Taschen is one of my favorite publishers of 20th century design and architecture themed books. I have a couple in my collection, but there’s room for many more – like this one. 20th Century Fashion: 100 Years of Apparel Ads takes us through a stylish 100 years of fashion during the 20th Century via 400 fashion advertisements from the Jim Heimann Collection. This is a...

Interesting trailer from the upcoming documentary entitled Coast Modern which takes you on a trip back in time to look for the origins of Modernism architecture and how its style and look became associated with the west coast of the US. The release date for the documentary is set for autumn this year, meanwhile you can read their blog. Filmmakers Michael Bernard and Gavin Froome...

Since we all love kitschy postcards, I thought this would be a great way to start off the week. Here’s a sample of postcards of yesteryear California. Including motels, restaurants, diners, bowling alleys and everything between that all share the “Googie” styled design and architecture that became popular on the West Coast in the 1950s and 1960s. The “Googie” style took its influence from futurist...

The Stahl house, designed by architect Pierre Koening in 1960 will be open to visitors for a limited time. The house was built part of the Case Study House experiments for residential housing sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, which hired major architects including Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig and Eero Saarinen, to design and build inexpensive model homes for the housing boom caused...

The House of the Future (also known as the plastic house of the future) at Disneyland, California circa 1957. This is where curious visitors could get a glimpse of how Disney imagined what the future would hold in technology and comfort for the year 1986! Many (or most) things would probably be regarded as very retro-future-kitschy today, but one gadget that was eventually shown and...

Imagine the following. Late 1960s, gorgeous models moving in slow motion, cutting edge fashion around various locations in what looks like a racetrack outside Paris. Everything accompanied to a groovy beat with phaser effects and flowing arpeggios. The song is “Indicatif Spatial” by Jean-Jacques Perrey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TcKtxhiyAs Bonus: Sounds Galactic ‎- An Astromusical Odyssey by John Keating from 1971...

I wish there were more expositions like the one held in Seattle in 1962. Going under the name Century 21, it showcased the best, brightest and most future minded technology available at the time – including pagers, exciting cars that looked like they could fly, various satellites and the NASA Mercury project to name a few. The grounds of the fair were divided into different...