Slow-tech lifestyle shift?

I was reading Elle Decoration’s recent trend report, which seemed rather like a manifesto for shopping curiously – favouring nature-inspired pieces, along with "humble materials, upcycled treasures and… quilted fabrics."

If you’ve visited central London recently you may not have noticed any move towards frugality, but after the recent riots, we’ve begun to think in a totally different way.




ShopCurious has been pivotal in the shift towards vintage and recycling. We’ve been helping lead consumers towards a less wasteful, more meaningful future - from hi-tech to artisanal; from unnecessary extravagance to provenance…













Trends indicate that a lot more of us are starting to look back to a previous (more reliable) time, when the physical and tangible prevailed… But can we not combine the advantages of modern technology with our old-found knowledge of what works, and what doesn’t, to create innovative, contemporary solutions?




On that note, you may like this curiously quirky, collectable out of print book - Corey Ford’s Guide to Thimking (sic). With over 40 vintage cartoons and groovy graphics on the cover, this ‘humorous handbook for the machine age’ is the height of retroprogressive cool.

Are you?

PS My prescient predictions from September 2010 are also worth re-reading.

State of the art bathroom design

Today ShopCurious goes back to basics in high-tech style, with a look at some curiously quirky bathroom features. We consider the advantages of Toto's Italian designed Japanese style 'bidet toilet' (aka the washlet), and in Curious Trends we reveal some intriguingly unique public conveniences. So, which do you prefer, the all singing and dancing modern version, the unusually arty farty, or the good old fashioned wooden loo seat?

Do you?

PS For further reading, Gaw at The Dabbler is an expert on Duchamp and other curiosities of artisanal interest.