, and thus interpreted with irony and inventiveness. Because the point of the matter is neither transgression nor vulgarity, but simple and healthy fun. To start, opening up our eyes on the whole question, was Paul McCarthy, with his sculpture in the middle of Place Vendôme in Paris, where he placed what to most naïve eyes was narrated like a giant stylized Christmas tree. It was actually something else, and to the outraged citizens of the Ville Lumière didn’t take much to get rid of it. However, McCarthy’s work has paved the way for many others, let’s say, utensils, to experience the holidays with a little more zip. And therefore design and creativity have ensured that these objects become more than pleasure tools to be hidden in a drawer, but rather showed proudly combining, as in the best design, a pleasant appearance to the mere function. The imagination has the power to lash out, ranging from unusual looks to bright colors that stimulate (it’s appropriate to say!) the senses; or perhaps with a packaging that, in addition to enclose the object of pleasure, contextualizes it: like “jewel” as cufflinks or a tie clip for a distinguished banker of Wall Street for example. Others look at the things that we use every day in a key between the erotic and the witty, bringing the pleasure out of the bedroom in plain sight in the other rooms, even in the kitchen in the form of funny dishes. In short, this Christmas will be maybe just a little embarrassing, but for sure it will keep us in good mood … and maybe later …
