Ms. Tashjian agreed that a desire to make any meal feel more festive pervades among those using fine china casually. “People want to be frivolous in small ways,” she said. “We’re beginning to put more of a premium on delight.”
She has used her Haviland plates, which are decorated with a pink and gold rose pattern, when hosting dinner parties with friends. “I would make spaghetti or just order pizza, but using the china would create a sense of occasion beyond something like let’s all hang and drink together or watch a movie.”
Michele Mirisola, 31, an artist in Brooklyn who owns a set of gilded Homer Laughlin plates, agrees that “if you’re not partying as much in restaurants and bars” fine china is “a way to class up what you’re doing at home.”
Inspired by the colors of Delftware, a style of Dutch tin-glazed pottery, Ms. Mirisola has made a collection of patterned clay tableware in a blue-and-white palette for her line Chell Fish.
According to Dayna Isom Johnson, a trend expert at Etsy, there was a 39 percent increase in searches for fine china on the site in 2021 compared to 2020, and a 28 percent increase in searches for antique and vintage porcelain dinnerware.