Nostalgia has become very popular in recent years and that is a strange statement in itself to start with. I was always led to believe that nostalgia leaned towards the negative side of the emotional scope, however popular culture trends have proven me wrong. As it turns out, nostalgia is not only a desirable feeling but also a marketable product, which in the right hands can turn great profits.
In terms of product sales, lead retailer Urban Outfitters have proven the model by bringing back Polaroid cameras, type writers and record players, thus turning vinyl sales from a niche market for serious collectors to a revitalised industry that attracts teenagers and millennials in general.
While the general public initially viewed this as things to sell to hipsters to make them feel special, it seems that these items from the past are here to stay, and the recent fashion trends are also confirming that a return to the late half of the past century is definitely a thing. So why is this happening?
People have always had a tendency to look back in time and romanticise earlier eras as a much simpler time when things were better. Renaissance artists looked to ancient Greek and Roman times, romantics looked back to the middle ages and an ideal pastoral past. This is best shown in Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris.
However I am not entirely convinced that this tendency towards nostalgia is so much an ideological move than a reaction towards the increasingly busier lifestyles Londoners are leading. While these pastel polaroids are a cute novelty to receive as a gift, ultimately we would all much rather take photos with a professional digital camera and are absolutely fascinated by the latest innovations in technology, such as flying drone cameras that follow you and capture moments from angles which previously impossible without a crane or a helicopter crew.
There is an increasing tendency for people to switch from items to experiences both as presents for friends and for themselves. Hundreds of people prefer to save up to travel the world instead of buying expensive material possessions, couples ask for their guests to put money towards their honeymoon instead of receiving 20 blenders [it is not confirmed that people still buy blenders as wedding gifts].
At the same time hundreds of new popups in London are now becoming much more than a new secret bar that just offers some fancy cocktails. Instead you have the immersive experience of Star Wars Secret Cinema and Alice in Wonderland, the Breaking Bad inspired ABQ van where you can cook your own cocktails and more importantly a long list of childhood themed events.
While you may argue that diving into a ball pit and jumping on a bouncy castle is fun I still have my doubts. I am being very honest when I say that I found those two incredibly annoying when I was a child, I could never really balance on the castle, I kept falling down and it was always a pain trying to figure out what exactly I was supposed to do inside the ball pit other than avoid stepping on another kid who though it would be funny to disappear under all the balls for a prank. ‘Sorry, I stepped on you kid. Well, not really. You shouldn’t have hidden there in the first place’. Saying that, I would much rather be at the swings or the slides or go jump in a pool, you know, with actual water instead of plastic balls. Call me crazy.
My point is that I sincerely want to challenge the concept of finding these activities fun because they are such in their nature, and before you say anything please think of eight bankers in their suits jumping inside a large bouncy castle, and would like to propose that the fun comes from doing something childlike in nature regardless of the specific activity.
Maybe the Frozen song Let it go became such a big hit and topped the charts, exactly because people wish they were able to let go for a bit too. Think of our daily London lives, the time consuming commute in the tube, the long hours most professionals work for and the stress all those things create. Then you have to pay your rent and bills while saving to get on the property ladder.
It’s not realistic at all that you can buy you dream house at the start, but a tiny flat will do, and about 40 years later, after having bought and sold several flats and houses you may end up with a decent sized family house somewhere in zone 7, just in time for when the kids leave for university and you are left alone walking around the empty rooms and asking yourself whether it was all worth it and whether you should downsize to a smaller house now as it is just the two of you again.
If you did not feel at least slightly anxious simply reading the above paragraph, I will have whatever you are having because it is clearly working. It is natural after all these daily issues that are constantly turning in our minds to want a break. Remember when all we had to do is ask our parents for new shoes or a new phone or an expensive toy? Ask and you shall receive. Maybe not right away, but for Christmas or for your birthday. No was not an acceptable answer and budget a completely foreign word.
This is what childhood was really about. The carefree mentality when all we had to do was play, have fun and just be kids. When someone else put food on the table and we would sing hakuna matata because we literally had nothing to worry about. So how do we try to reclaim some of that mentality and happiness?
Buying things we used back then is one way. It is not the polaroid camera in itself. It is the memories of us in that school trip back in year 6 when we took those funny photos with our best friends that we have not spoken to since college and are probably now married or something. It is the birthday party where all your classmates came and you had a massive bouncy castle that everyone wanted to go on and you played all evening and got to eat lots of cake and sleep late, even if it did make your stomach hurt.
Going to themed nights is another option, and it’s getting increasingly popular, as in these special events we can act like kids again, play around and have fun without thinking of the day job. It is exactly that state of carefree happiness that we are so desperately trying to get back and why we are so willing to spend our money to forget we are no longer children, even for a night. Childhood has become the new popular drug for London and we do not seem to get enough of it.
Themed nights, immersive experiences and drinking events in playgrounds are all about going back in time. Not in the time travelling sense where you experience a different era, but back to your own past. They are all about not being an adult for a few hours and letting out your inner child. If you are anything like me, that inner child could not wait to grow up. To be independent, have takeout for dinner, spend time with friends and sleep past their bedtime.
Now we are adults, all those things are easily attainable, but this freedom has come with the realisation that we should probably eat healthy, home cooked food is actually much better and if we don’t sleep enough going to work the next day without looking like zombies will be a challenge. So we are going back to the swings and slides, to a time when life was much simpler. Not life in general as an idea, but our own very tangible past.
While I should probably close with the moral of this article I have decided not to. Instead I will leave you to reflect for a couple of minutes. Think about your dreams, think about the last time you smiled sincerely or felt sincerely content with your life. Did we all just lose something growing up, and we are so desperate now to get it back or is it still up to us to be the adults we thought we would become?
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