Tuesday 10 May 2016

80's/90's Chintz and other tasteless beauty

Whilst I have no shortage of topics to focus on when I look around my house, it is when I truly start looking that I don't know where to start! Because there are so many fascinating items, with as equally interesting stories behind them. So I will start with the here and now, and this week's purchase number one: a 80's/90's era floral waste paper bin from a charity shop in Otley, £1.50.


80's/90's Floral waste paper bin

I was particularly struck with how corny this was (something you will hear often in this blog), but so much so that I spotted it the minute I walked in the shop. I knew I liked it, because I am not the sort to walk around town with a waste paper bin tucked under my arm like a one man band playing the drum. Which reminds me of my great aunt, who was visited on a regular basis by a man who popped round to the flat, just for a chat, with a chair leg tucked under his arm. Maybe he too was so taken with his charity shop find that he didn't mind everyone thinking he was a berk.

It reminded me greatly of that wonderfully tasteless style which bled from the 80's pastel chintz to the 90's, where everything was dark (hunter) green and gold, and highly adorned with ivy, brash flowers, grapes, or as Liberace might remark, a return for his "palatial kitsch" - that is, if something which was never there to begin with could ever return - combined with the country farmhouse look. The following picture illustrates this beautifully:


Better Homes Magazine, an "on-trend" 90's room

However, this picture - illustrates 80's/90's chintz perhaps not so beautifully. One of the many gems from Ugly House Photos which demonstrate how once stylish things (and indeed still stylish things) can be made to look, quite frankly, unfashionable.


80's/90's chintz today, looking a little outdated, courtesy of http://uglyhousephotos.com

By the end of the 90's, UK TV makeover shows were rife, and the curtain-stapling antics of Changing Rooms and House Doctor, which saw Californian real-estate stylist Ann Maurice (that's pronounced MOW-REESE) "fix" ugly English homes and make them saleable again after decades of decorating abuse. We stripped style bare, with block primary colours and little clutter, and eventually moved to an all white, back-to-Scandinavian clean lines look for the new Millennium, which was greatly assisted by the arrival of Ikea. "Chuck out your chintz," they sang, heartily.



And chintz is where I go from here, because, prior to the 1990's, chintz was at it's height in the 1980's. I am quite the fan of chintz, particularly the modern Cath Kidson style revival of such patterns, but that is a post for another day, as I have a great deal of that sort of thing littering my little semi detached. Focussing on genuine retro chintz, I have the odd item, but not nearly enough. See the following two photographs:


A gold framed hexagonal mirror with pink chintz surround, bought from auction in mixed lot of prints (right), with dark wood framed Parisian print charity find (centre) and black cameo vinyl wall decal (left)


Miniature pink chintzy chest of drawers with gold handles, bought from Ebay (centre), with 1960's purple dog ornament (above) and Hornsea Fauna vase (right), from an antiques centre and charity shop respectively

Chintz was originally a woodblock printed, painted or stained calico, which was produced in India from 1600 to 1800 and was a popular choice for bed covers, quilts, curtains etc - much the same as what it is used for today. Over these two hundred years, the chintz pattern became steadily more popular in Europe as it was brought over the sea, with English and French merchants bringing over large quantities. When the fashionable young things of Europe starting wearing chintzy clothes, the trend became so phenomonally popular, chintz was actually outlawed would you believe, as suppliers could not keep up with demand. In 1720 England's Parliament enacted a law that forbade "the Use and Warings in Apparel of imported chintz, and also its use or Wear in or about any Bed, Chair, Cushion or other Household furniture". But with the Court of Versailles being outside the law, the rebels still found a way to rock their chintz. Chintz will never be kept down, and the Kidson revival of late stands testament to that very fact.


Chintz from the Coromandel Coast, India, c. 1710–1725. V&A Museum, courtesy of Wikipedia


And in stark contrast date-wise, but really very similar style-wise, a 2016 summer bomber jacket by New Look, £29.99, as featured in Glamour magazine.

Chintz speaks for itself, so let me leave you with a few chintz style icons of our lifetimes: Laura Ashley, who, having started out making scarves and tea towels for the WI on a primitive printing press, became one of the UK's leading fabric designers from the 1950's to the present day, and Mario Buatta, the "Prince of Chintz", who designed interiors for many famous US faces, from the president of Ford Motor Co, Henry Ford II, to pop songstress Mariah Carey. So here I leave you on a high - with some of the best of their work, and hope that it inspires you to incorporate the wonderful thing that is chintz into your home.


Laura Ashley runners


Laura Ashley - County Show Collection


From the Laura Ashley catalogue



Mario Buatta - Blair House, the President's guest house


Mario Buatta - a bedroom in Houston, Texas


Mario Buatta - New York Penthouse


All photographs belong to their respective owners with the exception of those of my own house and rooms/items therein. I make no claim to own pictures used for illustrative purposes. Please contact me should there be any issue with pictures used/credits attributed to pictures used.

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