Flush with Pride

Edited by Craig Kellogg -- Interior Design, 4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Kohler started the year by wooing the fashion crowd where it sits, debuting its newest throne under the Bryant Park tents at Fashion Week in the midst of the fall couture shows. A booth near the entrance displayed the company's new Purist Hatbox toilet, which is also its most expensive. It comes in neutral shades of beige and gray, although the display model was shown in white vitreous china with matching molded-plastic seat and lid.

The sleek figure eschews the conventional, bulky, gravity-fed tank for a space-saving electric pump. (A seemingly huge advantage, except during an energy blackout, of course.) Showrooms nationwide will stock the toilets in May. But trendsetters at Fashion Week got to test-drive it earlier courtesy of 24 models in six mobile Kohler washrooms. Call it the good-taste seal of approval.