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According to Ashwell, sales of her signature slipcovered sofa are up significantly, and the style has apparently been selling well at ABC Carpet & Home too (it’s called Watermill). Designer Kai Avent-deLeon’s Bed-Stuy brownstone is centered on a full white couch, and the sleeker but still Shabby Chic–informed Restoration Hardware Cloud Sofa sits front and center in Kendall Jenner’s Calabasas mansion. Lately, such similar couches can be found in the living rooms of both designers and celebrities. The sofa spawned dozens of look-alikes, from Pottery Barn’s Slipcovered Sofa to the Ikea Ektorp.
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By the early aughts, those rumpled, fat, slipcovered sofas were everywhere from Elle Décor to Warren Beatty’s living room. In 1989, Rachel Ashwell released the Shabby Chic sofa - a response, at the time, to the precious ruffled couches of the ’80s. Now back in style: the enormous white couch. If you happened to find yourself shopping for a new couch at any point over the past decade and a half, you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking there was only one style - the angular mid-century. Photo: Courtesy of The World of Shabby Chic/Rizzoli
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