Yes, the Filofax aka personal organiser.
For those who don't know, A Filofax is principally a diary. What started as a useful 'tool' for many executives, became one of the 'must have' lifestyle accessories for the 'yuppie'* of the late 1980's. This was more than a diary. It could contain everything about you and your life. This made it something you definitely did not want to lose.
* a fashionable young middle-class person with a well-paid job."stereotypical 1980s yuppies obsessed with material objects and financial success"
It became a status symbol and the bigger it was the better. The problem was it was too large and heavy to fit in your pocket. Like a small filing cabinet the size of a house brick.
It's appeal was that it used a 6 ring-binder system for holding diary pages and a variety of other accessories. This meant you could retain the nice leather/faux leather case and simply replace the diary pages each year. In some ways it was another kind of paper gadget. Something which appeals to many men of course.
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| Filofax press advert 1986 |
My first Filofax was actually my Father's old one which he gave me in 1984. I believe my Father may have purchased it in 1979 from the Heffers store in Cambridge, UK. This Filofax was known as the E199. It had 6 half inch (13mm) rings which could hold about 120 pages. Mine was black and made from fine quality leather calf. The only thing which I found rather inconvenient was that it was designed to hold a slim pencil and none of the pens I used at the time would fit inside the holder.
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| Cambridge Daily News - Thursday 22 October 1987 |
I used my trusty E199 Filofax every day from 1984 until I upgraded to a larger ring 'Personal Kent' in 2000. I wasn't planning to change my Filofax but by chance I spotted a new 'Personal Kent' in John Lewis reduced by half price. By this time the 'tether' with press stud for closing the E199 Filofax had become detached and I was using an elastic band to hold it closed. Possibly a result of trying to cram too much inside it.
I liked the larger one because it could hold the Filofax 'week on two pages' diaries. I could only fit the week on a page in my E199. I always thought the 'faux leather' on my new 'Kent' was actually quite good and even thought it was real leather for a while, partly because it was so expensive. I continued using this Filofax up to 2014, when I finally got my first smartphone (iPhone 4s). My iPhone did everything the Filofax could do and more so I retired my Kent Filofax.
My older E199 Filofax was stored in an attic for about 10 years until I recently re-discovered it. It was mostly still in great condition. It did have the remains of a rubber elastic band bonded to the outside cover which I had to carefully remove. There was also a rather unpleasant smell of mildew which I've been attempting to remove using baking soda and lots of airing. Fortunately, I found the detached 'tether' and press stud inside the Filofax.
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| My trusty Filofax E199 used from 1984-2000 |
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| A little worn on the outside |
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| Still looking good on the inside |
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| Stamped with the original pre-1980's company name, Norman & Hill Ltd |
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| The original insert which came with the Filofax when new c.1979 |
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| Filofax stockist Heffers (Cambridge) advert 1986 |
It wasn't until 1986 before the Filofax started to get noticed.
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| Reading Evening Post - Friday 28 November 1986 |
I still hold an affection for this product and pleased that I kept both my Filofaxes. It's often that case that as soon as something has been superseded by something better, it's consigned to the bin or charity shop. This was certainly the case with my vinyl records and VHS cassettes. A house move prompted a huge clear out. In that case it certainly wasn't to the bin but car boot sale. I simply didn't have the time or inclination to try and sell them online. I would have loved to have kept many of these redundant items but the reality is they take up too much space! They become something of a niche market for collectors.
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| My 'Personal Kent' Filofax purchased in 2000 and used until 2014 |
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| Still containing the last diary pages I used in 2014 |
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| Nice attention to detail - even the press stud fastener reads "Filofax" |
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| The original box design for the ’Personal Kent’ model Filofax |
The Kent came pre-filled with a week on two pages diary, dividers, address pages and ruler.
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| Irish advert for the Kent edition Filofax 2004 |
Whilst the E199 was just about slim enough to fit inside my suite’s outside pocket, the Kent certainly was not. This meant the Kent had to be carried by hand or inside my briefcase (later inside my laptop bag). I found myself with an increasing amount of extra pages and wallets for business cards, maps and even a ruler, all of which the Kent could easily accommodate.
The popularity of the Filofax spurned a huge number of imitations but the original 'Filofax' brand was always considered the one to have. It wasn't cheap either, which enhanced its desirability. Even the inserts were quite expensive and occasionally I did buy non original extras, although I always bought the Filofax diary pages. I didn't realise at the time how vast the product range was for Filofax. I'm not sure expanding the range so much was a good thing with new versions with their own names coming every year. I would have thought it made more sense to focus on a core of 'classic' products. Perhaps they were trying too hard to compete with the cheap alternatives which had flooded the market.
Demand for the Filofax peaked at the end of the 1980's and popularity continued into the 1990's before sales crashed upon arrival of the new smartphones.
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| Evening Herald (Dublin) - Tuesday 16 January 2001 |
