Good vintage

As in fashion, there seem to be times in design when certain silhouettes and proportions just make sense. And, despite being half a century old, superstylised 1950s form is having a moment. The trend has some big-name sponsors – Louis Vuitton’s current ad campaign is based on 1950s-style pin-ups, and the V&A’s autumn exhibition The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957 is an in-depth look at the era’s style. The Southbank Centre is busy buying up original pieces such as the Antelope chairs by Ernest Race, which featured in the 1951 Festival of Britain, and Paul Smith is flaunting a love of Italian and American design of the period (refreshingly off the usual Scandi-focused piste).

Luckily, there is enough to go around. “It was an era of mass production, so you can still find 1950s fabric and furniture on eBay and in secondhand shops,” says Megan Stevenson of Cha-Cha-Cha, in Muswell Hill (07739 517855, www.cha-cha-cha.co.uk), which counts the local residents Lauren Laverne and Carl Barât as fans. The shop/studio features quirky reconditioned furniture from the likes of G Plan and vintage and re-released fabrics such as Arne Jacobsen’s geometric patterns, which Stevenson makes into lampshades and matching cushion covers. She is also the agent for the retro-inspired Dutch design house Siecle. Her work is natty and one-off, and her reputation is spreading, with Selfridges and the Royal Festival Hall placing orders.

So, if your granny hasn’t yet donated her rosewood sideboard to a charity shop, beg, steal or borrow it now.

Limited editions

I was quite happy never to see a skull or butterfly again, until I came across Rowanna Lacey’s wallpaper and matching lampshades (from £260), featuring fanciful patterns of bird and ram skulls, wishbones and line drawings of butterflies. Lacey had an odd journey to design: she gave up a graphics degree, wangled an apprenticeship with Mike Leigh’s production designer and ended up working on the film Vera Drake. “I spent months researching hand-printed wallpapers and realised I had found my true calling – I wanted to design bespoke wallpaper,” Lacey says. Commission her now before she starts commanding Damien Hirst-level prices.

07986 376193, www.drawnsurface.co.uk

Nifty 1950s buys

1 The very English patterned wallpapers by Belynda Sharples, the designer for the Art of Wallpaper, draw on 1950s nostalgia using imagery such as classic caravans. Retro, but with a hip modern edge. From £30 per 10-metre roll; 01508 531171, www.theartofwallpaper.com.

2 Shop for fab vintage crockery using China Search’s online search facility. It is Europe’s biggest archive of discontinued china patterns, and stocks collectable names such as Wade and Ridgway Homemaker and statement pieces such as the Midwinter Chequers cake stand designed by Terence Conran, £98; www.chinasearch.co.uk.

3 John French’s poised, starkly lit fashion photography epitomised the 1950s. The V&A’s extensive new archive allows you to search hundreds of his pictures, then customise the format (the size and whether to have it printed on paper or canvas). With prices starting from £5, what’s not to like? 0800 085 3440, www.vandaprints.com.

4 Furniture and lighting from the 1950s is increasing in value at a rate of knots. Buy from specialist dealers such as the Nottingham-based Fears and Kahn, where you’ll find such treasures as this turquoise steel desk, £950; www.fearsandkahn.co.uk.

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