The End of Minimalism.(new trends in fashion and interior design richer, more colorful)

Remember the less-is-more esthetic? Until quite recently, all things hip--suits and chairs, homes and hotels--were defined by purity and sleek restraint. No longer. Just check out Sketch, the London restaurant where Algerian owner Mourad Mazouz has spent [Pound sterling]11 million to create a look that can only be described as maximalist. The sound of chirping birds greets visitors to the art- gallery-cum-eatery, housed in an 18th-century mansion near Savile Row. Swarovski crystals line the restrooms, laser lights project poetry onto walls and desserts are displayed like jewels in a glass case. The dining room is decorated with chandeliers, velvet wallpaper, mosaic floors and video art. Prices are in the stratosphere and critics have called the food "pretentious tosh." But the design itself is turning heads; last month, Sketch scooped up a gaggle of industry awards, including one for best restaurant design.

Restaurants, of course, are supposed to provide escape from the everyday. But lately fashion, furniture, interiors and architecture have all been moving away from austerity, and toward a richer, more colorful, more emotional kind of design. In stylish homes, poured concrete floors and discreet spot lighting have been replaced by Moroccan rugs, chandeliers and hand-painted period wallpaper. Lofts of steel and glass have been abandoned for cozy townhouses. Flamboyant fashion designers like Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen rule the runway. Jewelry fitted with brightly colored stones-- rather than simply cut diamonds--is the rage.

Globalization has helped fuel the trend, disseminating a broad range of cultural influences around the world. In the process, some unexpected cities--among them Bangalore, Beirut and Tallinn, Estonia--have joined the ranks of standbys like New York and Milan in becoming centers of design chic. An exhibition highlighting the best European design of the past two years, currently on display at London's Design Museum, includes chandeliers shaped like tree boughs, a bathroom constructed with flowerpots and a foxtail socket plug. In short, more has become more. "Minimalism is definitely ending," says Alice Rawsthorn, head of the Design Museum. "After a decade, people have simply become bored with it, and young designers have begun leaning towards a more decorative esthetic."

The things we typically think of as minimalist--like Ian Schrager hotels and Jil Sander suits--are products of the 1990s, but the minimalist esthetic has been with us for much longer. It grew out of modernism, which emerged at the end of the 19th century as a reaction against not just traditional design but also traditional politics and social mores. "Modernists wanted to strip away decoration as a way of breaking through barriers of class," says Jane Pavitt, a senior research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. "They felt that an object should look like what it does, and only that."

The 1990s-style minimalism grew directly out of the dot-com boom. The rush of Internet wealth created a new kind of young, busy (often single) consumer who possessed significantly more money than time or taste. Like a Gap T shirt, minimalist homes of concrete and steel were a way for the Silicon Valley tech geek or the London investment banker to be stylish in a safe way. Since many of these people worked long hours and weren't home much, the ...