Article by Pernilla Algede / October 2023

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At the latest trend seminar for fashion and design professionals, the reflections on where our communal minds are heading were even more obvious. The last couple of years global situations of pandemic, wars and rapid development of artificial intelligence drives us all in a very clear direction. 

We need more softness, more human connections and the presence of nature. Slow down, focus inwards and embrace kindness. Sounds nice and sound, yes. But at the same time, the beauty market is sky rocketing, luxury brands loose no grounds and we spend more and more on the too-cheap-to-be-true products express delivered from China. The need for self reflection is only displayed as a shallow short-story-about-my-new-me, now told by the masses, preferably with a few crystals in my hand and a coffea table book on mindfulness 2.0. We subscribe to natural sounds and spiritualist individuals, our playlists are full of brown noise. Instead of actually stepping out in the nearest forest. Enjoying quality time with our close ones. Having real conversations without capturing the fun in an instagram post. We spend way more than we can afford on make up and beauty products, only to achieve ’the new natural look’. Ageing in style is trendy, but only if the wrinkles are right and the hair has the right tone of gray. A great night out is a night that in all its photographed story glory receive most likes. And luxury goods are even more sought after, bought, rented or promoted.

 

I conclude that pretty much anything can be sold, as long as it is well packaged. Next up; branded forests? Exclusive air? Subscriptions on luxury human relationships? ;-)