From Revival to Remix to Belonging
Corporate jargon gave us “moving forward.” Let’s reclaim it. Each edition breaks down three curious shifts: what’s happening, why it matters, and what future-thinking brand leaders can do next. So what will you do…moving forward?
Burberry SS26 via Vogue Runway
The Comeback Brits
Looks like LFW’s back on the menu, boys!
With Laura Weir setting a new direction at the British Fashion Council, Fashion East’s 25th anniversary, and shows buzzing with optimism, London is finally back, baby.
Add in this season’s Barbour dupes dominating fast fashion brands, Oasis on tour, Burberry’s festival campaign earlier this year and the revival of TOPSHOP/TOPMAN, and we’re not just talking Cool Britannia nostalgia - we’re seeing the early stages of a key moment for Britishness-as-export.
Backstage at Erdem SS26 by Acielle/Styledumonde
Why it matters: Looking beyond the fashion for a hot second, it’s early proof that overlooked players, cities, or brands can redirect cultural momentum when they really lean into what makes them distinctive. Revival is not passive, but intentional. Reframe accordingly.
Moving forward: Don’t dismiss the “overlooked” as irrelevant. Watch London closely as a case study in revival. Where in your industry could you reignite something dormant, redirect attention, and turn overlooked value into cultural capital?
The Kids are in Flux
Pacsun recently released their Youth Report and painted a picture of Gen Z and Gen Alpha as identity-builders: prioritising mental health, aspiring to creator as career pathway, and shaping culture through music and nostalgia. Cool, right?
BUT…TheAkin’s fantastically rich Quarantine Cohort research expands this simplistic narrative. Because for the first time in recent memory, young people are no longer the ones creating trends. They’re following them, remixing them, and participating in cultures often set by older cohorts, celebrities, or digital tastemakers.
Why it matters: If younger generations are no longer the incubator cohort as cultural architects, then intergenerational flows of influence become considerably more important. Nostalgia isn’t just one generation eternally fetishising the 90s and Y2K, it’s older aesthetics looping back in and gaining that blue tick of youth validation. Culture is no longer top-down or bottom-up; it’s networked.
Moving forward: Stop thinking in generational silos. Remove ‘Gen-Z/Alpha’ from that target audience on your brief. Where are the intergenerational points of exchange — parents influencing kids, kids reviving their parents’ style, older creators shaping youth aesthetics? Brands must design strategies that connect across cohorts, not just chase the current “Generation18-25”.
Big Social to Small Circles
Tom Novak nailed it: social feeds have become “algorithmic sludge.” Taken from James Sullivan’s The Last Days of Social Media article were he outlines how engagement rates are collapsing as platforms optimise for extraction and AI-integration, not y’know…connection and human creativity. But there’s a counter-movement obvs. It may not come as a shock to you that its smaller, slower, intentional spaces - from Reddit threads and Discord servers to Substack chats and Pinterest’s wellbeing nudges to paywalled micro-networks.
I absolutely loved this one-liner from Seth Werkheiser’s Social Media Interactions in Decline this week: “This is why we need to get back to talking. Being actual humans.”
Why it matters: We’re entering a time of belonging over scale. The past decades have been chasing the high of more, more, more - and with a relative lack of intimacy, a sense of popularity at arms length - but the tides are starting to turn and what’s important in the future won’t be reach and scale, but trust and real connection.
Moving forward: Really invest in your local community. Forget chasing mass reach; experiment with curated spaces where trust and intimacy matter more than impressions. Small circles = big connections.
The revival of LFW, misunderstood remixing youth cohorts, and the shift to small socials aren’t isolated blips - they’re signals of a deeper shift in how brands and audiences connect.
If you’re curious about where this leads - and how to turn these cultural signals into strategy - that’s where my deeper dives begin. Explore more via Curious Strategy over on Substack, or get in touch to talk about applying these shifts to your brand.