Minimalist fashion designer Yeohlee Teng won against stiff competition from Marc Jacobs and Narciso Rodriguez. The flowing geometries of her asymmetrical skirts and pared profiles are designed for "urban nomads" who, she believes, want low-maintenance garments that look like wearable art.
After dinner, the younger, hipper design crowd arrived at the old Andrew Carnegie mansion for disco and champagne. Overhead, a computer animation by curator Ellen Lupton conveyed the museum's message, "All design, all the time," as logos turned into whimsical landscapes and skylines morphed into smokestacks. Galleries showed off the 20th-century designs of Josef and Anni Albers, a curving Thonet settee from a room devoted to design circa 1848 and a display of wallpaper by contemporary artists, including one voluptuous cartoon character.
Swiss-born industrial designer Yves Behar, whose work includes these garden clogs for Birkenstock, received the award for product design.
(Marcus Hanschen -- National Design Awards)
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Little wonder that design school enrollment is way up. But as Glaser noted before dinner, pay and jobs are down as a result.
"There are thousands graduating with no corresponding opportunity," he said. But it's still a good thing that "everybody is interested in design. People make design judgments every day."
Glaser revealed the secret of his success in the choice of his gala attire. Over a dark suit he wore a polka-dot tie, tied in an 18th century-style bow. It serves as an example of his fundamental design rule: "Deviate slightly from the norm but not too much."
Spotted in the crowd was interior designer Albert Hadley, a founder of the renowned Parish-Hadley firm, who decorated the vice presidential residence for Al and Tipper Gore. When asked whether Teresa Heinz Kerry might be among his clients, he replied, "No, not yet." But he liked the idea.
"She calls a chintz a chintz," he said.
The National Design Awards were conceived in 2000 to raise awareness of the role of designers in everyday living. Lifetime and corporate awards are announced in advance. This year, the Aveda Corp. was honored for design consciousness, including the recycled materials in naturalistic lipstick packaging by New York designer Harry Allen.
There is also a design patron, selected by Cooper-Hewitt Director Paul Thompson. This year, Thompson chose New York City planning department chief Amanda Burden.
