Please Do Not Touch: And Other Things You Couldn’t Do at Moss, the Design Store That Changed Design

For almost twenty years, there was no cooler place for high design than MOSS, the groundbreaking New York design gallery. By combining the exclusivity of art (the gallery opened in Soho when it was the exclusive playground of art galleries), the glamour of fashion, and the theatricality of Broadway - MOSS the gallery itself became a stage and a catwalk, where design broke all barriers to be an important player. Murray Moss, the impresario behind the shop, became the leader arbiter of good and outrageous taste, along with his partner Franklin Getchell. He was able to present Philippe Starck lighting one week, 18th-century porcelain the next, and Tupperware in-between. By mixing high and low Moss the man and MOSS the gallery shifted the design conversation from the galleries of MoMA to a storefront in SoHo. Moss has been called America’s most closely watched purveyor of industrial design (Washington Post), while his store has been called the best design store in the world. (International Herald Tribune, July 2007).

This is Murray Moss’ and Franklin Getchell’s charming, witty, and revealing story of how two struggling stage actors conquered, and redefined, the world of high design.