Alessi kitchenware has certainly stood the test of time but what about a Frank Schreiner Stiletto lounge chair, the one based on a shopping cart?

Perhaps the most challenging of all '80s design is the style that comes under the name Memphis. Produced by a group of designers in Milan - the name apparently comes from the 1966 Bob Dylan song Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, which happened to be playing when they had their first meeting - Memphis was the style sensation of the early '80s.

The spiritual leader of the group was Ettore Sottsass, a veteran who had designed the Elea 9003 computer in 1958. Younger designers such as Michele De Lucchi, Nathalie du Pasquier and George Sowden were also involved, while several others were aligned with Memphis by choice or otherwise. The movement was widely copied, especially in Japan.

Memphis emerged with a bang in 1981 and had a brief but spectacular life before being dismissed by consumers as too impractical for everyday living. Some items were imported here by Artes Studio and I can dimly recall a few homes - particularly warehouse apartments - being given the full Memphis makeover, complete with obligatory blue neon lighting. It was a challenge to spend more than an hour in these environments.

It's said that Esprit fashion stores in some Australian cities were also given the Memphis treatment but that experiment was also brief. Today, the most lasting memory of Memphis is that it was featured in Miami Vice.

The resurgence of Memphis on the secondary market is yet to happen but it is considered a very important movement by design historians.

The work features prominently in the book 80s Style (Thames and Hudson, 1990) by Karl Michael Armer and Albrecht Bangert. The foreword is written by Ettore Sottsass in the form of an open letter to all future designers. Few must have read it because his philosophy has been largely ignored since.

As well as furniture, Memphis design also produced glassware, lighting, ceramics, rugs and textiles. Nathalie du Pasquier produced some spectacular carpets for Palmisano Edizioni Tessili and a range of silk fabric for Esprit USA, which deserves to be collected if not actually used in your home. Subtlety was never a Memphis trademark. In 1988, Sottsass designed a wonderful telephone for Enorme of Italy - it is rightly regarded as a design classic.

Eighties design is a relatively undiscovered market and includes once-commonplace items such as the Sony Walkman and Swatch watches. These are readily available in op shops or were a few years ago. Their current absence from the junk shelf probably means they are being collected seriously.

Memphis could also be the hot new collectable - this has been predicted for the past 10 years - and the current Shapiro selling exhibition of Greg Fernley's collection from Brisbane (see box) could provide a litmus test. Fernley says the prices are roughly equivalent to the sums he paid in the '80s. Memphis was never cheap, especially when the items had to be imported. Few Australian retailers bothered stocking genuine Memphis - Artes Studios was one of the exceptions.

At the Shapiro selling exhibition, the Beverly sideboard (one of three pieces not supplied by Fernley) is the most expensive single item, valued at $18,000. Not cheap but not expensive either for what is considered by many as a 20th-century design icon.

My collection

Now retired, Greg Fernley was a Brisbane high-school art teacher who began collecting Memphis design in the 1980s, when it was first produced.

"It was like a revelation," he says of the then brave new style.

Fernley had previously collected art deco. He became aware of Memphis through design magazines but, as he says, not much Memphis was being imported to Brisbane in the Bjelke-Petersen era.

His first purchase was the Diva mirror by Ettore Sottsass. Since then he has acquired more than 70 pieces, some imported at great expense. His is the largest collection of Memphis in Australia, according to auctioneer Andrew Shapiro.

Fernley can neither confirm nor deny the claim because he's never met another Australian collector. "It's been a very solitary pursuit," he says.

In his retirement Fernley is selling just about everything except for some practical kitchenware and admits it will be quite a relief to pass it on to other collectors.

"No, I'm not collecting anything new. No more collecting for me."

$1800

The Tahiti table lamp was one of the first examples of Memphis design, manufactured in 1981.

$4500

The 1985 Memphis ivory pedestal features the mix of contrasting patterns that became a symbol of the design style.

$18,500

This Beverly Sideboard by Ettore Sottsass was featured at the 2002 Memphis Retrospective at the Design Museum in London. Note the blue light, a Memphis trademark.