I'll be honest, I don't know much about the design, but I like what I see in this Crayonne Moon table lamp.
Crayonne is the maker and if the cryptic listing reads correctly, it was sold in Habitat in the mid-1970s. Turned off and it's a cool piece of period design, turn it on and you get a rather nice glow.
It's made of white plastic with a chrome strip to the side and is described as being in 'vintage working condition'. Still some time to go, it's currently up for £1.
Still on an Eighties words theme, although at the opposite end of the price scale from the cards below, is Dexter’s World “Subliminal Thatcher” print.
York-based artist Dexter bills his work as trying “to make sense of the 21st Century by recreating the recent past”, which he does by creating pieces consisting of hundreds of words (product names, television programmes, band names, songs, films etc). In this piece, he has added some clever shading over the 80s words, so that the portrait of Margaret Thatcher can be seen casting an ominous shadow over the picture, just as she did over the decade.
The print is available at either a 90" x 36" or 126" x 36" size through LondonArt. The asking price for the larger size is £2,550, but LondonArt allows you to make an offer on any piece, so you could be lucky and get it for less.
Stormy Knight Cards has produced a set of greetings cards that hark back to positive exclamations that were particularly popular in the 1980s (although undoubtedly some people do still say these things even now).
The Neon Eighties Cards feature speech bubbles with either “Brill”, “Cool”, “Ace”, “Fab”, “Mega” or “Yeah” in them. To add to the 80s feel, they are rendered in garish neon colours. The cards cost £2.50 each. There is also a matching gift wrap set containing three sheets of wrapping paper and three gift tags, priced £6.95. If the designer happens to read this, I’d be quite interested in a Sixties version with with “hip”, “groovy”, “far out” etc.
The cards can be bought from Stormy Knight Cards via Not on the High Street.
Not exactly the rarest of styles, but the Adidas Stan Smith 80s trainers are back in an eye-catching shade of light blue.
As you might have guessed, this is the 80s variant of the original 70s shoe, which is still the bestseller of the Adidas back catalogue. The 80s update coming with a slightly different sole unit and shape, but still distinguished by ther dots instead of the stripes.
This latest version has that light blue nubuck upper, with some darker blue and white contrast detailing, all of which will be available to buy from March. You can pre-order now at Crooked Tongues, £70 being the price.
Find out more at the Crooked Tongues website
Via His Knibs
We've featured so many Blossom and Bill products on this site, it's hard to believe that it's only now that they are making an appearance on a tea towel.
Yes, ISAK's retro couple are finally ready to help you do your dishes. Their charming features have been depicted in four bright colour schemes. Take your pick from brown, blue, pink and green. There's even four suitably cheery mugs to match.
The tea towels cost £9.95.
Buy them from Illustrated Living
Got your London tray, bag and lunchbox? If you really do love London town, you're sure to want to complete your collection with these London Folk Mugs from Our Workshop.
Far removed from tourist tat, these mugs are actually quite classy little fellows – in fact they remind me of the work of Kenneth Townsend and his London series of tiles from the late 60s/early 70s. Each mug features a simple illustration of three characters of London – the Yeoman, the Royal Guard and a policeman – beautifully depiciting their iconic outfits, and their fine moustaches.
A mug costs £12.
Buy them online
