Interior Design as Lifestyle in the 1970s Home
A cultural history of the 1970s domestic interior in Britain and the United States, exploring its relation to fashion, textiles, design and socio-cultural influence.

The 1970s is often considered the period that design forgot. In Private sets out to challenge this view, offering a cultural history of domestic interior design in Britain and America over the course of a decade that shaped the contemporary relationship between fashion and interiors.

With each chapter dedicated to a different room in the house, this book explores style, design and socio-cultural influence from the sitting room to the sauna, and from the kitchen to the conservatory. Considering the key critical discourses which arise from the style and function of each space, In Private looks at how the public sphere informed the decorating styles, furniture and furnishing of the private home, from shag pile carpets to Swedish duvets.

Demonstrating how the cultural environment of the 1970s sparked the ideas, styles and practices that have become common currency in today’s interior design, the book examines questions of sensuality, tactility, fashion, fantasy and gender. Illustrated throughout and packed with original research, it provides an insight into 1970s innovation and eclecticism in fashion, textiles and the domestic interior.