memorabilia fever
When you travel, do you often find yourself eager to document and collect as you go? Well, I do, and I am sure many other journaling enthusiasts, devoted scrapbookers and committed travellers do too. The whole movement towards collating seems to have reached a new fever pitch. What was once seen as kitsch is now cool again, and I for one am ecstatic to witness the comeback. It’s the eagerness to save memories, to treasure a particular moment and make it eternally represented through a miscellaneous, often completely taste-less object – and yet absolutely of that place and time.
Nowadays, everyone seems hardwired to thirstily collect, no split second too small. It explains why we have social media feeds and why we take pictures of everything, even of the sad and the embarrassing. We yearn to keep all our experiences stored carefully, whether it is in an old USB, a camcorder, an old diary or a journal. Alongside the visual and the written, there is the memorabilia, the coasters from bars or a photo strip taken in a photo booth, napkins scribbled with a tic-tac-toe match, a cork from the wine drank at a wedding, a flower found during an afternoon walk in the park.
We are a fresh generation of grandmothers, hoarding and storing as much as possible. While they would stash their butter cookie tins with needles and thread, pins and scissors, we like to grasp onto days, trips and events and savour them carefully. There is something fun about a night out that ends with a Mariachi hat as a souvenir from the local bar or a cute stuffed animal that will take you back to those Californian summer nights of cotton candy and endless rides on the ferris wheel. Those souvenirs that hold stories, those momentos that make you chuckle and blush and warm just by seeing them.
Some of us now pick up weird and wonderful Christmas ornaments to bring back home and make their mothers happy, others collect magnets from each city they've stepped foot in. Ones like me will collect random small toys, mugs and left-field jewellery from markets. Some will contribute to the revival of the “I <3 (city name)” baby-tees sensation and grab a t-shirt from their favourite “Euro-summer” location. And then there are those who would rather get their souvenirs from nature, and fill up a jar with sand or curate a selection of seashells: an arrangement of conch and clam shells, scallop and nautilus, with a sticky label of the location written in felt-tip pen.
Some travellers will collect postcards and write on the back what they thought of The Sagrada Familia, and others will collect postcards of their favourite pieces from every museum visited to then decorate a blank wall. Snow globes, stamps, key chains, coins and lighters. Even the most ordinary perfunctory object will open a time travel portal, just like the Dirham coin I recently found lingering inside my wallet. All of a sudden I’m having tea poured from above during sunset in the Medina of Marrakesh.
My mother collects maps, metro cards and museum tickets as souvenirs for her scrapbook as well as tiny mirrors with interesting frames for the entryway of our house. My sister looks for those mini glass animal figurines. There is something so satisfying to be a small-time private collector of your own choosing, what you zone in on and find purpose within. If I were loyal to my acoustic guitar I would collect guitar pics, and if I were good at poker I would collect decks of cards. To be a collector is to be a curator, to use your eye, to gather sensitively and carefully.
Many times souvenirs are also the city's symbolic trinket. Think of KLM’s classic Delft blue houses, a Maneki-Neko cat from Japan or a Caganer from Barcelona; they are the opposite of unique, but represent their culture entirely; they are staples of their designated countries and their familiarity breeds comfort.
Whether you are a classic souvenir or an esoteric and one-of-a-kind collector, it’s a hobby that is feeding an industry with an open-eyed and unjudgemental philosophy. I love the commotion, passion and commitment that has been flowing into the trend for travel memorabilia and the comeback of the souvenir. The viral sensation this category has inspired has become obsessional with its heavily romanticized hip, laid-back, retro vibe. In previous generations there would have been collectors who brought back rare antiques from every trip and then back-packers who returned from adventures with their bags filled with trinkets, posters and market finds. It will be interesting to watch if our modern world evolves again from mass to niche, but no doubt the joy of collecting as we move about the world will carry on regardless.
Lia Mongrut
Spin a globe; stop it at random. In all likelihood, wherever your finger’s landed, Lía’s probably lived there—or been there on holiday at the very least. A Literature and Society graduate from the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam and more importantly, an Editorial Assistant here at gloobles, she never stops exploring. When she’s ready to hit the road, food tends to lead. Lía’s list of must-visit restaurants is seemingly endless, as is the list of top spots she’s been to. From Marrakesh to Medellín, we’d follow her anywhere.
