Chill out in style

It's always the same. After one fall of snow, there's not a toboggan to be had in Hamleys. Come the Spring Bank Holiday, every watering can has vanished from garden-centre shelves. And after a couple of hot weekends the chances of finding an electric fan in the shops are as thin as an accountant's smile. Or, at least, finding one you wouldn't mind admitting you owned.

There is, after all, cool and cool. The coolest in looks are the retro chrome fans, like the ones seen in grainy old black-and-white movies and as classic as Humphrey Bogart's raincoat. They translate easily into warehouse conversion apartments, look smart on beechwood floors and don't clash with black leather and chrome furniture.

Prices vary enormously. For instance, an American-made high-powered three-speed air circulator fan sold mail order through Ocean costs pounds 179, while Scotts of Stowe's Equinox brochure lists one so similar as to be indistinguishable at pounds 99.95. Scotts' classic pedestal fan, height adjustable 59in-78in, with a 20in blade diameter costs pounds 199.95. That and the desktop version (pounds 79.95) are based on the design first produced in the 1930s. They have all-metal parts on a solid cast-iron base and have three speeds.

Most of the classic fans of the Twenties and Thirties were black stove enamel with gold edging lines, says Dave Woodcock, assistant curator of domestic technology at the Science Museum.

"There was a change in the Thirties when the fan - like ships and aeroplanes - became susceptible to design considerations," says Dave. "The chrome of the fan had a lot to do with the streamlining of ships, you can see it in the casting for the motor, the torpedo shape. Instead of being purely functional and put away when the weather turned cool, fans began to be looked on as a piece of furniture."

Now, says Dave, people are hankering after such classic designs, having tired of modern tat. The classic fan is as sought after as the 1932 model of the Anglepoise lamp, the Waring waterfall blender and the Westinghouse fridge (so cleverly tweaked by Smeg using the smooth shape but adding colour).

"The Thirties fan was a thing of great beauty," says Dave Woodcock. "Now there are very few all-metal objects around."

For good copies John Lewis sell an antique-style Sona desktop fan in either black or chrome at pounds 59.50, while Purves and Purves stock a classic- design aluminium fan with a control dial on the base at pounds 65.75.

The Conran Shop offers the Cinni classic fan with a black pedestal in several diameters, costing from pounds 175 to pounds 95 (the cheapest is non-oscillating). But they will obtain a floor-standing 400mm-diameter chrome fan to order, price pounds 260.

Pifco has been making fans for more than 50 years, so had little trouble reinventing the Fifties pedestal fan for their current range: it costs pounds 44.95. The chrome and black 9in-diameter fan starts at pounds 24.99.

"The popularity of home-improvement television programmes has made people very aware of design," says Jon Martin, Pifco's brand manager. "People want each room to look co-ordinated."

For cheap and cheerful, Pifco's new range of Jelly Fans are hard to beat. In four colours - tangerine, yellow, aquamarine and blue - they are fully oscillating and have a separate swivel joint allowing the head of the fan to be tilted up or down. They cost pounds 14.99 and come with a three-year guarantee.

Availability and stockists: Equinox, 0870 600 44 33; John Lewis (Oxford Street), 0171-828 1000; Purves and Purves, 0171-580 8223; Conran Shop, 0171-589 7401; Pifco, 0161 947 3170.