OK, the summer is almost over, but if you’re heading off a spot of late sun – or just want to plan ahead for next year – you can pick up this Vespa beach towel.
And it’s a very smart item, using a repeated retro-styled apple design to great effect, sneaking in a ‘Vespa’ apple at the bottom. It’s made of 100 per cent cotton that’s both soft and highly absorbent, measuring 100 x 150cm.
Available online for 42 Euros (around £28).
Bars are back in- and if you have a bar, you need an ice bucket. And they don’t get much more stylish than the Dulband ice bucket by Alessi.
It’s a design that dates back to 1973, with the designer being Enzo Mari. But it still look contemporary today with its stainless steel casing, food-safe blue melamine interior, lid and pierced spoon (so you get ice rather than water).
Like just about every other piece of classic design, it comes at a price – in this case, £145.
For cheap and quirky design, you really need these Lego salt and pepper pots.
Just like your standard salt and pepper dispensers, they come in black and white to identify their use, have the Lego logo on top and if you happen to be short on space on the table, they clip together just like your usual Lego bricks.
Sized at 45mm x 25mm x 25mm and weighing 70g, they retail for $9 (around £4.50).
Find out more at the Brando website
Debenhams isn’t the first place you would think of for retro design, but if you wander round the home department, you will encounter this wonderfully 70s-inspired Silver Sphere ceiling light.
Very much in the tradition of the Sputnik lights, this space age light has 19 10w halogen lights to brighten up your room, along with a chrome finish and an adjustable drop up to 50cm.
For high street, this isn’t cheap at £250, but it’s certainly an eye-catching piece of design that would set off any large room.
Find out more at the Debenhams website
I’ve always been fascinated by the Post Office Tower. Perhaps it’s because I never went up it as a small child, or maybe its because of its status as a symbol of 60s London. Either way, I think original memorabilia of the tower is a collectable of the future.
And that’s why this Post Office Tower glass dish looks such a good buy. The image of the tower is screenprinted on the glass, with an image of Nelson’s Column to the side just to give an idea of scale. No bids at £9.99 – which seems a fair price.
I’m off now to harass BT to re-open the revolving restaurant.
Although not a vintage design, the look of these Kartell Icon suspension lights is very much in keeping with lighting from the late 60s and 70s.
The lights are made from transparent methacrylate and available in a range of bright colours – or plain white if you like, each designed to look like "soap bubbles". And you can adjust the length of the cord to hang as high or low as you like – up to 190cm in length.
Available online, you can pick one up for between £107 and £119.
