Photograph courtesy Queen City Shows
The nation’s longest-running annual midcentury modern trade show, 20th Century Cincinnati, is a winter highlight for vintage design enthusiasts near and far. With 40,000 square feet of furniture, artwork, decor, jewelry, and clothing from the 1920s through the 1980s, the three-day shindig at the Sharonville Convention Center February 20-22 is like a pop-up museum where everything is for sale.
The show’s producers, sisters Jenni and Jess Button, have added clever bells and whistles each year since they took ownership in 2022. This year, for the first time, 20th Century is partnering with SPCA Cincinnati for a “Modernist Mutt” promotion. A portion of ticket sales will benefit the nonprofit, and the Button siblings—longtime animal advocates—are leveraging the show to place needy pets in forever homes.
They were inspired by a game-changing adoption moment from 2021. An animal rescuer in New Jersey posted a brutally honest appeal for someone to adopt a rather challenging chihuahua. “Prancer” was described as “not a real dog, but more like a vessel for a traumatized Victorian child that now haunts our home.” Rather than scare everyone off, the ad blew up and elicited an avalanche of applicants. With this success in mind, the Buttons are bestowing mid-mod names and attributes to local pooches.
Meet Mies Van der Bone, who “doesn’t just occupy space; he defines it. Whether he’s snoozing on your lap (and by ‘lap,’ we mean ‘entire torso’) or rearranging throw pillows with his tail, Mies will turn your home into a living gallery of love and chaos.” Frank Lloyd Bite, they say, “is best in a home where he can reign as sole architect of the floor plan.”
Show sponsor Sweet Modern, a shop for vintage furniture and restoration in Akron, has custom designed and fabricated two dog beds inspired by MCM lines to be auctioned off.
Anyone who adopts a Modernist Mutt will receive free tickets to the weekend-long show, which includes a Friday-evening VIP cocktail party that gives guests first crack at purchasing. Asked how many dogs the Buttons hope will be adopted out, Jenni says without hesitation, “All of them.”
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