I don’t remember the approximate date, where I was, or what website I was on when I first heard of “terrazzo”. It’s not like the “where were you when you first heard of yoga pants” question. (Answer: At my cousin Leslie’s Vegas bachelorette party, circa 2010.) But if I had to guess, terrazzo first crept into my vocabulary about 18 months ago, and I was probably on a website like CB2. They were PROBABLY selling something like terrazzo coasters. And I was like, sweet! A pattern I’ve never heard of.
The origin of terrazzo is Italian – it started as a cementitious floor and wall treatment. Tiny chips of color (such as marble, quartz, granite, and glass) were mixed with a binder, and then poured into a precast either on a floor or wall. Now, the word “terrazzo” often refers to the pattern, and not the cementitious floor and wall treatment. Little did I know, that pattern would slowly creep into every aspect of my design-fueled life over the next year and a half. And I relished in it.
It started slowly, with me noticing this multicolored, ununiform, chip-like pattern on interior design websites – tile, wallpaper, dishware, pillows, curtains… Then, it made its way into clothing. Finally, I began noticing it on labels. But on labels, it has taken on the form of a more curvy, macro cousin, that I like to call “the blobbies”.
I like the blobbies, actually. When I was younger, daydreaming about the future, I only had shows like Zenon: Girl of the 21stCentury, to tell me what it would look like. I’ve always pictured dramatic, hard lines. Example: people cutting their bangs on a diagonal and wearing their hair in such a tight ponytail that it gives you perma-headache. There was also lots of red pleather (thanks, Britney) and shiny silver metallic. Who would have ever guessed it’d be full of inviting, soft colored, organically shaped blobbies instead?
Like an alien invasion, the blobbies have also taken over jewelry!
When it comes to this latest design trend, I’ve definitely asked myself “why now”? This is all speculation, but I think it has something to do with what I mentioned before. For a lot of us 30-somethings and older, we’re finally living in “the future”, and these patterns remind us that the future isn’t as scary-looking as we once thought. When it comes to terrazzo, (which characteristics are more hard edges and chip-like than the blobbies), I think we needed this unorganized, chaotic pattern to remind us that if our lives are just that – unorganized and chaotic, they are also still beautiful.
(Is anyone else having a Saved By The Bell flashback?)
