Let me say from the outset that Heal's is not the only company guilty of this offence, but is one of many. So to what great misdemeanour am I referring? That of prefixing almost any item with the word 'designer' in an attempt to make it sound better than it actually is.
Surely every single man-made product has to be designed by someone? Even the dimensions, angles, joints and shapes involved in the creation of, for example, a traditional Windsor chair will have to have been put together by someone before it can be built in a workshop. Does this make a Windsor chair a Designer Windsor chair?
Some may try to counter this by claiming that the identity of the designer is unknown and therefore the phrase designer is not used. Surely if that is true then the phrase should only be used when the identity of the designer is known and further, the designer is someone widely known?
I have no problem if someone wants to describe something created by, for example Charles and Ray Eames or Charles Rennie Mackintosh as a designer item but how many sales staff can provide the name and biographical details of the creator responsible for the 'designer' sofa they are selling? Tell me that it's a meaningless term that's just used to make something sound more appealing and I'll show you a retailer that regards their customers as ignorant and stupid. do you want to give your money to someone who thinks you're ignorant and stupid? (apart from the government).
