The Djinn chair "still looks futuristic," said Christopher Mount, a design curator at the Museum of Modern Art.

"There was no attempt at a kind of uniform all-over effort," said Terence Riley, chief architecture and design curator at the museum.

Paola Antonelli, a design curator at the museum, went to Denmark this year to look over more than 300 products, including prototypes.

Mr. Kipnis is one of the brightest architecture and design curators in the world today.

Paola Antonelli, a design curator at the Modern, said the no-name plainness is Muji's appeal.

But this is a writer's more than a design curator's show.

Mr. Boutermans, a designer and maker of puzzles in Drimmelen, the Netherlands, was design curator.

The audience consisted of design curators and writers, designers and food specialists assembled by House & Home.

The show's organizer, Mildred Friedman, has long been the design curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

The show also marks the debut of Paola Antonelli, the Modern's new design curator.