From Memphis to Milano
The Iconic 1980s Style is Back in the Game
The 1980s was a time filled with neon colors, geometric patterns and crazy experiments both in the field of fashion and design. Who doesn’t remember black & white chessboard floor tiling, glamorous glass tables or faux leather upholstery? Who wouldn’t miss such weird fashion trends as giant shoulder pads, Gianni Versace’s bold prints or Alexis Carrington-endorsed glitzy sequins. Luckily, the nature of all trends is cyclical — and now all these tendencies from before almost four decades are coming back in a number of diverse incarnations.
“Decoration can be a state of mind, an unusual perception, a ritual whisper” — Ettore Sottsass, Design Metaphors.
The most iconic designs of the entire decade of the 1980s were those created by the Memphis Group, founded in Milan by Ettore Sottsass in 1981. Several artists and designers belonged to the group, including Hans Hollein and Arata Isozaki. They created bizarre furniture, colorful fabrics, ceramics, glass and kitschy metal objects — all inspired by a fusion of Art Deco and Pop Art styles. Their main purpose was to break all the rules that guided the world of design at the time: they experimented with unconventional materials, historic forms, kitsch motifs and gaudy colors, which continued the style begun by Studio Alchymia, the radical late 1970s Italian design group to which Sottsass and Miche lle De Lucchi belonged.
Up to now, many fashion designers were inspired by the Memphis Milano rebellious style. Memphis designs served as inspiration for the Christian Dior Fall/Winter 2011–2012 haute couture collection and for the Missoni Winter 2015 collection, and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld furnished his Monte Carlo apartment with Memphis.
Following the examples of graphic designer Camille Walala and interior stylist Charlotte Love Pixers recently launched their brand new collection of wall murals and stickers that combine patterns of Keith Haring’s painting style with colors and unexpected combinations of contrasts derived from the era of Italian postmodernism. This is a tribute to the 1980s style, in a refreshed and modernized version. It looks quite difficult to match such patterns with furnishing and other elements in a room, but the devil is not as black as he’s painted. You may hate it, this cheesy style of the 1980s, but you will fall in love with the Pixers collection Into the Groove once you learn how to arrange it in an interior.
Get into the Groove!
This collection, named after Madonna’s song from 1986, Into the Groove, is all about freedom of inspiration. It’s motto is “Dance for Inspiration!”, the first words from the song. Vibrant, bold patterns are in line with the contemporary lifestyle and the constantly changing world of trends. The idea is to match them freely and create customized fusions of hues and patterns. One rule to follow is to avoid schemes and traditional decorating styles. To nail it, you’ll need to take a look back to the aesthetics of Pop Art, Art Deco and postmodern architecture created by Michael Graves, James Stirling or Charles Moore.
Pay Homage to Consumer Culture
Similarly to the Memphis interior design collection, pixers’ patterns praise the birth of the consumer culture in a preposterous and exaggerated way, to the point where they seem to express both admiration and critique. All products from the collection freely combine seemingly unmatched prints, following Jeremy Scott’s maniere. Swirling geometries taken from the Madonna’s early music videos energize and intrigue — a little kitschy, sometimes sophisticated, and invariably crazy. Such prints look good in hotel foyers, modern restaurants and bars, but they will also match simple Scandinavian furniture and cozy wooden finishes of contemporary private apartments.
Play tic-tac-toe
The Into the Groove collection belongs to a class of products that you wouldn’t fall in love with at first sight. It requires a bit of distance to your own style. As Vico Magistretti, one of the Memphis designers, said after the group was resolved: “This furniture offers no possibility of development whatsoever. It is only a variant of fashion.” Nevertheless, fashion tends to be tempting, so why not to cover a wall, a door or a table top with one of these patterns in flamboyant colors: turquoise, pink, black, ultramarine and neon yellow. Despite appearances, both neon and pastel hues are easy to match with a modern sofa, a Scandinavian bookcase or a wooden desk.
Cross the Limits!
The best aspect of applying such crazy patterns to an interior is that there are no limits, whatsoever. You can play with lines and shapes, mixing contrasts and seemingly unmatched colors.
You can follow your instinct and get into your personal groove, but you can also get some inspiration from designers from Milan who fulfilled their dreams of creating something unique and one-off. There are still still many contemporary artists who take handfuls of inventiveness from them. Craig & Karl’s illustrations in this style were used by Lacey and Andrew Gallimore to create a cosmically colorful shoot for Vogue Nippon; and the colorful blocks used in many Memphis furniture designs became an inspiration for a set of wooden blocks for kids by The Land of Nod.
All in all, everything comes back, even the strangest trends that turn out to be classy and respond to the actual reality. Heeding Ettore Sotssas’ words that “decoration is a state of mind”, dance for inspiration and stick a pattern from the pixers’ collection to any surface to make your own groovy space!
The team of talented designers at @Pixers is working hand in hand with nature to bring you the best-looking wall murals, stickers, and posters. With respect for the Earth, they are printed out on natural materials using ecological paints. Discover their work at pixersize.com.
