Design Delirium

I can’t remember what made the penny drop. It may have been the clip-clopping of high heels against tiles. Or the unnaturally sweet smell in the air. Or the bin next to the lavatory. But I recall all too well the moment I realised that I’d inadvertently run into the Ladies.

There were several layers to the horror: the blind panic of wondering how to escape without being spotted or arrested; low-level resentment at how much cleaner women’s loos are than the Gents; dismay at the number of “ladies” who could be heard entering and leaving without washing their hands.

And on escaping without being spotted, flitting out faster than Dwayne Chambers during his drugs period, I dealt with the mortification by pretending it hadn’t happened. But it all came back last week when a visit to the bar in question made me realise that it hadn’t been my fault. And it hadn’t been my fault because it turns out the loo doors weren’t marked with conventional “Men” and “Women” signs, but with entirely indecipherable brass plaques, featuring faint, seemingly androgynous, figures.

A Google search reveals that it’s a trend: traditional toilet signs everywhere are being replaced by word pairings such as, “señor” and “señora”, “blokes” and “sheilas”, “buoys” and “gulls”, “wahine” and “kane” and picture pairings such as Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit, Homer Simpson and Marge Simpson, Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor…

Read atTimes Online