29 September 2018 It's not the question if retro design is in or out of fashion, albeit it's a trend to pack history into new products and equip them with the latest technology. The trend could be probably explained as answer to the increasing digitisation and named as 'analog-digital style'. Retro design basically is a stylistic mean for telling stories which span over decades or centuries. The creation of a product which references with its design former times or a lifestyle piece that is used to take a look backwards (retro means translated from Latin 'backwards') unifies today in the most cases historical knowledge as well as high technology such as the recently revealed autonomous, electric car Peugeot e-Legend Concept referencing the 1960s (article). The design of the Remington Heritage Series Foil Shaver HF9000 (image below, left; presented in Austria this month) pays tribute to the history of electric razors which reaches back around 120 years. The innovation was developed further by Remington and brought by the company 1937 to the market. The writing of the year '1937' is part of the visual design. The retro HF9000 is equipped with the latest shaver technology. Fossil is currently one of the leading brands in the field smartwatches. (Fashion.at styling article with the latest Michael Kors smartwatch by Fossil.) Now, the brand's watch makers searched the archives and found a design from 1996, the Mood Watch and revived the product in a limited edition of 854 pieces (pictures below, right). The Mood Watch has a heat-reactive dial showing with changing colors the wearer's mood such as amber for a tense situation or being nervous, green for anxious... The 1996 retro design gives insights into the wearer's very personal information and stands contrary to the (privacy-) principle of smartwatches which are discrete. |
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