“The past is a foreign country,” said the writer L.P. Hartley. If so it’s one we’re increasingly keen to visit. Mad Men helped kick-start the craze for mid-century fashion and furniture, and every aspect of 80s pop culture has been repurposed for today’s tastes. But its not just retro clothes, music and Sly Stallone action films that have made a comeback. Gadgets once consigned to the attic have been dusted down and rediscovered by a generation weaned on iPods and Xboxes.


