A Decade of i-Deas: The Encyclopaedia of the ’80s
edited by John Godfrey
Penguin Books, 256 pages, 1990
Timing, in relation to perspective on popular culture is a fascinating thing. When writing about topics of the day, in the day, there’s often an irrepressible enthusiasm and immediacy. Everything is fresh; everyone has an opinion. The farther in time we get from our subject, the more reflective, analytical and nostalgic we become. I am admittedly guilty of all of these things, and it’s particularly hard not be reflect, analyze and willingly surrender to nostalgia when reading A Decade of i-Deas.
It’s an unusual book. Rather than giving its subject — 1980s popular culture — a decade, or even a single year to settle into memory, it was published straight away, in 1990. Written in the cheeky style typical of i-D (the magazine from which the book spawned), the ’80s is summed up with an impressive roundup of information snippets, ranging from fashion (you’ll find all the usual suspects here, including John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Katharine Hamnett and BodyMap) to politics, from music and nightclubbing to art. It’s all the things i-D did best in the 1980s, and even the dated bits (see pagers and sampling, for example) come off as genuinely charming.
It is in fact the dated nature of the content that allows readers a plain, matter-of-fact perspective on the 1980s through the eyes of i-D editors and contributors of the day. There’s no foreshadowing or nostalgia here, it’s simply the decade that was.
The layout is as expected of any encyclopaedic work: it’s A-to-Z, short paragraphs, lots of pictures. It’s a decidedly British book, with most of the people, places and things featured hailing from England. This is perfectly fine, as it adds a layer of specificity to the content, and let’s face it: it was from London that so much of the most interesting fashion and culture was coming out of in the ’80s.
While the encyclopaedia format doesn’t necessarily encourage a cover-to-cover read, A Decade of i-Deas is a fabulous reference to pick up and read for ten minutes here-and-there, on the train, in the bathroom or as a brain-palette-cleanser, a vintage pick-me-up to rouse a tired mind.
