Know someone with too much time on their hands? Or better still someone with spare time and a love of old vehicles? Well, that person is the ideal candidate for the Build Your Own VW Camper Van.
Just like an old model kit, you get all the parts, small screws and instructions to create your very own VW van And not just any old model, it’s a van with metal body, opening doors, ‘pull back and go’ motor, lights and dashboard.
Cheap too – the kit costs just £7.95.
If you’ve visited the V&A’s Cold War Modern exhibition, you might have seen a strange film by a radical Italian architecture/design collective – Superstudio. The group left plenty of bold statements and ideas behind in the 60s and 70s, but very actual design – with the exception of the Quaderna range for Zanotta.
And this Superstudio Quaderna 710 console table and bench is part of it. The idea was to create a ‘neutral surface’, free of influence from all that has come before, which you certainly get here. Both pieces feature a honey-comb core structure coated with white plastic laminate, that check design screenprinted onto that surface.
Hard to describe it as eye-catching, but as design with a story, this is hard to beat. Yours from £1,620.
Find out more at the TwentyTwentyOne website
A design classic that’s still catching the eye over 80 years on – the Bolich ceiling light.
This is the original Bolich ceiling light, first introduced in the Germany in the 1920s and still oozing that modernist cool. The reflector is made of black powder-coated sheet steel, attached to the ceiling by the cast-iron mushroom-shaped hanger and nickel-plated chain.
If you don’t like black, there’s also a white, with both selling for the same price – £112.
Remember the Quasar inflatable furniture range? it was the original 60s inflatable furniture, designed by Quasar Khanh and recently reissued by Branex. For authenticity, it can’t be beat, but for price…well, it could be a little cheaper. Around the price of the Homebase 60s-style inflatable seating ideally.
Yes, this is a high street take on the 60s classic, offering a choice of armchair or two-seater sofa in blue or pink, both complete with a puncture repair kit, because accidents will happen.
And it’s very cheap. The armchair sells for £14.69, while the sofa is yours for £19.59.
Some of the greatest, and most underrated, art images of the 20th century are the covers of both albums and books. Pulp fiction has some of the best pop art of the century, and is thankfully often reproduced in some of the best gifts for retro lovers.
Uncommon Gifts has a wide range of cases and tins feature retro designs, some of the best being these Femme Fatale card cases. The left image is a book cover, while the High Test Girls goes unexplained, but looks suspiciously like a fantastically enticing billboard.
They’re available online for $28 each.
Jazz shoes are often consigned to the wardrobes of gents, but for swing dancing style or just some 1940s chic that doesn’t involve heels, some snazzy brogues are ideal. Girls versions provide a quirky modern take on a footwear classic, and these Dorothy Perkins pairs have the added bonus of being a bit of a bargain too.
Made from patent faux-leather in either black or cream, these are classic and cute with rounded toes and simplistic brogue detailing across the vamp and sides. Perfect for the lindyhop, or just a night on the town.
They cost just £20 per pair from Dorothy Perkins.
