Margaret Howell uses sumptuous images from The Council of Industrial Design for her 2019 calendar

If the right balls tumbled out of Lancelot tomorrow night, the first thing we’d do — after spending an hour or two trying to compose a text to friends and family explaining that, like Robbie Williams back 2001, we’d become rich beyond our wildest dreams — is bop down to the nearest Margaret Howell shop and spend, spend, spend on some very classy clothes. Which we would then take with us on a year-long cruise around the world.

Still, even if those big money balls don’t fall in our favour any time soon, we can feast our eyes on the forthcoming 2019 Margaret Howell calendar, which features a stash of gorgeous images plucked from The Council of Industrial Design taken from the University of Brighton Design Archives.

For those not in the know — but who are seduced by the images below, which includes some absurdly lovely pictures of tennis rackets, lampshades, and skis — the scheme, which later became the slightly more streamlined Design Council, was founded in 1944 and offered a series of courses for perspective designers, along with what the Margaret Howell team describe as “design appreciation seminars for educators, manufacturers and retailers.”

Margaret herself says, “This year’s calendar features a selection of images from the archives of The Council of Industrial Design. Once, on a research trip for vintage items, I came across an unexpected find – a collection of the Council’s posters. These evocative images are from another era but their message is clear and modern in outlook.” The queen of the perfectly cut trouser goes on to say that, “they recall a time when a devastated post-war Britain had to be rebuilt and it was thought important enough to promote the public awareness of design for its own sake.”

The 2019 calendar will be available to buy in store and online from mid October.

In addition to a calendar that’ll probably up the value of your flat by a few per cent, a selection of 30 images, chosen by Margaret, will be on display at her Wigmore Street shop between 13 October and 4 November.