The talk of the Liberty store and my vintage shopping brings me to write about a related, yet completely different topic - Pop Art in Britain.
The consumer culture of the 1950s that fast spread from America to Western Europe, and in particular Britain, brought with it a challenge to the artistic status quo which involved a coming together of the art world to this popular culture.
For the majority of the middle class Brits who found themselves with spare money to spend for the first time in their lives, material prosperity rapidly started to change social habits. Families started forking out for holidays abroad, they became owners of cars and other 'consumables' like televisions and washing machines.
The rising confidence of youths was partly based on this prosperity. Earnings increased by 70 per cent between 1950 and 1970, and young people had disposable incomes to play with.
The art world used this concept to project an art which was based on advertising and other aspects of popular culture mixed with the contemporary urban environment. The term Pop described the popular culture itself, and Pop Art was a manifestation of social, political and aesthetic revolt combined with the new affluence. The appearance of Pop Art coincided with the development of distinctive youth culture, or subcultures, which expressed a deliberate opposition to established ideas of morality and public order. A separate lifestyle began for the young consisting of pop music, coffee bars, scooters.
A clear idea of this development can be seen through one of the most famous British Pop painters from the 1950s to date, Peter Blake.
His self portrait with badges gives us a glimpse of the 1960s popular culture of denims and pop music badges.
Visit the Tate Modern to see some of his collection.
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