If you’re reading this site and under 40 years of age, you might want to get back to your blackberry. The remainder of you, stay with me for some interesting observations on the wild popularity of anything retro.
Go Retro! is the shout and cry of the fashion industry as well as the trend setters in interiors. I would refine retro as anything that was hot in the three decades leading up to about 1975.
Case in point – burnt orange and chartreuse are turning up in the stores ad nauseum. Ditto for big polka dots and graphic fabrics reminiscent of the 40s.
The inevitable cyclical nature of things got me thinking. There is probably a reason things go out of style. They probably weren’t very good to start with. The good stuff, like the little black dress, a string of pearls and the Coco Chanel suit seem to weather consumer fickleness, but everything else enjoys its moment in the sun then quickly joins the ranks of “tacky.”
Take shag for example. Remember that 60s look…the longer the pile the better? Well, get this…last summer I bought a shag area rug. Shag! I never thought I would see that in interiors ever again and certainly not mine, but there it was at Kirklands calling my name. I grabbed it up thinking . YES! This will be the next hot item in decorating and I’ll be the first on the block to have it.
After situating it just right in front of the sink on my kitchen floor, It took me all of 20 minutes to remember why shag went the way of the dinasour. It molts. It sheds worse than a golden retriever. It’s like having another person living in my house and it’s as hard to pick up after as my ex husband.
The latest in lighting is another big retro item. I remember snickering at the lamps in my grandmother’s living. They were tall with drum shaped shades decorated with dots and circles. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t replace them with something more stylish. Well, guess what, those lamps are back with a vengeance, and I’m trying to figure out how to get on her list for hand-me-downs.
Now, here’s the scarry part. If chartreuse was big in the Fourties, orange and brown was hot in the Fifties, and shag was THE look of the Sixties, could leisure suits be far behind? I’m bettin’ on it!