Good-bye neo-Goth, hello old-school graphics. For our second installment of Casual Observations, I’d like to turn your attention to the recent resurgence of TV test patterns and Trapper Keeper-style graphics. Both feature bold colors, distinctive patterns, and conjure up bygone eras which many of us associate with a sense of joyous naïveté. (Remember when you actually wrote on paper and had to turn the non-cable TV on by manually turning a dial?) And as a quick glance at a few of today’s pop-culture artifacts and sartorial backdrops will demonstrate, these iconic graphics are current favorites of today’s taste-makers:

First, take a look at Apple’s latest Ipod commercial:

Then compare it with the intro credits to everyone’s favorite ’80s guilty-pleasure, Saved by the Bell:

Both recall your ’80s school supplies, no? Surely you remember Trapper Keepers and their distinctive geo-patterns…

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, savvy window-dressers are zooming in on the same ’80s graphics as well as TV test graphics, as they make a perfect back-drop for the season’s vivid, New Wave-inspired pieces…

Bergdorf Goodman, Fifth Avenue:

Diesel, 14th Street @ Union Square:

Note the color palette and gradient pattern in the backdrop of the store’s “Diesel TV” window, and how similar it is to the Ipod commercial. Nice how it all comes full-circle isn’t it? (That’s what the fashion demi-monde likes to call A Moment.) Considering the ’80s TV inspiration behind this nascent trend, it seems fitting to now say, “Stay tuned for more…”

Snaps= TV Test pattern, iStock; Folders, Flickr; store photos Kate Terranova and Erin Dustin

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