Easy-to-use enamelware making a comeback
Enamelware is everywhere again.
The centuries-old kitchenware is showing up in boutiques, lifestyle blogs, adventure outfitters and mass-market retailers. Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of the durable, light tinware once considered a poor man’s ceramic.
Unlike the boldly patterned, vintage European pieces that sell for top dollar at auction, today’s offerings are simple, casual and budget-friendly in sleek, contemporary silhouettes. For many, the draw is its old-fashioned sensibility.
“It has a nostalgic quality to it, but it’s not in your face,” said Sheri Moretz, a spokeswoman for Mast General Store, a small retail chain with shops in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. “It’s just the right amount of retro.”
Her colleague, Greta Hollar, remembers stocking up on enamel plates to take her kids camping, the same way her parents and grandparents did. “It’s sentimental, but it’s also functional,” she said.
In New York City, housewares brand Fishs Eddy recently announced an enamelware line due out in January inspired by vintage farmhouse design. And on Nov. 8, Anthropologie debuted a line of enamelware in a collaboration with Soho House, the worldwide private members’ club. Most of the line’s enamelware sold out in a matter of days.
London’s Falcon Enamelware is experiencing new life thanks to creative director Emma Young who, with the help of a small team, helped revitalize the nearly 100-year-old brand.
A self-described “materials fanatic,” Young studied product design at Central Saint Martins and discovered the brand in 2011 while designing interiors for restaurants and hotels. The opportunity to expand was obvious.
“It’s incredibly versatile,” she says. “It’s urban and rural, masculine and feminine, casual and refined. It’s universal.”
Enamelware is metal, aluminum or cast-iron cookware coated in a porcelain lining that makes it easy to clean, safe to heat and long-lasting. Although it’s best known for being lightweight, some say that makes it feel cheap or childish.
It can also chip easily, though enamel-lovers are quick to argue that small nicks add to the charm.
“It can be stuck in an oven, hung on a hook or stored in a freezer,” Young says. “You can live with it.”