Did you chuck out your chintz?

If you are, like most of us over ten, old enough to remember Ikea’s 1993 ad campaign telling us “Chuck out your chintz”, then you might be shuddering at the terrible inevitability of recurring fashion trends. There is, if you’ve opened a Sunday supplement or actually any magazine this year, a terrible, creeping invasion of rose sprigged anything and everything. So if, when you went in for those white walls, purple carpets, red settees and barcode art, you threw all your chintz in the loft instead of the skip, you’re laughing – just dig it all out again and give that persistent fashion merry-go-round of rampant commercialism a poke in the eye for once!

Interestingly, if you Google Ikea’s famous phrase, you will see it has been generally adopted to describe the throwing out of anything useless. “Useless” of course is a very subjective word – if its rose-printed exterior offends our eye, does that make the item no longer fit for purpose? No. If past generations had chucked out everything on a commercial whim we would not have any antiques at all, let alone all those Victorian chintz patterns that are now used by designers as inspiration for their “new” ideas!

It all began quietly last summer when a high street camping supplier offered us a rose bespattered tent to take our annual summer holiday in. As a camper myself, I have to say that I have never, ever seen anyone on any campsite, pitch this pretty canvas chocolate box. Perhaps they were too shy to leave their back gardens.

Of course there’s an upside to all this – you know camping must be really cool when designers take an interest in it! And now there’s a choice of – no not just one rose bespattered tent but several ditsy daisy designs to camp in. Or should that be camp it up in? And it doesn’t end there – you can buy just about anything rose printed or flower bedecked - anything you like from a doormat to a kitchen chair, a radio to a shopping bag, plates, crockery, cutlery, a car – let alone the “chintziest” choice of armchairs, curtains, blinds and carpets. If you really did chuck out all your chintzy stuff back in 1993, you may be sorry. Sorry that is, that you’re a bit of a fashion victim.

They say never go back. That means the mini, batwing tops, ra-ra skirts, wedge heels – no wait - I’ve just bought some of them - and flares, well - may be some things are worth revisiting…