Last week I was speaking at Glasgow Caledonian University. I must admit that I accepted the gig partly because I'd never been to Glasgow and was keen to see the architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, one of the city's great heroes. His individualistic style is a great example of architecture as branding. In fact, buildings are one of the few forms of communication that can't be shifted online. So during my lecture I spoke about one of my favourite trends, which I call analogue snobbery. It's all about collecting vinyl records, using Polaroid cameras, reading vintage paperbacks and writing thank you notes by hand.
This seems to have struck a chord with the students, as one of them wrote me a long letter admitting that he had become an analogue snob. He'd just bought a fountain pen, he confessed. He also informed me about his favourite magazine, which is called The Chap. This very eccentric English publication celebrates the pre-digital world in a highly satirical way (see www.chap.net). Ironically, it has an online shop selling top hats, cuff links, pipes and other dandy artefacts.
I noticed during the recent fashion week that many designers have gone retro, too, perhaps reflecting anxiety about the way that the world is turning into a science fiction novel. I have nothing against this new nostalgia craze - but it was so much better the last time around.
