The 4 Macro Trends we cant ignore in 2024
Image courtesy of Spur Magazine
Thought this week
“The future doesn’t just happen to us, everybody owns the future.”
The following article was originally published in the February issue of SPUR magazine in my Tomorrow column. These are written by myself 2 months prior as my Tomorrow Column is exclusively in print and needs time, something that always encourages me to work on topics that are not hype.
2024 will propel us further into a collective future making mindset. As we shift from an era of abundance to an era of self-preservation, people, innovators, creators will explore what a better world can be. As Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind: A Hopeful History says ‘We are the product of survival of the friendliest’. Depleted resources and instability will continue a global cultural conversation around both resilience and chaos. It won’t be easy. 2024 will be a journey of urgency and optimism around what fashion should be as a force for good. The positive news is our knowledge and technologies are increasing at light speed and we have the tools to create positive change. We must unite around the will.
Regeneration in – Greenwashing out
As the earth’s resources and ecosystems become dangerously depleted, the fashion sector’s unsustainable patterns of consumption will face tightening legislations to help meet the Paris agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, as seen already in France and New York. Humans have crossed 6 of 9 planetary boundaries. In 2024, fashion fads like Barbiecore will continue. However brands and fashion influencers will increasingly be expected to communicate their climate efforts responsibly with platforms such as unitmode which use AI to expose greenwashing claims to UNEP’s Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook. The fashion sector’s cultural reach is huge and fashion brands will increasingly be expected to use it for the greater good, not hype. Fashion will also look for more circular solutions that embrace cradle to cradle systems and supply chains as well as regenerative farming, water, and soil preservation. Circular fashion is the marriage of the “circular economy” with sustainable and ethical fashion aiming to solve for the global challenge of our time: climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution.
Material Renaissance
Nature-positive alternatives to synthetic materials will continue to emerge and receive investments. We are witnessing a biomaterials revolution. Fashion brands that harness both natural and lab grown materials to create alternative material streams, restore endangered ones and revive ancient crafts will thrive. Cost issues will continue but as these materials are scaled, affordability will rise too. Climafibre by MA student Jess Redgrave, at the University of the Arts London is an ecosystem of fibre, yarn, fabric, waterproof coatings, and colours derived from sunflowers. It offers a glimpse into a fashion future where production supports soil health and biodiversity, while creating materials and finishes as a biproduct from a food agriculture crop. Lab-grown manufacturing will continue to provide new material streams with brands such as Ecco Leather, one of the world’s biggest tanneries, who recently launched a long-term partnership with mycelium producer Ecovative to scale its use in apparel and footwear.
Decentralised Fashion
While brands have traditionally been planned and designed directly by corporations, the rise of networked media has challenged the coherence of centrally managed brand identities. Headless brands comes with new blockchain-based decentralized organizations take this a step further by giving users financial incentive to spread brand narratives of their own. Think fashion brands working on a blockchain and DAO system as the new generation of shared ownership. A Metalabel, a principle set forth by Yanksy Striker co-founder of crowd sourcing platform Kickstarter, is where creative people come together to release work around their shared tastes and interests. The current fashion economy is creativity in single-player mode: every creator competing against everyone else. Metalabel is creativity in multiplayer mode: groups of people pooling skills, audiences, and resources in support of a larger creative vision. Meanwhile pioneering factories are embracing open source. [a]industri (previously known as Atacac) is a factory for physical and digital garment production based in Sweden. OSPP is their public research platform providing free a library of digital garment patterns in the hope to enable makers to variate and generate new techniques. Software company CALA which I’ve previously mentioned when exploring the future fashion factory, is giving anyone the infrastructure to become a one-person fashion house.
Multiplex Realities
In 2024 we will see an acceleration of experiences and products that are augmented both in virtual and physical worlds. Loewe’s S/S 23 collection played with our senses used using digital optical effects on the catwalk. We are already seeing this with Walmart acquired of try-on start-up Zeekit has enabled it to launch personalised capabilities across its product offer. Cryptokicks IRL was the first physical twin from Nike-owned digital design business RTFKT. NFT owners got priority access to the limited-edition physical product of a sneaker featuring auto-lacing, haptic feedback, enhanced lighting, wireless charging, and app connectivity. In the art world, Agnieszka Kurant’s Sentimentite , speculative mineral-currency of the future, was harvested as a physical sculpture by NFT ownwers. This is a teaser for a world of multiplex realities, where the virtual and physical are becoming entwined. Developments in Web3, AI and rapid virtual prototyping will open new pathways. We will more easily twin in the virtual and physical worlds. AI and AR’s rapidly advancing capabilities will also enable brands to navigate multiplex reality experiences and products. As we continue to work with AI and machines everyday with tools such as Chat GPT, and with the release of Apples’ VR set, we will see a very gradual mainstreaming of immersive fashion designs and experiences.
2024 will take us on a journey of adaptation. After successive geo-political and environmental shocks, the fashion world will be in transition. The choices we make in 2024 will help bend the long arc of history so every effort we make and millimetre choice matters. The future doesn’t just happen to us, everybody owns the future.
By Geraldine Wharry
