“That is so retro!” you may have heard someone say of the beautiful ankle-length coat handed down from your Grandmother to your Mom to you, that just seems to have never gone out of fashion, and keeps on reviving season after season, dressed up with different accessories that mark the current colour, texture or design trend fads.
This is the essence of the retro trend that has taken 2012 décor and design by storm, and it is set to continue into 2013. Retro is a trend whereby décor styles and designs are drawing from iconic pieces, such as furniture, from the past, and adding a modern twist to them. I really love this trend, as it supports the movement of home owners to design and decorate their homes in unique and individual ways, to represent their own tastes, styles and characters.
Why does retro keep on reviving?
There are two schools of thought on this question. One, is that with the increasing pace of our lives, light-speed technological advances, and ever greater financial, cultural and organisational demands on us, we are looking back with nostalgia to times when life seemed simpler, less cluttered – and framing those times are settings of home, furniture and décor styles and design. These styles are consequently being brought back into our homes, but with the current era’s fashionable twist – such as a table with an old-school glass top, lifted upon raw reclaimed sleeper wood and finished with touches of stainless steel.
The second school of thought sees the revival of retro as a typical cyclical renewal of fashion and décor trends: if you plot the ebbs and flows of trends, you will generally see a cyclical revival of most trends in some or other form. For example, the crystal chandelier has been around for centuries, and is currently back in fashion, but with creative twists such as black crystal being used instead of clear; futuristic and eco-friendly globes replacing their more simplistic counterparts; and intricate and artistic designs from paper to recycled soda cans making up the body of the classical shape.
In retrospect…
Looking back to décor and design trends spanning the past fifty or sixty years, we are seeing the retro revival in various forms across stores, showrooms and homes worldwide. The simple lines and unique materials that make up a classical piece of furniture, for example, create the base for a flurry of creativity to transform that piece into something reminiscent of a nostalgic design era, but that fits into the contemporary “personalised” styles of today.
Seriously?!
Absolutely not! Retro is fun and funky, and moves away from the seriousness of some of the recent design and décor trends. I guess that’s why we keep on seeing a retro reformation.
Retro takes influences from the exuberant Art Deco era, and pop culture of fifty years ago, where confident, individual – and somewhat cheeky – styles find their way into public favour. Colour is one of the big elements in this vivacious retro trend – bold, bright and daring, you’ll see naughty mixtures of colour that for some reason “just seem to work together”.
One of my particular favourite retro trends – and I have just recently found the term for it – is “steampunk”, where industrial-meets-elegant in a most interesting way! In this trend, you will see industrial elements such as chains and pulleys being incorporated into residential design or décor elements such as lighting, coffee tables, or garden art. This trend is all about improvising to make something look classy and elegant, but still have that creative edge to it.
Read the full article on the EC Mirror Online.
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