Up until now, MUJI products, which include stationery, housewares, clothing, and toiletries, were only available in the U.S. through select museum stores such as the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. But in the last year, MUJI has finally invaded America, opening three retail stores in NY (SoHo, Times Square, Chelsea) with plans for many more locations nationwide.

I’m excited about this because MUJI products have long epitomized modern simplicity and functionality. MUJI pays attention to the smallest of details for the most basic of necessities. Take this aluminum card case, for example, which is elegant and minimalist in its design. The lines are sleek and clean; the materials are beautiful and lightweight. And it works amazingly well.

Notice there’s no MUJI logo on the product? You won’t find it on any of their 7,000 items. That’s because the genius of MUJI is that the design is the brand. The aesthetic is so unique you won’t have trouble identifying any of their products.

MUJI has also set themselves apart by simplifying the packaging. Most items come in a plain plastic wrap to let you see what you get. There’s no printing, just the price sticker. And they’ve streamlined the manufacturing process in other ways as well, reducing waste and improving efficiency. They use earth-friendly natural and recycled materials in their products. Check out these foldable cardboard speakers, for instance.

All of these smart strategies have helped to keep MUJI’s prices low and affordable, and to garner them a devoted legion of fans worldwide. By emphasizing innovative design and high quality as the standard for their “no-brand,” they’ve managed to distinguish their products in a crowded marketplace. And that’s something we can all learn from.

Other brand imposters (or what I like to call “blands”) include McDnoald’s and Adidos. Un-brand-conscious shoppers may have a hard time knowing which to put on their feet and which to put in their mouths.

Seriously, though, the mall has predictably caused quite an outrage, not only amongst intellectual property rights owners, but also shoppers who feel they’ve been ripped off.

Read more about the controversy here.

The term “Modern Living” came to mean clean, sophisticated and bourgeois – conjuring a scene from a vintage Julius Shulman photograph of a Los Angeles-cantilevered home filled with Knoll furnishings and long elegant fashion models.

FS really admires the Scandinavian designers who took the concept of modern living to the nth degree, designing an infinite variety of everyday objects using a singular modern vocabulary of high craft, utility and simple elegant geometries.

While the theorists and designers of the early 20th century fantasized that “everyman” would embrace modern, industrial design, “everyman” never could quite put a Barcelona chair in their rumpus room or festoon the dining room with a vintage Saarinen. Modern designs done in steel, glass and plastic are most cost effective when mass produced since the set up cost is quite prohibitive.

It’s no wonder that modern design appealed to the corporate, wealthy bohemians who live in John Lautner homes in Bel Air. In fact, prior to Design Within Reach’s arrival in 1999 it was hard for “everyman and everywoman” to walk out on the street and buy a fine piece of early 20th century furniture.

DWR has done an amazing job of combining au courant mass marketing and edu-evangelizing to invigorate a new market for modern furniture, and as a side effect, they have helped revive a tremendous interest in modern design and architecture.

FS jumped at the opportunity to visit the LA roll out and opening to DWR’s new line of “Tools for Living” recently. They served champagne and chocolates; a lot of serious but tipsy art/design mavens paraded around, and I got the impression that there was delight in the air. The delight got thicker when the 98-year-old architectural photographer Julius Shulman appeared to sign his new TASCHEN-published books.

The aesthetic of the collection is all over the place. And they all seemed to fit in a MOMA store kind of merchandizing. It was kind of strange to see the drippingly elegant Cedar Sake Set that was reminiscent of both Shaker and Japanese craft genius in the same collection as the clunky, funky Louise Nevelson-esque Can Opener, but somehow both share a visual literacy and intelligence that behooves a 21st century gift store.

Tools for Living is a really good smart move for DWR in the face of economic downturn because they will be able to spread their brand and sensibility around without have to close a sale on say, a $3000 credenza. It’s a great way for modern fetishists to pick up a little something that will hold them down until they are ready to go for a Corbusier Chaise Longue!