STYLE: Last year’s beauty tips are so passé, my dear
JUST as fickle as fashion, the beauty industry changes its mind about what is best for skin, mind and body every year. If the predictions are anything to go by, in 2015 we’ll be souping, not juicing, obsessing about pores rather than wrinkles, replacing face-saving injectables with skincare, and using a personal concierge service for every beauty and wellbeing whim.
Souping you say? Well, yes, if you’ve just got to grips with a daily green juice, it’s time to let go and move on to broth. Souping, or more specifically “bone broth”, is the new juicing — that’s if the health zeitgeist in the US is a sign of things to come (and it usually is).
The movement is spearheaded by chef Marco Canora, who opened Brodo, a broth-only restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village. Experts say we could do worse than a daily dose of bone broth, which includes hard-toget but easy-to-absorb minerals including phosphorus, sulphur and magnesium.
Next up are the skin gripes — which get a makeover this year as the industry predicts we’ll be turning our attention to pores. Where once we worried about lines and wrinkles, we’ll obsess over the size of our pores and little wonder, since they get larger with age and sun exposure and there’s not much we can do about it — until now, with the advent of a new category of make-up, peels, skin creams and treatments all focused on minimising them.
The beauty category will be led mostly by Botox-mimicking skincare. Once an area shunned by fans of the muscle-freezing treatment, Botoxmimicking products are no longer to be frowned upon. No wonder: analysts said Botox treatments were down by 200% last year while “no-tox” treatments, including non-invasive peels, lasers and skin-firming creams and serums, gained momentum. Facial massage to keep facial muscles toned and tight, rather than frozen, is also having a resurgence.
And if keeping up with beauty trends seems all too much, 2015 will also see the arrival of personal wellness concierges to ensure our skin, energy and wellbeing receive the most up-to-date care. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have your yoga teacher, massage therapist, nutritionist, life coach and personal trainer all under one roof? Why see a trainer if you’re not getting the nutritional help you need, and your inner life coach can’t quite seem to find time for your sessions? That’s exactly what the holistic trendmakers thought, which is why you’ll see the wellness concierge service popping up online as a mobile-to-you service, and at a gym or studio near you.
DESIGN TRENDS
A REACTION against the throwaway society has encouraged a renewed appreciation of craftmanship and thought.
In the Noughties, the received wisdom among style gurus was that design increasingly resembled fashion. It was fast and it was throwaway. Today, this view is passé: design, many believe, evolves less frenetically. Trends now percolate slowly into the mainstream rather than suddenly appearing fully formed.
This shift is partly down to a new mind-set adopted by many creatives and consumers concerned about sustainability. Indeed, one of the biggest trends next year will be buying fewer things, on the grounds that mindless consumerism will feel dated and wasteful.
Instead, people will be drawn to pieces that demonstrate genuine craftsmanship and thought.
In fact, wood looks set to be hugely popular this year, although dramatic, dark tones will eclipse blonde ones. Expect to see an abundance of rich and sombre tulipwood, walnut and cherry, and even charred or blackened wood. A clear forerunner of this is London-based designer Simone Brewster’s Tropical Noire collection of ultra-sculptural, totemlike tulipwood and plywood vessels.
Trend-transcending ideas aside, the influence of technology cannot be underestimated, especially miniaturisation seen in gadgets such as smartwatches. Yet, ironically, running counter to this futuristic scenario is the fact that gadgets are getting bigger after years of getting smaller.
Arguably, technology has now become so small that it’s got past the point of being useful and so is expanding again. It’s happened with cellphones, now that smartphones are morphing into tablets. The same goes for headphones — now as chunky and super-sized as those sported by ’70s hipsters.
In short, design in 2015 won’t strain to be new for its own sake. And some of it will even be cyclical, although with good reason.