#23: In/Out

let's go trendcasting!

I had actually reserved this slot for Intermezzo, but then I got so agitated and embarrassed after losing my copy of it on the bus one morning, and also my concentration dwindled, that I’m not covering it, alas. Instead, because I don’t have the Notes app on my phone, here is where I’ll do some predictions for 2025. Also, for some reason the 23rd feels more stressful than Christmas Eve to me, because by then I feel that everything ‘should’ be in order. Therefore, I don’t want this to be much longer than a shopping list.

Some of these are my personal hopes, yes, but some too are just where I feel the mood might be going. For instance, last year, I said puffball skirts would be happening. This wasn’t an endorsement or an aspiration, but just a hunch.

Without further ado:

OUT

• Blood sugar

• Stanley Tucci

• Elizabeth Day

• Prosecco

• Provençal rosé

• ADHD

• Body horror

• Unshaved armpits

• Chrome

• Arket

• Courier-facilitated takeaways

• Friendship bracelets/being an adult teenager

• Chickpeas

IN

• Cortisol

• Greengages

• Quince (paste, particularly)

• Cava

• Alsatian orange wine

• Love addiction

• The revenge plot

• Exposed backs

• Texture release/being a straight natural

• Movie nights

• The chippy

• Jonathan Franzen

• Corporate plotting (in a girlboss way)

• Discussions about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• Basque country

• Mackerel

And a rare ‘both’ to Substack, which I suspect will be the focus of some fatigue from the media set, and increasing frustration from those who follow fashion and lifestyle influencers in particular who have gone down the freemium route. However, I’m always saying I think the number of paid newsletters is reaching saturation point. I’m not overly concerned about this either way, though I accept that this is a luxury I get to have as someone for whom this is definitely more of a hobby than a gig*.

*(Albeit a hobby with a Ko-fi page)