Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 years ago.
Modern Fiat 500
Mitsuoka Motor Ryugi hybrid (E165)
Modern Roberts Revival radio based on 1960s design
Retro technics (radios, TVs)
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word nostalgia is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "sorrow" or "despair", and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Described as a medical condition—a form of melancholy—in the early modern period, it became an important trope in Romanticism.
The archives director for The Saturday Evening Post said that the magazine has been regarded with "a mixture of nostalgia and affection". Shown: a Norman Rockwell cover from August 1924.
Tweed run, 2013
Rider in vintage clothing astride a vintage BSA motorcycle on High Street in Honiton, England in July 2023
A rural landscape in Vaud, Switzerland. The term "nostalgia" originally referred to the homesickness felt by Swiss mercenaries.