The Karate Pillow Chop: An Exploration

Project 365, Day 25

There are two types of design people in this world: the ones who “karate” chop their pillows, and the ones that die a little, a lot, inside when they see the abuse that is the chop. One guess as to which one I am…

If you’re not sure what I’m referring to, take a look at the lead photo in this post. I mean, it’s not as offensive as say, slapping someone’s mama without cause (is there ever cause?) but it just seems to be something people do because someone along the way said it was “designer-y” and so people who were designers or wanted to feel design-y would just do it. But…where did this start? Who looked at an unsuspecting throw pillow, so soft, so innocent, so…square, and decided it wasn’t good enough as-is. Nope, it needed a v-neck and subsequent pillow ears that follow the chop. Perhaps The Karate Kid played a role here? Sometime in the 1980s, a HA-YAH! enthusiastic kid practiced their moves on the sofa pillows, and a mother, possibly in the field of design, stopped and said “NOW WAIT JUST A MINUTE! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MY WORK HAS BEEN MISSING” and henceforth, the karate chopped-pillow was born?

Far fetched, of course. Dramatic, you betcha. But something I wondered about recently. I always knew the chop wasn’t for me, and frankly, I kind of thought it was over, until…

I was giving a watch to Dream Home Makeover (that Netflix show with Syd and Shea McGee of Studio McGee) the other day, and in one scene while styling up a sofa, she did something so shocking, so diametrically opposed to what I thought Shea Mcgee stood for, that I quickly lost focus and didn’t move past that episode. (True story: I actually found the episode to be a touch on the boring side. Eek sorry…)

Anyhow, I really was taken aback. I truly didn’t think any modern-day designer was still doing this. I can understand a very subtle tussle, something to make the pillows look casual and not overly prim, but the karate chop? We’re still here? Shea, your work is outstanding. I’ve loved Studio McGee since I first heard of them launching years ago, but I guess you can’t agree with someone on everything, now can you?

I took to a quick Google search about the pillow chop just to see…was I wrong? Is it a thing and I’m just being a contrarian for the sake of contrarianism? I also wanted to know, as a lover of etymology, how did it all begin?

One of the first articles that popped up was by the fantastic Hadley Keller. I met her on a press trip to Palm Beach years ago…I knew I liked her. Her article on housebeautiful.com was entitled “Please Stop with the Karate-Chop Pillows” with the subhead “Why ruin a good pillow with a bad chop.” This was from 2019. Was I late to this campaign against the pillow chop? Uh yeah, clearly.

The next piece that drew my eye was also published in 2019, from Elle Decor. They know what they’re talking about, yes? “The Era of Karate-Chopping Your Pillows Needs to End, According to Jan Showers.” This one surprised me a little. I’ve published plenty of Jan Showers projects in my day as a fancy pants shelter editor at a fancy pants shelter magazine…pretty sure I remember a heavy-handed use of the karate chop, but hey, we’re all allowed to evolve. “I cannot believe that I’m still seeing karate-chopped pillows à la 1982,” said Jan in that piece. Ah ha! So it sounds like the 1980s hypothesis I threw out isn’t too far off. However, a simple IMDB poke around led me to the fact that The Karate Kid was released in 1984, two years after Jan Showers’ reference. She could have pulled 1982 out of thin air for her sound-byte, of course. There just may still be something here…

The year 2018 brought us a piece from the incredibly respected source Pillowcubes.com—clearly, they know pillows—entitled “Why Do People Karate Chop Pillows”. Their lack of a question mark makes it seem less like a query, more like a grammatically incorrect statement. Well played pillowcubes.com. Here’s what they had to say on the matter: “When attempting to accentuate a particular fabric or sheen, the chop can serve as a means to catch extra light and thus create more texture and dimension within a space.” Also: “In rooms with a variety of patterned and colored throw pillows, a swift chop of the hand can serve to create unity and tie an entire space together.” None of this information is credited to an actual designer. Pillowcubes.com is its own authority, after all. But, I’ve been here before. As a writer, you’re assigned something, you don’t have any concrete information to pull from, and you just kind of make something up that sounds good. Perhaps that’s what happened here? Designers, if you’re out there, do either of these statements ring true to you?

Seven years earlier, in 2011, Home Stories A to Z rang the trend alarm on the pillow chop. “Trend Alert: Karate Chopped Throw Pillows.” It would be in great disrespect to my journalism degree if I didn’t note that The Karate Kid reboot/story continuation—“the one with Jaden Smith?!?” you might be rightfully wondering…yes, that’s the one!—was released in the second half of 2010. Suspicious, perhaps? A new Karate Kid for the next generation of martial arts aficionados and all of a sudden the pillow chop is trending?!? Hmm…

If you’ve gotten to this point in this post, I appreciate you for letting me waste your time. The timer on my turkey chili just went off and I need to wrap this up. There is nothing I learned from my journey to find the genesis of the pillow chop beside the fact that it always seems to have caused a great divide in this great design world I live in. Two sides of the pillow. I am squarely on team no-chop, but I’m sure team yes-chop is out there. Perhaps you are them. I’m not here to judge, but rather, to ask: When and where did you start chopping? What do you think it added to your pillow? If the answer is simply “it made me feel fancy,” I’ll accept that. But, inquiring minds need to know…are you still pillow chopping? Why? Please report back.

See you tomorrow, friends.