1985

1985 is a love letter to a pattern that seemed to cocoon an entire generation of eighties teenagers. The diagonal stripe was everywhere. It crossed walls, furniture, clothes, cars and dinnerware with remarkable confidence. Nobody seemed particularly concerned about having too much of it.

There was an optimism to the decade that made this geometry feel completely natural. The future looked bright, technology felt exciting and almost anything seemed possible. There was even a reasonable chance the bright future may be mushroom shaped.

Against that background, the diagonal made perfect sense. It felt energetic, slightly restless and wonderfully certain of itself.

That confidence is probably why I still have such affection for it. These stripes belonged to ordinary life rather than precious design. They appeared on things we lived with, wore, drove, and eventually took completely for granted.

1985 comes from that memory rather than nostalgia for a particular object or interior. It takes something once so familiar that it almost became invisible.

There is also some humour in bringing it back. Enough time has passed for the diagonal stripe to escape the decade that claimed it. But for those who were there, it will probably always carry a little of 1985 with it.