Editing Populuxe

{{Short description|US consumer culture and aesthetic (1950s–1960s)}}
[[File:1961_Buick_fins_California_license_plate_AINT_PNK.jpg | thumb | right | alt=Rear view of a coral colored 1961 Buick with the license plate AINT PNK.  | Example of the futuristic aesthetic of Populuxe. ]]
'''Populuxe''' was a consumer culture and aesthetic in the United States popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The term ''populuxe'' is a [[portmanteau]] of ''popular'' and ''luxury''.<ref name=pop>{{cite book | title = Populuxe  | author = Thomas Hine | publisher = Fine Communications | date = September 1999 | isbn = 978-1567313161 }}</ref>

== Description ==
The style evoked a sense of luxury with the design of consumer goods such as radios and clocks typically featuring pastel-colored plastic in curved and angular shapes and [[Metallizing|metalized]] plastic trim that simulated chrome. Structures commonly used pastels, geometric shapes, and surfaces of stucco, sheet metal, and often stainless steel.

Populuxe emerged after people began seeing semi-luxury commodities as luxury ware and mass consumer goods.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe 1650-1850|last=Berg|first=Maxine|last2=Clifford|first2=Helen|date=1999|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=0719052734|location=Manchester|pages=67}}</ref> It is also interpreted as a mass culture that desired luxury finishes on everyday material goods.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Devotional Interaction in Medieval England and its Afterlives, Volume 12|last=Foster|first=Elisa|last2=Perratore|first2=Julia|last3=Rozenski|first3=Steven|date=2018|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004365834|location=Leiden|pages=85}}</ref> It is said to be an offshoot of [[Fordism]] in the early 20th century<ref name=":0" /> and was also facilitated by the start of the emulative celebrity culture.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture|last=Southerton|first=Dale|date=2011|publisher=SAGE|isbn=9780872896017|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=876}}</ref>

The work of various artists, designers, graphic designers, furniture designers, interior designers, and architects is associated with the populuxe movement. Populuxe is associated with [[consumerism]] and overlaps with [[mid-century modern]] architecture, [[Streamline Moderne]], [[Googie architecture]] (Doo Wop architecture), and other futuristic and [[Space Age]] influenced design aesthetics that were [[futurist]], technology-focused, and optimistic in nature.<ref name="pop" />

==See also==
* [[Mass affluent]]
* [[Luxury goods#Scope of the term|Mass luxury]]
* [[Raygun Gothic]]
* [[The Brave Little Toaster (novel)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:American architectural styles]]
[[Category:Futurist architecture]]
[[Category:Modernist architecture]]
[[Category:Modernist architecture in the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century architectural styles]]
[[Category:Googie architecture]]


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