Cindy Lauper Print Vest from Miss Selfridge

If you're an eighties fashion lover, you'll no doubt owe some reference points to the every eclectic Cindy Lauper. A young popstrel at the time, she wasn't one who blended into the background, and has become equally known for her sartorial statements as she has for her music.

Tapping into the eighties revival, Miss Selfridge have given us a vest with a print of the lady herself. The image isn't the only thing that's of the era, though, with the vest taking style points in construction. With a slouch fit, muscle vest and even the choice of grey marl jersey fabric, this is ideal for recreating an 80s layerfest.

This vest is new to Miss Selfridge for £18.

Find out more from the website

Spring Court G2 pumps - MIA France special edition

We have featured the Spring Court G2 pumps in the past. They're a footwear classic, famed for being the shoes worn by John Lennon on the cover of Abbey Road as well as being beloved of mods in the 1960s. So it's no surprise that we're taking with this MIA France special edition of the shoe.

Presumably 'France' because of the red and blue detailing, as well as the red, white and blue spare laces that are thrown in as part of the deal. Aside from that, this is very much a classic G2 - canvas upper, gum sole and vulcanised rubber outsole.

Available only (as far as we can see) directly from the French Spring Court website, price is around 60 Euros and they do ship worldwide.

Find out more at the Spring Court website

Via Selectism

eBay watch: 1960s Mario Bellini Amanta armchair

An interesting lot on eBay that doesn't quite offer everything, but could prove a bargain - the Mario Bellini Amanta armchair.

Originally designed by Bellini in 1966 for C&B (later B&B Italia), the chair has been reissued since (although not recently), but the example on eBay is a first edition. It looks in fairly good condition, a few scuffs to the white plastic frame, but that's what you might expect from something 40+ years old.

The seller describes the corduroy seating as 'quite firm to sit on', which is no surprise - we've seen these before with an additional cushion for the seat, that looks to be missing here. But despite that, it's up for £275 on a 'Buy It Now', with the seller looking to take an offer. If you get it for the right price, it could prove a shrewd investment. Especially if the seller finds that cushion.

More images and details on the eBay website

Lily Pad Coffee Table

The Lily Pad Coffee Table is part of the +00 range by Blu Dot for Urban Outfitters and like the console we featured from the range previously, it has taken inspiration from mid-century designs.

The piece comprises of three connected table tops at different levels, which can be moved around to suit your living space. The table legs are made from a white metal, while the table tops are made from a retro looking walnut veneer. T

he table costs $248 from Urban Outfitters – sadly only available for shipping with the the USA.

Vintage Telephone Cushion

The Etsy seller Olive has a range of retro and whimsical cushions which would all be worth a look, but the design that stood out for me is this Vintage Telephone Cushion.

Set against a background of fine grey and white stripes is a felt image of vintage style telephone. In a cute little detail, the telephone cord spells out the word “telephone”. It measures 15 inches square and has been stuffed with a hypo-allergenic filling. The design can be custom made in your choice of colour upon request.

It costs $38 (around £22) and can be bought via Etsy.

Sharp Line Anne Coat by Farhi

Mary Quant's biggest influence on her peers in the mid 1960s was her use of youthful styling and colours. While monochrome may be an instant mod signifier, the right shade of brights can be just as instant in their retro appeal.

This Anne Coat by Farhi has the perfect shade of mustard yellow, combined with some sleek sixties styling. Flared three quarter length sleeves and an unstructured bodice shape give a relaxed, cape-style feel to the coat. A chic, simple collar and oversized, childrenswear style pockets draw the coat together for a relaxed yet sharp take on some retro style points.

Get yours online from My Wardrobe for £285.

Find out more from the website

Pete McKee mod-inspired artwork

If you're after something cool, stylish and with more than a hint of mod inspiration for your walls, check out Pete McKee's mod-inspired artwork, which is available to buy on his site.

Sheffield lad McKee has recently done the tour artwork for Oasis and even if you're not a fan of the band, there's every chance you'll appreciate the rather hip graphics above.

The Oasis is available to buy as a special edition at £190 unframed or £240 framed, but if you want something a little more affordable, other unlimited prints are available for around the £20 mark. Check out the website to view them all.

Find out more at the Pete McKee website

Via Modculture

V&A runs silent auction for Eero Aarnio Globe Chair and Peter Ghyczy Egg Chairs

Want to get some design classics in your home for (possibly) a fraction of the cost at retail? You can if you get involved with the V&A's silent auction on 15th July 2009 for an Eero Aarnio Globe Chair and some Peter Ghyczy Egg Chairs.

What's a silent auction you ask? Well, rather than all that arm waving and hammer bashing, a silent auction simply requires you to fill in the price you're willing to pay on a sheet of paper. If you bid the highest, you get it. And with reserve prices of £1,000 for the Globe Chair (usually £6,000) and between £400 and £600 for the Egg Chairs (usually £1,250), that could be a significant saving.

All proceeds of the auction go towards supporting the V&A's work, all items are sold as seen and bids (on the official sheets) must be handed in on the day of faxed. if you want a form, email customerservice@vandashop.co.uk with the title ‘Bidding Slip Request’.

V&A Shop website

Nike Heritage Travel Bag

We have featured a couple of old school Adidas bags of late, so here's one from arguably its biggest competitor - the Nike Heritage Travel Bag.

Available in a dark blue or black, the bag has a great retro look, but a very modern use - as either a weekend bag or with its built-in padded sleeve, as a rather cool laptop bag.

Aside from that, there's a dual zip main compartment and an adjustable strap, wth the bag selling for £45.

Find out more at the End Clothing website

New additions to New House Textiles' vintage print tea towel range

New House Textiles have recently made some attractive new additions to their range of tea towels utilising rediscovered designs. The image shows a detail from one of the designs: Louise Fougstedt's Cook's Favourites which originates from the 1950s. It features illustrations of kitchen ingredients alongside their plant source and name in Swedish. Useful for learning a bit of botany and Swedish as well as drying dishes! 

They've also introduced another fascinating design from the fifties, Brit Bredström's Lazy Lunch. This illustrates things such as fish on platters and delicacies on sticks, as if presented for your consumption. Both tea towels cost £8.50 each. 

See them online

Belle & Boo kids illustrations

The style and feel of the Belle & Boo illustrations made me think it was a lost childhood series that I'd somehow missed out on while growing up. In fact they are a modern creation, drawn by Mandy Sutcliffe. Her style deliberately references old children's illustrations portraying very innocent, timeless snapshots of the world. 

The illustrations are available across a wide range of products, from greeting cards to children's clothing. Pictured is Autumn from the My Favourite Place set, typical of the Belle & Boo style. Each print in the set shows the retro-dressed girl sitting contemplatively in a tree from a different season of the year. The set of four framed costs £140 and would be a charming addition to any kids room.  

Buy it online

For sale: 1960s-designed East Lane house in Bawdsey, Suffolk

A house by a noted modernist designer overlooking the sea for under £300,000? That's what you get with the 1960s-designed East Lane house in Bawdsey, Suffolk.

it is one of six just a short walk from the coast, the work of Swiss-born architect Rudy Mock, a modernist designer in the 1930s and associate of two of the biggest names in 20th century architecture - Louis Kahn and Frank Lloyd Wright. He moved to London in the 40s, creating these houses in the 1960s - including one for his own use. Such was the buzz about the houses at the time that all sold for well over the going local rate. They're still rated today, with English Heritage considering listing the properties.

Morph Bookends from Urban Outfitters

Children's TV shows are a favourite medium for designers plundering the past for retro inspiration. If you grew up the UK, you can't fail to recognise the figure above. Before Wallace and Gromit were even heard of, Morph and his mate Chas were the most famous plasticine characters on UK telly.

Immortalised here in plastic, these bookends are a fantastic pair. Perfect for a gift or to get admiring coos from guests in your own home, this set of 2 polyresin bookends is 15 cms high. A little bit bigger than the original appeared, perhaps, but equally charming.

Get yours from Urban Outfitters now for £24.

Find out more from the website

Colour Block Sleeveless Dress from Marks and Spencer

Marks and Spencers are never going to be the first port of call for youthful fashion, but it's a great stop for the young looks of eras gone by. This Colour Block Sleeveless Dress is another example of how their backwards looking designs can look fresh and fun today.

With an obvious mod aesthetic, this simple A-line shape with a mid-thigh hem provides an easy to wear option. The thick straps and high neckline add that girlish mid sixties feel, while sleek straight lines in the block monochrome print add a mainstream mod edge.

Get yours from Marks and Spencer now for £45.

Find out more from the website

Sandcastle Bowl

The Sandcastle Bowl takes me back to childhood days at the beach. It is shaped to look like those sandcastle buckets you used to have as a child, but is in fact a bowl that can be put to a variety of uses.

Handmade in England from glazed ceramic, it is available in a choice of sunshine yellow, powder blue or white. The bowl is supplied wrapped in a net bag, just like buckets and spades used to be.

The Sandcastle Bowl costs £16.50 and can be bought online from Caroline McGrath.

Odeon Clock

Like many retro clocks, the Odeon Clock is made by Newgate and is a replica of a vintage design.

It is made from a single piece of moulded acrylic and is glassless. The clock is mainly cream with brown detailing, which adds to the retro appearance.

It is available from Horsfall and Wright, priced just under £35.

Jump The Gun 60s-style raincoat

Not sure what it's like where you are, but it's pretty much been throwing it down here for almost a week now - which makes it the ideal time to pick up something like the Jump The Gun 60s-style raincoat.

It is what it says it is - styled with an early 1960s look (think Harry Palmer), with no fussy belts or detailing, aside from the usual pockets, but with ample size to keep you (and your suit) covered from the elements.

Three colours available, the blue above or a grey or black, along with plenty of sizes. It retails for £125. Alternatively, keep an eye on vintage and charity shops, these kind of raincoats do occasionally come up, often in really good condition too.

Find out more at the Jump The Gun website

Via Modculture

Karlsson KA4622 vintage-style wall clock

You can always rely on Karlsson to come up with something retro for timekeeping - like this KA4622 vintage-style wall clock.

Take your pick from a birch (above) or walnut finish, both offering 60s-style detailing with modern-day know how, a wooden case with bold number markers, with power from a single AA battery.

Yours for £38.40.

Find out more at the Nest website

Temperance tattoo hip flask

Although its motif claims temperance, it's hardly going to be encouraged by this tattoo inspired hip flask. It's been decorated using a traditional swallow design, hand painted onto pink suede, making it a very stylish way to carry 2oz of your favourite tipple around with you.  

There is also a similarly retro design featuring a mermaid for sale. The flask costs $30.

Buy it from ManEatingFlower's Etsy store

Slinky light shade

Were it not for it's name, the Slinky light might be able to disguise its origins. Though it looks like some older constructivist-style design, it's made out of a favourite retro toy, the Slinky. The light fitting is made by Georgiosi by simply bonding the toy at either end to fit round an upside down uplighter bulb. 

The metal coil adapts itself well to its new use with a result that's more sophisticated than its simple origins. The price is a lot more sophisticated too, at £60. 

Buy it online

Blue Denim Western Shirt from Dorothy Perkins

Denim has been a ubiquitous everyday material ever since the 1950s, and it's been a quintessential American wardrobe staple throughout fashion history. Branching out from jeans and overalls, it arguably found most wear in the 1970s with shirts, shorts and accessories.

This Dorothy Perkins Western Shirt isn't just a shoo-in for seventies looks thanks to its material, though. This shirt's Western styling lends the feel of Americana that was so popular with folkies of the era. An ideal shade of blue denim finishes this off to a tee.

Get yours now for £25.

Find out more from the website

French Connection Striped Slash Neck Dress

Simple and chic, a sixties Parisian look is hard to surpass in terms of easy retro style. While nautical stripes may be sometimes overdone in fifties looks, this sixties take is still ripe for exploration in modern wardrobes.

This French Connection Striped Dress manages to look effortless and easy going thanks to the looser fit of the bodice. The simplistic silhouette is given a subtle retro flair thanks to a wide boat neck, three quarter length sleeves and that ever present mini length hemline.

Get yours online from French Connection for £45.

Find out more from the website

Retro Dog and Flag Cushion

This Retro Dog and Flag Cushion is part of the Rule BradTannia Collection by Bradley’s.

Bradley’s is a small independent leather tannery who last year expanded their range to include a hand-printed cloth collection with a patriotic feel. The cushion features hand-printed images of dogs, the St George’s and Union Jack flags along with the mod target, all in the traditional red, blue and white.

The cushion costs £25 and can be bought online from the Bradley’s website.

Apothecary Desk Lamp

The Apothecary Desk Lamp is a cheap little piece of retro style lighting. It is described as futuristic, but it is futuristic in a rather retro space-age way.

It is available in a choice of black or white, but obviously the space-age charm is most evident in the white version.

It costs just $38 (around £22) from Urban Outfitters in the USA, which is very reasonable if you happen to be in the State, less so if you are elsewhere.

Peter Sellers' Pink Panther Mini up for auction

One of the most famous Minis ever made will go up for auction this month - and for the right price, you can own Peter Sellers' Mini, made famous in the original Pink Panther movie.

It's not just any old movie Mini either, this one was made for Sellers himself, commissioned from the exclusive coachbuilders, Radfords, offering very un-Mini-like features including leather seats, Wilton carpets, a walnut dash, a host of extra instruments, chrome window surrounds and its famous 'wicker work' paint job - hand-painted lines to give the effect of basketwork. Apparently it cost roughly the same as a Rolls Royce back in the early 60s!

Win a Giant Anglepoise 1227 lamp

Anglepoise just dropped us a line saying that it is giving away a Giant Anglepoise 1227 lamp in vermillion (aka orange). So we thought we'd mention it on the site so you can get your name in the draw if you fancy one.

We featured this way back in 2007, when it was produced for the 70th anniversary of the original 1227. It's three times as large as an original, complete with wheels for moving around and an attention to details that only comes from handmade design.

They retail for a whopping £1,660, but Anglepoise is offering one out to coincide with the launch of its new website in August. Basically, if you sign up to its mailing list, you get in the draw to win it, with the winner being picked ' out of a barrel' at the start of October. To get your name in the frame, see below.

Enter the Giant Anglepoise 1227 lamp competition

KleinReid Eva ceramic collection

The sculptural Eva pitchers shown here are part of ongoing collaboration between the American company KleinReid and the ceramist Eva Zeisel. Zeisel is well known for her organic modernist pieces, working in Germany and Russia, before emigrating to the United States in the 1930s. KleinReid, meanwhile, is a Brooklyn based business founded by David Reid and James Klein in 1993 which prides itself on the craftsmanship of their handmade ceramics and other products. 

As proved by these pitchers, the collaboration works well. The larger of the pitchers measures just over 29cm high and the smaller 21cm meaning their sensuous curves fit snuggly together to make a statement piece. The style of Zeisel's work is reflected in the rest of the range which includes a teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl set and now also crystal. The set of two pitchers costs $285 with prices for the crystal reaching up to $1160. 

Buy them online

Steven Edrich Creation de Meubles Art Deco inspired console table

The Ligne Carré console table has Art Deco style written all over it. Made by Steven Edrich's Creation de Meuble the elegant design is made using solid wenge, with the stainless steel detailing on the three drawers adding to the machine age feel.  

As the table is made to order, it's possible to request that the table is made from another wood or even to get the design adapted into a desk. As it's a serious investment piece, costing £3625, that choice may be well appreciated. 

Order it from Bouf

Adidas Nastase Super Tournament Edition trainers reissued

If you missed out on the reissue earlier this year, the Adidas Nastase Super Tournament Edition trainers are back again, with Adidas tweaking the detailing of this limited edition tennis shoe.

Originally seen back in the 1980s, the Nastase Super gets the premium treatment here, with premium leather uppers, an original 'super sole' unit (this time in white and off-white), Tournament Edition packaging and logos along with the exclusivity of those limited numbers.

£79 will secure you a pair on pre-order.

Find out more at the End Clothing website

George Nakashima 1940s Straight Chair for Knoll

When it comes to chairs, the George Nakashima Straight Chair is something of a work of art.

Designed back in 1948 and back in production via Knoll today, this is a mid-century gem, mixing American walnut and hickory, specifically contrasting hickory spindles against the American walnut legs and seating, all with a clear low-sheen finish to bring out the natural beauty.

Each Chair features George Nakashima's signature under the seat and sells for just under £550.

Find out more at the Nest website