A new year brings new beginnings. For Styles Desk, it also comes with an old hobby: predicting the fashion and lifestyle trends that may emerge in the coming months.
Last January, when we were reflecting on what the year 2023 would bring, some of our thoughts turned out to be quite prescient. Giant Lies (hello, George Santos); fake fashion items (hello, superfake bags); and an appreciation for “regular and degular” people (hello, TikTok workers), to name three.
Others did not come to fruition. Butter pots never took off; They didn’t pet rats either.
The challenge with seeing the future is that you can’t. As much as yesterday’s trends may provide clues to tomorrow’s trends, there will always be things that come out of nowhere.
Our predictions for 2024 contain well-founded hypotheses and others that may seem improbable. But the great thing about January 1 is that it’s a day when almost anything can seem possible. — Anthony Rotunno, Fashion News Editor, Styles
Music, fashion, film, higher education: they were all heavily influenced by Taylor Swift in 2023. Her relationship with Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs also put the spotlight on football and put an athlete next to one of the most popular players of the world. bachelorette parties, turning many people indifferent to the NFL into armchair fans. Will that enthusiasm, along with interest in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, set the stage for a renaissance of athletes? — Wilson Wong, Resident Editor, Book Review
Everything is rising rosettes
We reached the top last year. Now the rosettes are on the rise. They’re showing up more in items by Sandy Liang, the designer whose youthful aesthetic made buns so prevalent. The red rosette is being promoted as a lapel accessory and whimsical choker by fashion blogger Leandra Medine Cohen. And Rosette, a new clothing brand from New York, is all about the soft rose-shaped design. — Marie Solis, Styles editor
Aging outside of social networks
Generation through text messages. They will start to abandon social media and recommit to being charming, witty, and interesting in real life with real people in real spaces. — Melissa Kirsch, Associate Editor, Culture & Lifestyle
Fancy glassware casts a stigma
Not even glasses have been immune to discussions about gender identity. But a bartender-led initiative is underway to abandon outdated ideas about the cocktail glass genre. Could it mean that men who have had a death grip on their rocks glass since college will start opting for the refined Nick-y-Nora glass more often? A Nick-and-Nora communicates a sense of occasion: It’s narrower than a coupe, wider than a flute, and has a striking silhouette (think an upturned hood) that can make everyone feel like the beauty in the bar. . — Louis Lucero II, senior editor at Styles
Smart watches enter primary schools
Many parents continue to resist introducing smartphones at a young age, and rightly so. But more people seem open to purchasing smartwatches after companies like Apple made it easier to control children’s accounts. Expect to see more devices on the wrists of elementary schools and more school districts trying to adapt to a world where children play games, watch games, and send confusing audio messages. Some have already banned the devices in classrooms. — Farah Miller, Strategy and Operations Associate, Culture and Lifestyle
Themed attire becomes a red carpet staple
Hollywood never had a good idea that it didn’t want to make a sequel to, or 15. “Barbie’s” strategic red carpet rollout has already inspired themed outfits at premieres and stills for movies like “Wonka” (so many shades of purple). and “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” With movies like “Dune: Part Two” and the “Mean Girls” remake coming out this year, imagine the possibilities. — Vanessa Friedman, Fashion Director, Styles
Grand Theft Auto VI Hype becomes unavoidable
The next installment in the ultra-violent Grand Theft Auto franchise isn’t due out until 2025. But a trailer released last month received more than 128 million views and has sparked heated debates about whether the trailer’s high-fidelity graphics will truly be representative of the game. How to Play (Fans have also noted that GTA VI, which is set in Miami, evokes images of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, its 21-year-old predecessor heavily inspired by South Florida.) Buckle up for a lot more talk now as thirsty gamers “Get your attention. — Mike Isaac, Technology Reporter, Business
Less virtuous drinks
Low and no alcohol drinks are now a common fixture in restaurants, bars and even clubs. However, focusing on virtuous drinking may be inviting new vices: hard sodas, for example, or high-caffeine lemonades. It’s been almost 15 years since the company behind Four Loko stopped producing this caffeinated alcoholic beverage. Would it be so surprising if that anniversary were used to launch a comeback? — Dani Blum, reporter, Good
Butterfly kisses are reconsidered
The explosion of online childhood over the past year (girls’ dinners, girls’ math) was, in some ways, due to the culture-shaking, market-moving effects that can come from forces often considered modest. Could you give new relevance to the butterfly kiss, another little nonsense with surprising potential? The butterfly effect tells us that seemingly small events can have colossal and unpredictable effects in distant places and at distant times. Who knows what butterfly effects a year of fluttering your eyelashes might produce. — Emma Goldberg, Reporter, Business
Manicures for children.
ASAP Rocky appeared in a new Bottega Veneta ad with decorated nails. Drake had his painted a neutral color in a recent Nike campaign. And in recent years, Harry Styles, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Yachty and Tyler, the Creator have launched nail polish lines. Men, famous and not, have been painting their nails for centuries. But the practice’s recent ubiquity suggests that men’s manicures are about to have a bigger cultural moment. — Christy Harmon, Photo Editor, Styles
Chocolate Lava Bubbles
Molten chocolate cake, or chocolate lava cake, has been harder, but not impossible, to come by since it appeared on restaurant menus in the 1990s and 2000s. But in a presidential election year, when Some will be driven to seek solace and others to hedonism, few desserts seem more ripe for a comeback than this classic, warm, chocolatey and indulgent sweet. — Anna Kodé, reporter, Real Estate
The tide turns for Generation Z
While members of Generation Z basked in the glow of youth, they were also telling older generations that everything they do is shameful. (Two words: OK, Boomer.) That attitude may catch up with them now that Generation Alpha, a younger cohort, has arrived on the Internet. The new kids are already making fun of the terms adopted by Generation Z: “It’s not even funny how bad ‘kill’ is,” said one member of Generation Alpha on TikTok. Some members of older generations are ready to be skewered. “Seeing Generation Alpha come in place of Generation Z will be the highlight of my Millennial life,” one commenter responded. — Callie Holtermann, reporter, Styles
