"I’m Peggy Olson and I want to smoke some marijuana"

There may be good and bad design. But it eventually all comes down to taste and how we interpret and express it through the products we buy. 

If we "like" something is because we associate with the concept or idea it expresses. Whether design is good or bad or distasteful is judged by this. The most obvious and universally accepted examples of bad taste are manifestations of the rude, crude or "tacky". E.g. brazen or suggestive display of flesh. "Cheap" is perhaps the most dangerous adjective when it comes to design. However where it gets interesting is what different individuals interpret as cheap.

As perhaps the cheapest and most distasteful specimens of design in fashion, architecture and product, are those that overtly propose wealth through garish branding or implied quality and heritage. Anyway, the definition of taste aside for now... and to move on to my "object of desire" for the moment.

I long for a lost age. Well several lost ages actually. But 1950's  America in particular. New York was the centre of the universe, smoking was guilt free and glamour was still a way of life. 

The beauty of "good" design is how it can enhance your life by connecting you with its ideology through its particular aesthetic. Often these are the most everyday, domestic items.

The below glass dates from the Early 50's and is by American artist and designer Dorothy Thorpe. By no means an expensive product, sold through Marshall Field and other US Department stores, its a good  example of mass produced American design.  

Dorothy Thorpe, Roly Poly glassware.

For me, the roly poly collection is the essence of 1950's modernism. Simple elegance. No leaded crystal, or heavy engraving. Just a mass produced yet quality bowl and a basic, almost industrial raw metal rim. 

A bourbon in one of these and a lucky strike and I'll be transported to Sterling Cooper. Well, not quite. But I close I can can get anyway.

Urban shoe myth

Strolling through the shoe department of a notable London department store which may or may not sell fridges and I fell in love. McQueen velvet slippers. A cigar, brandy, smoking jacket and these and my life is complete.   

I mean what thoroughly modern gentleman's wardrobe is complete without a pair of McQueen velvet slippers? And to illustrate my reaction, Carrie Bradshaw...

Swiss made

 I love objects that have a sense of utility. I find them the most beautiful.  I think this is what I find so attractive about watches. Jewellery is dead. It merely adorns the body as a status symbol or object of beauty. Of course there is a certain amount of sentiment one can attach to jewellery but for me it'll always be stagnant. 

Longines Trench watch, 1918

Watches manage to embody first of all my love of utility and secondly my love for the mechanical. Winding my manual watch is one of my great simple pleasures; possibly the finest example of micro engineering in history. Batteries die, my watch is over 50 years old and works as well as the day is was made. And there isn't much now that you'll be able to say the same of in a few years time. Let alone 5 decades. 


The above is an example of a trench watch. Yes thats right, these were worn on the fields of the Somme in the great war. The actual casing hasn't changed much from the pocket watch. The idea of adding a strap was purely out of convenience; Much easier to glaze over your wrist than pull out your cumbersome pocket watch from 3 layers of tweed and risk suffering a shot to the head. So actually more necessity than convenience.