trendey

I really like the look created by mixing items from different eras in a completely current way. The contrast is fun and interesting and makes the old look older and the new newer! Mid-century classics (like the Saarinen tulip chairs from 1958 in the pic below for example) are great to use in an eras-mix as the 50s “space-age” style tends to look more modern than modern items!

To me, this “retro-vintage-antiques-modern” mix is all about recycling and reusing great designs from the past – disregarding as many rules about consistency and coherence as possible – and in the process creating interesting and elegant rooms fit for modern living. This eclectic style (which might be easiest to pull of in a period property), ought to have real staying power. So many combinations to try! Posssibly stay clear of the most heavily used 50s classics at the moment to avoid it all looking predictable, but overall I can’t see a room with a successful and harmonious vintage-modern blend going out of fashion any time soon!

Here’s more from the same stylist…

All of the above pics come from stylist Aaron Hom.

Although I still love Chesterfield sofas, I must confess I’m having an affair with the Knoll sofa at the moment. It’s just so simple, elegant and classy that I can’t help myself! Designed by Florence Knoll in 1954, it has never really gone out of fashion – and it still looks amazingly sleek and modern today.

This sofa has experienced a huge surge in popularity recently as part of the general trend favouring mid-century modern classics (a trend still going strong!), so if you don’t want to fork out on an original (at least 8-9,000 USD), there are masses of reproductions and cheaper interpretations of this sofa out there. For example, IKEA’s very good value version, the Karlstad range. Below left in white leather for 599 GBP. Also check out Sater to the right at only 239 GBP – now that’s cheap for so much style!

50′s interior design style is burning hot right now! It has crept up slowly with just the odd 50s design classic here and there, like the string bookshelves and the Eames rocker for example, but now the interior design world appears to have fully embraced this decade as a source of inspiration. Here at Trendey we see more and more room designs with strong influences from the 50s (such as the pic above). 50s style is characterised by clean simple lines, rounded edges and a celebration of form as the focus of design. Some of my favourite 50s style items would be a simple teak drinks trolley with smooth curves, a cuddly radio set (so retro cool it hurts) and above all the super chic PH lamp (if only these ph-antastic lamps were cheaper! :))

With carefully chosen furniture (purchased at auctions, 2nd hand shops and even found in garbage rooms) and bold colour choices set and costume designer Elsa Fischer has created a Stockholm home far from the usual (Stockholm-)whites. In fact, she notes it seems to be a ‘weird law’ in Sweden all homes must spring in white.

Elsa has mixed teak furniture from the 1950s with antique sofas. Inspiration is derived from art, music and people she meets. Here and there are fine ornate vases, old photographs, dolls, candlesticks – and a framed bat. Her still life is changing daily. One day, there is a collection of porcelain birds and the next day there is a group of toys in the same place. May it be suitcases or dried roses.

The kitchen is designed in collaboration with an interior designer. It’s inspired by the old B2-line by Bulthaup.

The white bedroom, below, has a dramatic clothes rail in the ceiling.

This home, article says, is an ever-changing environment. In the near future Elsa plans to paint two rooms in the apartment Gustavian green and match with antique rugs. We round off with her interior design advices:

|Be who you are. Dare to paint other than white. Fill your home with love – be generous with tea, food, love and pillows.|

..this vibrant home with a personal mix of 50′s, vintage, comics, fantasy, toys, 16th century details, wayward puppets, glamorous movie stars, bright colours, beautiful dresses, fairy tale creatures (etc.!) is inhabited by a young illustrator, artist and student. |pics: Frida Ekman, SvD.se|

As you probably already know, no one is drinking coffee in mugs anymore. It’s all about petite and beautiful vintage coffee cups. This phenomena goes along with the 1950′s/60´s housewife trend. For today, a non-negligible amount of young urban people has brought sweet new life to chores and duties our parents thought were overdue. The trend is aimed at the American housewives from the 50s. A bit harsh, a bit glamourous, but mostly back-to-the-bone. The new born interest in home-made soup and bread, 7 kinds of cookies, spectacular cupcakes and in exchangig tips on how best to manage antler salt has not necessarily anything to do with a backlash; i.e. a desire to never work and just wear a floury apron and be devoted to housework. Inside of the trend there is indeed an element of admiration of each other’s vintage china and puffy vintage skirts, but there’s also a high awareness and a play with stereotypes. It’s way aside from the heroine chic fashion, quite the opposite: with the hair come wavy on rollers and with the tilting pleated skirt, you can eat as much frosting as you wish. It is permissive, and that’s probably one key as to why the trend is so easily absorbed today. The appealing part of the housewife in modern times seems altogether to go back to the genuine: to make real food, cooked from scratch. To practice the tricks and that grandma taught us. To stand firmly on our roots when the wind wines. As long as you know how to grow and harvest potatoes you’ll survive difficult times.

So, even though not all of us will be making 7 sweet pastries for the coffee rope on Sunday, we cant’t escape reality. For this, we need flowered tablecloths and china from the first half of the 1900s. Here’s a lovely vintage coffee cup example:

This weekend the Formex Fair and Exhibition is taking place in Stockholm. It is the largest trade fair for Nordic interior design with around 24,000 national and international professional visitors.

This autumn’s trend theme, Vintage Travel, is presented as a fashionable journey back to yesteryear. It wants to take visitors back to a more glamorous Europe, more specifically by means of a respectably-furnished train carriage with plush-covered seats, an elegant lamp in the window, own compartment and a glorious, old-fashioned restaurant car with white linens and waiters. A lot like taking the train in an old Hitchcock movie, they say (!).

Anyway, the train has a destination and or at least some kind of a route. Quite a few directions are given: It will go back to places comme il faut in the 1940s and 50s: like Venice, Rimini, the French Riviera, or ski resorts such as Wengen and St. Moritz and we will escape into literature appropriate to the era. Maps and globes are essentials.  The colour scale is green (olive green tones) with orange, tomato red and rust as contrasts along with a muted yellow. Those coulours go well with the former mentioned Pantone AW2009 palette, don’t they?

On the fashion side, they want us to picture the fashions of the 1940s and 50s with hats, gloves, boas and fur collars and inspiration is derived from remakes of classics such as “Brideshead Revisited” and “Changeling“. Uniforms, not only military, but also those of the chauffeur, station master, and coach driver provide inspiration. The style is dressed and strict and medals, sashes, emblems and embroidery are important.

In interior decorating, surroundings are cosy, with upholstered furniture, rugs and lots of textiles. A great deal of intricate detail can be found, as well as a mixture of vintage and contemporary. People read books, according to the Formex autumn trend theme! We jot notes in elegant notebooks and on small correspondence cards, and from time to time we may even write a letter by hand.

To close the report, Angelina Jolie as Christine Collins in Changeling, and Matthew Goode as Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revistited. Photos from imdb.com. Now who doesn’t want to jump on this good-old fashion train?