Will the Roaring Twenties begin in 2024, like a hundred years ago? There are people who say that. At least the lifestyle is becoming more hedonistic again. Some socio-political changes have also been announced, including cannabis legalization. And supposedly it should get down to business: more fetish elements in fashion, also more revealing pieces such as crooked buttoned blouses and the Bravehearting dating trend are popular.
A selection of trends in fashion, food and drink as well as travel and love behavior:
What we wear is fashionable. Recently, even the big fashion designers have taken up the style of the street: hoodies, bomber jackets, comfortable pants and dresses – and flat shoes such as sneakers. But there will be changes. Carl Tillessen, trend analyst from the German Fashion Institute, even recognizes “a fundamental break, a completely new attitude to life.” The 1920s are taking shape, he says. After the peak of the pandemic and years that trend-conscious people sacrificed for self-optimization, people were now treating themselves to more pleasure again. There is a “here and now hedonism”.
The Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability (“L.O.H.A.S.”) has reached its end, says Tillessen. “He is the eternal later. If we chastise ourselves now – so his promise – we will have a healthy body and a healthy environment later. In the long run, however, the pressure to optimize ourselves, combined with the pressure, is the world to save, one too many.”
Fashion is therefore becoming wilder and more revealing. The frivolous returns. “Fashion is full of fetish elements,” says Tillessen. “The catwalks are populated by bad boys and bad girls. We long for self-indulgence, need outlets, want to break out, live out ourselves… And that is expressed in fashion.” For example, through “torn tights, wrongly buttoned tops, ragged clothes,” says the trend analyst. “Fashion no longer only shows us the shine, but also the shadow.”
The “jellyfish aesthetic” aims in a different direction – a gentle-looking look with a pinch of humor. According to Pinterest analysts, it can become a trend in fashion, beauty and interior design in 2024. For example, searches for the jellyfish hairstyle have increased on the creative portal – a layered haircut with extreme differences in length. And jellyfish lamps – a kind of lava lamp with mini Medusa figures instead of the usual wax bubbles. Will the jellyfish umbrella even become a trendy costume on rainy carnival days?
Travel guide brands such as “Marco Polo” or “Lonely Planet” are predictably announcing the Olympic city of Paris with its new green self-confidence or the cultural capital of Bad Ischl and the Salzkammergut in Austria as holiday tips for 2024. There’s also been a tip for years: the global trendsetter country South Korea.
If you don’t have to save money because travel has become more expensive, you will still be offered long-distance destinations. The magazine “Merian – The Art of Travel: Our 20 Favorites for 2024” recommends Las Vegas, among other places. The skyline there has always looked as if a six-year-old had played with Lego. Now a dazzling ball has fallen into the desert city: the “Sphere” entertainment hall. Inside and outside, LED screens nestle into the curve of the world’s largest spherical building. The giant ball is sometimes presented as a basketball or emoji.
A small travel trend is also blind booking (flights or a whole package trip without knowing exactly where you are going). According to the German Travel Association (DRV), you at least have a rough choice of portals – whether you prefer outdoor, party or sun.
Just a burger or a pizza is no longer enough: according to Pinterest, “fast food fusion” is popular. Favorite foods are combined into mash-ups: burger quesadillas, instant ramen noodles with carbonara sauce or pizza pot pies.
In a text about food trends, “New York Times” reporter Kim Severson had experts proclaim 2024, among other things, the “year of buckwheat” – and soup as the “dish of the year.” A warm soup can calm us down and is ideal for “finding out about the growing popularity of food from Cambodia, Singapore and Indonesia”.
Meal-flavored cocktails are also said to be popular. In New York, for example, there is already a “Caprese Martini” in one bar and a Waldorf salad-flavored cocktail in another. In Hong Kong you can order a drink that tastes like Thai beef salad. Bottom up!
Cannabis possession will be legalized in Germany on April 1st – if the Bundestag gives its approval. This also makes it possible to grow hemp at home, at least under certain circumstances. This could make hemp the trend plant of the year. What speaks against it, however, is that the plant needs a lot of light and can only be harvested outdoors in summer. Hemp needs extra plant lights in the house.
A certain psychological jargon (“This triggers me”, “This relationship is toxic”) has become a mass phenomenon. When it comes to (Internet) dating, there are now countless technical terms such as ghosting (suddenly breaking off contact), benching (date on the reserve bench), breadcrumbing (just keeping someone warm without actually dating), curving (avoiding meetings without justification), orbiting (breaking off contact, but continue likes and comments on social media) or mosting (showering someone with love, then breaking off contact).
The dating platform Parship quotes couples therapist Eric Hegmann in an “Outlook for the dating year 2024”: “I very much hope that 2024 will be the year of the positive dating trend ‘Bravehearting’: courage to be open, courage to be profound, courage for connection.”
Psychologist Linda Leinweber says taboos like mental health are being talked about more than before. People were looking for real connections where they could drop their masks. “Even against the background of the turbulent economic, social and global political situation,” it is important to find security and safety in togetherness. “We all need a ‘safe place'”.
