Old stuff good, new shiny stuff bad

[MrBen]

It seemed that just after the 2008 recession hit, we entered "austerity", money was evil, bankers were evil, new shiny things were out and we went back to basics vintage stuff came in. The hipster movement in particular fetishises "vintage" and stuff with "provenance". I like good quality stuff too. But just because it's old doesn't mean its good. And vice versa.

When will new shiny stuff become fashionable again?

[vgrant]

Hipsters are creative free and have no originality, so are rapacious & freely plundering other peoples cultural cupboards to attempt to add weight to their futile hedonistic meandering.like tapeworm, but with less personality.

Bankers are always evil blates. apart from the 85% who work in admin & support office jobs obvs.

Shiny stuff goes in stages - it is being shunned at present, cos the proles have access to cheap cash to sponk on shiny goods, so the cultural elite redefine what is desirable due it is percieved rarity - with this perception being somthing only the truly well bred can really appreciate. Once rates rack up to 8% and the unwashed masses really begin to feel the pinch (like they are not already), then shiny beccomes attractive again.

lolz

[El Pibe]

phone models seem to upgrade every 3 or four days? when did shiny and new stop being the done thing? :)

[LondonMix]

Haha- agree about the phones. I still use a blackberry and people look at me with mouths agape

Also, vintage has been popular for way longer than 2008. 15 years ago when I was at uni Urban Outfitters were already doing faux vintage t-shirts and pastiche vintage furniture so it was already a mass market look in NY back then.

[El Pibe]

iimagine there were probably retro cod piece and ruff fads back in the day.

[Seabag]

I'm glad that "Bling" died. Stupid people wearing price labels on clothes, and the rest

"Faux and you Knaux it" block housing bling prevails

Proper knowing knock off tho

Take a look down Bond Street now, i't gag inducing Russian "we can out bling anybody"

[????]

'Flip' anyone?

[MrBen]

You've lost us.....

[vgrant]

clothes retailer from the 80s that imported containerloads of used american clothing from landfill site, washed it and sold it to disaffected british youth, buzzing from watching too much happy days and little house on the prairie

[Robert Poste's Child]

The big difference in the last few years is the words that people have come up with to make buying second-hand stuff sound like an ideologically based lifestyle choice that makes you superior to other people. The one that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck is 'upcycle' - second-hand but better because tarted up and no longer being used for its original purpose.

[MrBen]

Flip had a huge store in Edinburgh. And they went bust.

Up cycling? Better than hurling it in landfill. Quality lasts. A good example? You can buy a distressed chest of drawers from say Loaf or Made.com for ?600. It will look the part but is made overseas and made of plywood. OR you can buy a decent dovetailed Georgian chest of drawers at auction for not much more. In 10 years time one will be in the skip. The other can be resold for same or more than what you paid for it.

[steveo]

Flip went down in a blizzard of gak

[Jeremy]

MrBen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> OR you can buy a decent dovetailed Georgian chest of drawers at

> auction for not much more.

Is that auction.com or auction.co.uk? Do they do Saturday deliveries?

[El Pibe]

Does anyone remeber the reconditioned pallette selling for a fortune on here? Didn't someone get quite upset about it?

[LondonMix]

Agree-- there is a lot of great furniture that has stood the test of time made of beautiful hardwood that you can pick up for the same price as items made of softwoods in a similar style in high street retailers.

Buy what you like of course- I am not a huge fan of most Victorian furniture so wouldn't take most things if they were free but I do love Georgian (specifically Regency peices).

[MrBen]

One of my favourite places nearby and a bit of a hidden gem: http://crystalpalaceantiques.com/

I picked up a Regency mirror there for a song.

Now is a good time to buy "brown" furniture from Victorian / Edwardian era because its out of fashion. It will come back "in" again at some point. It always does.

[LondonMix]

Yes, that's true. Also, you can always paint it if its not something very rare or special to make it feel more up to date.

Personally, I love rosewood and have a number mid-century rosewood items. The trick is not to have too much dark furniture in any single room as in a small Victorian terrace it can very quickly start to feel heavy.

[MrBen]

Same subject. Back about 1995 - 2002 new futuristic shiny things were good. Worst example was those horrendous early gastro pub makeovers. They'd take down he Lions Head heraldry and replace the signage with horrific space age fonts.

[????]

I'm still waiting for pine kitchens to be on trend again

[Seabag]

Is this the Cath Kidston thread ?

[maxxi]

Nah keep up, she's too English. This is the Orla Kiely thread.