Nostalgia in Design

A phantom presence looms over contemporary American culture.  An aching for times passed.  Desperate figures peeking around corners at abstract adversaries.

This phantom creates a yearning for the edge of our cultural territory while staying within its limits, being unique while staying recognizable, finding a place within our place

 

A specific memory comes to mind when navigating nostalgia in my life.  I am around four or five years old.  In the fog of memory, I remember sitting in the front seat of a car. I remember hearing a song, a head nodding bass-line, an over-processed voice almost directing us on our drive: “down there at the pawnshop”.

That memory haunted me for almost fourteen years before I decided to look up the song, thus beginning my college-aged love of Sublime.

But, as I write this today, I can’t be certain that my love of Sublime wasn’t enhanced by that memory; that I wasn’t in love with the song, but the song became a capsule for a moment and a defining memory.

The allure, and yet the challenge, of nostalgia for designers and marketing personnel is that nostalgia is inherently personal; each individual will have separate moments that speak to them.  The same smell or touch could cause extremely disparate reactions from different parties.

These nostalgic flashbacks provide comfort, the familiar.  They elicit an idea of timelessness, of success categorized by styles and patterns, by trends and mainstream dealers.

So what can nostalgia do for a designer or a DIYer?

Nostalgic furnishings, especially those from more recent eras, have a profound impact on mood and positive self-regard.   The arch-backed mahogany chair that is reminiscent of your grandmother’s house will bring back positive moments, not just from those youthful days, but trailing threads that all lead back to that moment:  the drive to grandma’s, the day she wasn’t home and the neighbor let you hang out with his dog, when you grew up and would make those rare but cherished trips to her house knowing that those threads were running thin.

This sentimentality also creates a social connectedness and existential meaning.  A feeling that the inhabitant is not only connected with current trends, but connected with past cultural trends.  With something larger than themselves.

But one doesn’t have to be a professional to imbue this sense of nostalgia into furnishings.  Browse your local area and see what flea markets pop up, especially in the summer and fall months.  Walk until you find something that speaks to you, not something that brings to mind last month’s Home and Garden.

Add the old, nostalgic flair that enhances your living space.  The beauty of nostalgia in design is that no trend can tell you what to feel.  Take back small parts of your individuality in a society that continually tries to drag you by the hand down certain Capitalist paths.

Don’t fall for the retro-chic companies that attempt to recreate classic furniture.  Don’t contribute to the greed of a throwaway culture.  Take the time to find the actual classic pieces.  Then take the thirty minutes or an hour to refurbish the piece.  Bring your kids or your spouse along, or even just let your puppy lounge in the sun next to you.  Make a memory of the memory.

 

But don’t overdo it.  We like thinking of grandma, but her Golden Girls sitting room doesn’t need to be the location of your next date night.