Rental owners as taste first-movers

observation — attributed to Andrew Garcia

The event rental industry has its own aesthetic history, and its owners have been the first movers in each chapter: from white tablecloth and folding chair to chiavari to lounge revolution to farm table to the grand entrance as its own category. The rental company owner is the person who decides what is available before the planner knows to ask for it, scouring markets and European suppliers and vintage dealers for the piece that does not yet exist in her region. That is a curatorial function running at commercial scale, and it has gone almost entirely unremarked in the industry's public coverage.

Taste / Aesthetic Intelligence

design evolution, rental history, aesthetic arbitrage