š£ TREND RADAR #17 :: HUMAN DRIVERS
Sensory Summer & The Nocturnal Otherworld
Welcome [back] to Trend Radar! So begins another cycle of scanning and mapping cultural signals across the framework. Weāll start with the Human drivers space, which includes three macrotrends: Analog Soul, Spiritual Healing, and Hyper Pleasure. Below, Iāll recap some of whatās been tracked in the database since we last reviewed this space a few months ago. Since itās been a while, thereās quite a lot to discuss ā sit back, relax, and open this in your browser or app for a better reading experience.
For an overview of the Macrotrend Framework, read this post or watch the webinar:
Analog Soul
Pinterest is going all-in on āanalog,ā with their Coachella activation and recent campaign: āThe best thing you can find online is a reason to go offlineā. The video is lovely, but it doesnāt really capture that online-to-offline journey. Andrew Roth noted on Linkedin: āPinterest makes money from our attentionā¦.nothing about the product helps people connect.ā Less cynically, I understand what they are trying to do ā Pinterest does inspire crafting, cooking, decor, etc. ā but I donāt think the storytelling around this āanalogā insight is being executed effectively so far. What do pre-internet-era employee home videos have to do with using Pinterest? Comparatively, the recent Cosmos campaign is much more effective. Maybe Iām biased, as a Cosmos user. All that said, Pinterestās press release includes another video and OOH that both seem a bit better.
That same Pinterest video wouldāve probably been a better fit for Eventbrite, which reported that, in Q1 of 2026, phone-free experiences reached over a third of last yearās global event volume. Their prior analysis for 2024-2025 showed that phone-free events had grown +567% globally, with the most drastic jumps in attendance in the UK (+1441%) and US (+913%). The Q1 numbers suggest this trend has not peaked and is continuing to gain momentum.
Business of Fashion covered the āsmall but growing number of fashion retailersā eschewing e-commerce because itās āinherently unsexy.ā
Emily Sundberg discussed āThe Great Slowdownā in response to content overload, as recently coined by Dirt Mediaās Daisy Alioto.
Intellectual influencers continue: Vogue Business and The Wall Street Journal both reported on growing brand interest in āalternatively influentialā creators. As a recent example, both Emily and Ochuko Akpovbovbo wrote about being invited to Anthropicās first āClaude Supper Clubā at A24-owned Cherry Lane Theater: āa series of intimate dinners for creatives, writers, and builders who believe the most interesting work starts with good thinking and good company.ā
Letter-writing continues: Business Insider published a piece on subscription-based āsnail mail clubs,ā and Michael J. Miraflor wrote about it too, with a takeaway for brands: ādesign one touchpoint that exists purely off-screen ā a printed zine, a hand-addressed envelope, a tactile keepsake ā and trust it will travel back online. The most viral content is the kind you can't scroll past. Pull 5ā10% of budget from your most over-saturated digital surface and put it into one physical surprise-and-delight delivery.ā However: I told Mejuri to do exactly this over a year ago, but by the time the idea made it through to execution it ended up as a boring AF direct mail postcard, soā¦donāt do that. Nobody wants junk mail. Make it cute.
Gen Z is apparently also āreviving DVDs and Blu-rays, with video rental shops reporting record months.ā Would be funny if Netflix took note of Spotify & Amazon below and went full-circle back to DVDs in the mail.
Books continue: Coachās latest campaign, Explore Your Story, revolves around them. Lisa Says Gah collaborated with Seen Library, and Vogue reported on bookshop-branded merch. Jack Harlow partnered with McNally Jackson to give out free books (to which the only appropriate response is, āYou can read?ā). Some book clubs are expanding into bookstore crawls and silent reading parties and reading retreats. Digital reading platforms are also adapting to the analog demand: Spotify is partnering with Bookshop to sell physical books, and introducing a new āPage Matchā feature for users to sync their physical and digital reading experiences (Iām enthused to learn that Iām not alone in this behavior). Amazonās Audible launched a Story House, a bookless bookstore concept and community event space (overlaps with Collective Kinship).
Aspirational Humanity continues: Maison Margiela opened work-in-progress archives to the public, and unveiled a FW26 collection centered on reviving threadbare 19th century tapestries with 1000 hours of hand-embroidering. Paper Magazineās painterly editorial cover starring Ayo Edibri went viral, and Gabriella Karefa-Johnson wrote about the āthe return to expressive image-making.ā Apple took us into the behind-the-scenes process of developing the Macbook Neo.
Kyle Chaykaās most recent column for The New Yorker explores how, āAs slick, machine-generated visuals become ubiquitous, artists and designers are embracing a style of handmade imperfection.ā This is Aspirational Humanity. Chayka also mentions how some AI companies, like Granola, are leveraging those same semiotic markers of humanness, and how AI can, upon prompting, replicate imperfect aesthetics. This is Humanwashing. Iām most interested in the ongoing reorganization of cultural products around a Hierarchy of Humanness.
Humanwashing inevitably gives rise to ātasteslop,ā as defined by NEMESIS
And a rejection of tasteslop: I shared some thoughts with Sydney Gore for her piece on recent interiors-related Tiktok microtrends: āBoth the ājavaā and ātuscan momā aestheticsā¦attempt to reclaim ācringeā design elements that may have been previously dismissed as ābad taste.ā This reveals a core tension people are feeling right now. Only a human can have ābad taste.āā Expect more of this.
Casey Lewis suggests that the recent revival of rock music is tied to its āvery human and imperfect natureā¦particularly at a time when autotuned pop singers have taken over the radio and AI slop is infiltrating feeds.ā I agree, although I think there is also a darker / more rebellious aspect that relates to Subversive Sincerity (will get to that in the next Social Radar). For now, the best signal that fits here aesthetically is Olivia Rodrigoās āDrop Deadā music video, filmed by Petra Collins. Which I love, obviouslyā¦
drop dead Ā» my senior year collection from college š„¹ I avoided most Met Gala content (another topic for next time), but adored Francesco Rissoās design for Paloma Elesser, composed of 30 vintage dresses sourced from eBay.
From the Milan Design Week Report: The Reference Library by Jil Sander & Apartamento & Material Anthology by Faye Toogood & Tacchini
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Spiritual Healing
JƱÄna is an app, founded by Mehr Singh, that offers pre-recorded classes in mind, body, and health informed by Indic philosophies and practices. Itās built and run by an entirely Indian team and taught by the countryās leading yoga, meditation, Buddhist, and philosophical teachers. Singh explains, āI realised the gap wasnāt just in representation, but in how these traditions are reinterpreted and shared todayā¦the wellness industry didnāt just dilute these practices, it stripped them of meaning.ā JƱÄna brings ācontext, depth, and cultural honesty back to practices flattened into self-optimisation hacks, content, and aesthetics.ā Finally. Iām obsessed. Clear overlaps with Collective Kinship here, as well.
The Nocturnal Otherworld is a new report that explores the intersection of nightlife and wellness. Alexi Gunner investigates the fringes, beyond the superficial (and arguably soul-crushing) āsoft partyingā and ācoffee raveā reports weāve been seeing in mainstream media, and uncovers āa new frontier where emotional transformation and a sense of unbridled escapism can be achieved without relying on the alcohol and stimulant-fuelled late-night excess of ātraditionalā partying.ā Examples include DJ and producer Eris Drewās Mystery of the Motherbeat parties, and āthe rise of ambient clubs, such as Kwia in Berlin, described as a place of āquiet intensity, emotional openness, and deep listening,ā un/becoming in San Francisco, and Tender Place in Melbourne.ā Iād add to this list: one of my personal favorite spaces is Shiloh, a late night teahouse in LA.
A music festival in Berlin integrated decompression as part of the experience: āBeds, hammocks, and rest areas are distributed throughout the industrial monument; sleep is not the enemy of listening here, but its conditionā¦Lois PatiƱo and Xabier Erkizia guide a recumbent audience through a two-hour collective dream; Romeo Castellucci and Scott Gibbons stage ritual actions at midnight and midday.ā
People are using astrocartography to inform their travel planning, and according to The Harris Poll, ā4 in 10 young Americans are consulting witches for major financial decisions. Magical thinking is a rational response to a broken system.ā
Musician Lyra Pramuk spoke to Another Magazine about how mysticism and astrology influences her work.
Rosaliaās Lux tour is inspiring fans to emulate the albumās aesthetic with āquasi-religiousā street style looks, including lots of monochromatic shades of white, rosaries, crucifixes, and lace scarves.
We continue to see reports of a supposed āreligious revivalā among Gen Z, now with specific focus on Catholicism. We also continue to see rebuttals pointing out that the data says otherwise. I wrote an essay about this tension last year. But itās not stopping brands from hawking ābiblical protein barsā and āChristian energy drinks,ā as reported by Snaxshot.
From the Milan Design Week Report: La Casa Magica by Nilufar & Valentina Ciuffi and Leo Lague & Versa for Alcova. Also relevant: Designboomās Room for Dreams activation brought to life āa series of dreamstatesā by combining āspatial installations, conversations and screenings to explore dreaming as a deliberate form of social and cultural transformation.ā
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Hyper Pleasure
NeeDohs have dethroned Labubus as the latest craze, with the squishy āsensory toysā selling out everywhere. Funny that these toys feel aligned with this luxury modular furniture system called āAmoreba,ā with āupholstered balls that can be combined in a wide range of configurations, using custom-designed software to model three-dimensional surfaces. The systemās organic forms and squishy texture reference the microscopic bumps of a mushroom colony.ā
Jelly-textured beauty products are āno longer positioned as gimmicks, but as functional hybrids that deliver real benefits ā portability, buildable payoff, sensorial pleasure and visual glow.ā Logically, this intersects with a big jelly moment in food & beverage as well.
Claireās is capitalizing on this whole situation with their clever āA Girl SMRā campaign and āSummer Sensory Shopā targeting Gen Alpha.
So is Miu Miu, with an unboxing campaign for their new fragrance āFleur De Lait.ā
Dazed proposes āfun-maxxing,ā and The Beginning suggests ājoy-maxxingā as a countercultural push against optimization culture: āIf optimisation cultureās goal is to physically extend your life, then, Joy-Maxxingās counter-cultural push is to feel aliveā¦.Offer an emotional release. Make people feel it. Communicate human intimacy through photography and expressive gesturesā¦.Use language that connects escapism to presence. Build a world that is visceralā¦donāt just sell results.ā This POV aligns with my 2026 Key Theme - Sensorial Potency, which I wrote about at the start of the year. I do prefer my theme name because Iām sick of -maxxing, I donāt think āfunā and ājoyā really capture the concept, and I agree with Nikita Waliaā¦
Related to the optimization vs pleasure tension, there continues to be much debate about whether or not Gen Z is having sex. A photo series by Andrea Marti called āEveryone is Beautiful and No one is Hornyā tackles the topic visually, while i-D published an investigative report asking, āIs Gen Z Fucking?ā šµš½āāļø Meanwhile, Iāve seen articles about smutty book clubs, wearable sex toys, and sex clubs full of twentysomethings.
Phoebe Philo is advertising in Erotic Review, and itās very sensual chic.
Spotifyās OOH campaign promoting ad-free music listening leverages āhighly sensory visual language, using extreme close-ups of skin, tears, and goosebumps to represent the physical impact of listening when the user is fully immersed.ā
From the Milan Design Week Report: Renaissance of the Real by USM & SnĆøhetta