Future Friends, London
Last week I spoke at the Future Friends breakfast meet up here in London. Future Friends is a global community dedicated to helping its members learn more about futures and how to create them. They host events all over the world with the remit of bringing together forecasters from various industries to talk through three trends, in three slides, in three minutes. The 333 format is excellent, as it’s succinct and snappy and enables lots of interesting people to speak on a variety of subjects.
Many years ago (2009 to be precise) when I worked at WGSN, I attended a PechaKucha. Under the arches in deepest London Bridge, a variety of artists and creatives presented 20 images, each auto-advancing after 20 seconds. It was non-stop and they had 400 seconds to tell their story.
I was fascinated and went back to WGSN full of inspiration, suggesting that we could use a version of this format for our macro trends meetings, when our correspondents from all over the world came together at the beginning of each new season to share inspiration. Talking recently to a WGSN employee, it seems that they still use this format and I have adopted it ever since in various roles and the trend workshops we do with clients.
Over it now – Brat Girl Summer
I chose to talk about age in my 3/3/3 presentation, not because I was almost definitely the oldest person in the room (I’m used to that) but because I feel like it’s fast becoming one of the most divisive subjects in society – and brands don’t quite know what to do about it.
Gen Z hate millennials apparently and have more in common with boomers. Boomers wrecked the economy for millennials. And Gen Alpha are coming for us all and will see us as old and irrelevant.
James Bond does Grandpacore
Brands are obsessed with Gen Z and struggle to keep up with the numerous labels they apparently love. Brat girl summer, hot rodent men, mob wife and all the other cores, we have even seen luxury fashion brands jump on this bandwagon. Loewe recently turned Daniel Craig into their version of Grandpa core – or some might say a wannabe Richard Madeley (only UK readers will understand this) having a mid-life crisis. With Loewe leather jackets ranging from £3000 to £4000 and plain tank tops starting at around £500, acquiring the Autumn/Winter version of ‘James Bond wears the ugly jumper’ trend will require more than a visit to Oxfam.
Not only are Gen Z worried about climate change, confused about gender roles – trad wives, toxic masculinity etc etc – living sad, lonely, childhoods online, and using over consumption as a way to self soothe. They’re also shopping at Shein, obsessed with celebrity and appearing on Love Island looking much older than they actually are, due to cosmetic procedures.
Dove, #TheFaceof10
It seems even 10 year olds are obsessed with age. Uk beauty brand, Dove launched its campaign #TheFaceof10 on TikTok offering parents advice from skin care experts and doctors on how to protect young girls’ self-esteem, and encouraging 10 year olds to cover their faces in glitter, stickers and a big smile, not harsh anti-ageing ingredients.
Is age the thing that defines consumer groups and is it helpful to put them all into neat little boxes in order to understand their behaviour? Or are we playing into stereotypes and halting progress by making assumptions?
I’m a boomer who loves TikTok like Gen Z, consumes popular culture like a Millennial and is lucky enough to enjoy the benefits of being a Boomer. I hate labels and am from a generation who did everything they could to escape them.
Maybe us forecasters need encourage the brands we work with to think beyond age and investigate the space in between defined demographics, reject the overwhelming focus on age and tap into the opportunities that arise when labels and stereotypes don’t get in the way.
USP Middlescent Mood Board
In our one of our A/W 25/26 Future Consumer reports, we focused on the term Middlescent, which, although its usually associated with the middle-aged, can also work for other groups of consumers who find themselves on the edges, or in the middle of age defined stereotypes. Maybe that’s how we should be thinking – about the bits in the middle.
Bio hacking or bullshit? Bryan Johnson collects his son’s blood to make him look younger
Another focus in our A/W 25/26 Future Consumer report, was how technology promises to help us live forever.
Tech billionaire Bryan Johnson has devoted his entire adult life to anti-aging after selling his tech company to PayPal and spending a fortune on trying to become the same age as his son – using the world’s first multigenerational plasma exchange – oh and he’s also had cosmetic surgery.
The digital global health market is expected to exceed $650 billion by 2025, with health monitoring devices and new wearable tech tapping into our desire to observe and control our bodies. Meanwhile, the future of luxury wellness looks set to focus on longevity hubs and a high tech medical approach to health.
Bio hacking or bullshit you decide, but there is one last very real age concern that still hasn’t been addressed.
How to have a good death is still very much a taboo subject and one that every generation will face at some point. Virtual graveyards, Griefbots, Cryonics and even digitising our brains may be ways to make us live forever – for the privileged – but perhaps providing ways to have a humane, dignified ending is the healthier future of aging.
Future Friends, New York
Future Friends are hosting a 3/3/3 event in New York this September (save the date: 19th Sept), Julienne DeVita and Lore Oxford are hosting an intimate, members-only catch-up on the 25th July to bring the NYC community together ahead of the big round-up. So if you are in New York and interested, it’s worth getting involved.
Coming soon, Future Colour
And in the UK (and hopefully globally in the future) we are excited to announce that we are forming a colour group along the same lines as the PechaKucha, 3/3/3 format. Future Colour will bring together creatives and forecasters who are interested in colour and how it affects fashion, design, technology, interiors, architecture etc etc. Our aim is to create collaborative events and share inspiration. We hope to host our first meet up in September.
More news to follow, in the meantime, wishing you an inspirational August.
