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Visions Episode 15: 5 Weak Signals Shaping the Future of Fashion

June 3, 2026
Première Vision Paris
Visions is a series of forward-looking articles that explores the world of tomorrow — its contours, models, and challenges. Through the eyes of experts from various fields, the Visions series undertakes an exploration of our societies, adopting multiple viewpoints to address several questions: How can we imagine the future today? What emerging trends or subtle signals should we pay attention to identify and anticipate new models and ways of living, creating, producing, and consuming? By gathering observations, analyses, and future-oriented insights in fields ranging from multidisciplinary creation to economics, sustainability, and new technologies, Première Vision aims to inform, inspire and provide key resources for creative Fashion professionals.

Her field of investigation is remarkably broad, spanning every corner of lifestyle and the economy: fashion, beverages, beauty, mobility, work and beyond. Carolina Tomaz, journalist and editor-in-chief of L’ADN’s Trend Book, deciphers the weak signals emerging across society to better understand how these subtle clues are revealing the profound transformations that are reshaping the way in which we live, work, build families and form communities. For Première Vision, she explores five weak signals that are set to impact the future of fashion and the industry at large.

1/ Slopification: When Visuals Overtake Taste

In a world shaped by endless streams of content, a phenomenon known as “slopification” has gradually altered the way in which we perceive things. It takes the form of a dense, image-saturated fog that erodes even the material reality of objects. In this environment, the reflex is to want to exist, to provoke a reaction, without having anyone question the meaning of what is being posted. Carolina Tomaz has written extensively about this phenomenon of dissolution. She cites New Yorker journalist Kyle Chayka, who coined the expression “IRL Brainrot”:

“Physical products are consumed like memes, accessories change at the pace of viral trends, like a profile picture.”

The food industry offers countless examples. Carolina Tomaz points to “the viral craze surrounding Ube drinks, following matcha and Dubai chocolate, which has become detached from taste,” she explains. “The same applies to the Californian brand Erewhon’s smoothies and their brightly colored ingredients that promise radiance—collagen, sea moss, spirulina. What matters is the color, the dripping visual effect.” In a different category, the Labubu phenomenon—the Pop Mart creature turned lifestyle totem—follows the same logic. “It’s not a toy you play with; it’s something you display.” Faced with this trend, brands would be wise to choose a different path if they want to avoid becoming mere moments of appearance on social media.

“I recently explained during a conference that, while optimization remains essential for businesses, they must also consider how to intensify their activities. It is important to build something that can resist both algorithms and memification, which prioritize a product’s visibility over its function.”

This resistance is becoming a defining feature of our times. We are seeing the development of “a range of activities designed to be enjoyed without a phone: crossword puzzles are making a comeback, but we could also mention the return of analogue technologies and flip phones.” According to Tomaz, however, the movement is going even further. “This step away from the digital world is leading some brands to speak less, to publish less and to do so only when it truly matters. The fashion brand The Row made headlines several seasons ago by banning mobile phones from its shows.”

The good news, she believes, is that this is creating a kind of “premium on singularity.” With one important caveat: this singularity must go hand in hand with genuine authenticity. “Time and effort are increasingly valued, but so too are the ideas of substance, materiality, territory and sovereignty. In this exploration of what cannot be reproduced by AI, another question is haunting the tech world: taste. What exactly do we mean by that? It is a question in itself. However, there is a growing awareness of its value precisely because it cannot be replicated. Taste is associated with discernment; it is what shapes character and singularity, and what cannot be modelled by a machine.”

2/Desire Has Moved House

The second weak signal is emerging from consumers. “Their desires remain as strong as ever—they haven’t disappeared, but they are now being embodied differently and in different places,” says Carolina Tomaz. In the past, desire used to be focused solely on status brands. It was attached to logos. Today, it is mutating, and the phenomenon of dupes illustrates this perfectly.

“The dupe is not a side effect of the cost-of-living crisis,” the journalist explains. “Even people who can afford the originals openly consume dupes.”

Why has this trend gone viral in the fragrance sector? Because perfumes are notoriously difficult to protect. It is on this premise that brands such as Dossier, which Carolina Tomaz has studied closely, have built their success. “On the American website, you can see exactly which original fragrance the dupe is inspired by (whereas the European version redirects users to a link revealing the source). The name is right there in black and white.

"Today, consumers are almost as informed as financial controllers. They understand how companies build their margins, they are marketing-savvy, and they are no longer necessarily willing to pay the brand premium—the ‘brand tax’".

They have heard that some industry groups may even be producing their own dupes, so they would rather spend €29 on a bottle. They experience this as a genuine way of taking back control of their decision-making. That does not mean they are no longer willing to spend €200 on an original. But they want that choice to be theirs.”

There is a real return of consumer sovereignty, with people making informed and unapologetic decisions. Going beyond the dupe phenomenon, Carolina Tomaz has also written about what she calls a new generation of aspirational products—objects that reveal much more than their functional purpose. One example is the American company SharkNinja, whose strategy she has analyzed. The brand sells vacuum cleaners, but also air fryers, coffee machines and multicookers. It was widely credited with driving the air fryer trend. “There is certainly an element of memification, but the idea is also to offer products that remain accessible. What I find interesting here is the double promise. The viral dimension is strong, the design is eye-catching, yet the product appeals just as much to influencers as it does to homemakers. As a result, you find air fryers in Kris Jenner’s home as well as in the kitchens of middle-class families. The boom is also linked to the housing crisis and to new needs that the brand has analyzed very carefully. There is a kind of 21st-century status value attached to this object. People no longer show off their latest car—they photograph their air fryer. The company generates $6 billion in revenue.”

Consumers, then, have not stopped desiring. However, they are no longer willing to pay for narratives that are completely disconnected from value-for-money considerations. They are paying closer attention to craftsmanship, to what constitutes the essence of a product, to everything that cannot easily be reproduced. Carolina Tomaz imagines what the defining image of our era might look like: “You would see a woman sitting with an LED mask on her face who, in an effort to disconnect her mind from screens, has taken up knitting again. But she is not knitting the way she used to anymore! She is learning new techniques from YouTube videos, she has invested in the circular needles seen all over DIY accounts, she chats with members of the community and spends time on Ravelry, the platform dedicated to knitting and crochet creations.”

The journalist does not think that offline activities will gradually replace the hours we spend on screens. She is convinced, though, that in order to stand out, we will need to take this step sideways in our lives, while remaining connected to what is happening online. What applies to our lives applies equally to brands.

3/Curation Is Challenging the Department Store

This time, the weak signal comes from the success of ShopMy. The platform has industrialized word-of-mouth recommendations. In the past, influencers were followed for their personalized advice. Now that consumers are fully aware that some posts are sponsored, they engage with influencers with far less naivety. “The search for genuinely informed advice remains strong,” explains Carolina Tomaz. “The demand for curation across all sectors follows the same pattern. We are returning to this idea that taste is becoming a powerful marker in an era when AI is increasingly flattening everything. I recently read an American analyst who wrote about the emergence of cultural camouflage—the idea that people no longer want to share their best discoveries.”

To live happily, keep a low profile. Privacy—or at least discretion—is making a comeback. “In an article I wrote for L'ADN, I wondered whether second-hand shopping had become a niche sport, and if more and more sales between friends were favoring small, private circles. This all points towards a renewed authenticity of recommendation, the very opposite of the algorithmically generated ‘For You’ feed.” Some stylists are now curating selections on resale platforms such as eBay, creating virtual private salons where they sell carefully selected pieces to a restricted group of friends. Carolina Tomaz points to Lizzie Wheeler as a perfect example of this “second-hand, but not for everyone” movement.

“ShopMy is essentially attempting to industrialize this model of intimate trust by transforming traditional word-of-mouth recommendations into a monetizable value chain,” she explains. Their motto says it all: “Curated by the obsessed, not the algorithm.”

“In October 2025, the company raised $70 million and reached a valuation of $1.5 billion, with annual revenue growth of 200%. ShopMy operates in the luxury segment, while LTK targets a more accessible market. Meanwhile, department stores are struggling. They are no longer recognized as trusted intermediaries in the way they once were. Alison Loehnis, former executive at YOOX and NET-A-PORTER, embodies this shift. Seeking a better balance between business and motherhood, she reportedly earns $100,000 per month through her ShopMy account, where she shares everything from the perfect pair of pumps to the pencil skirt that creates the most flattering silhouette. Her recommendations carry more weight precisely because they come from a respected fashion industry executive. We can imagine several forms of trust coexisting in the future. At one end of the spectrum, there is the traditional recommendation from a friend. At the other end, the algorithm optimizing advice for maximum conversion. And somewhere in between lies a grey area where we find Alison Loehnis, who draws inspiration from the mathematical efficiency of algorithms in order to reach a targeted audience.”

For brands, this highlights the importance of engaging meaningfully with communities of tastemakers and trusted voices, even when those communities are niche. Doing so requires a clear understanding of who they are and what differentiates them from other players in the market. According to Carolina Tomaz, that prerequisite is the cornerstone of everything.

4/The Tension Between Aspirational Luxury and Exclusivity Will Continue to Define this Segment of the Industry for the Next Few Years

A recent Bain & Company study highlighted the fact that luxury has lost 50 million aspirational customers in recent years. Among them, younger consumers are increasingly feeling disconnected from the sector, citing a growing mismatch between luxury pricing and the reality of the products themselves. Carolina Tomaz points to Instagram content creator @tanner.leatherstein, who has built a large following by literally taking luxury bags apart to understand how they are made. Deconstructing in order to be constructive. His account is followed by 967,000 people. “The tension between an aspirational luxury sector that has become overheated through relentless price increases, and a luxury market that is catering to an increasingly narrow circle of ultra-wealthy consumers, is very likely to persist over the coming years,” says Tomaz. Yet the appointment of John Galliano at Zara or Clare Waight Keller at Uniqlo could also reshape the landscape and open up a kind of third way.

5/Coherence as a Business Strategy

Within this vast tectonic shift, a fifth and final signal is set to impact the future of fashion: coherence is becoming a business strategy in its own right. “I am basing this point on the strategy of the cosmetics brand Rhode, launched by Hailey Bieber. Its stroke of genius was to successfully build a brand for the mirror-self, constantly photographing itself on social media. The totemic object that perfectly encapsulates this phenomenon of unified online appearance is the smartphone case designed to hold a lip gloss. The brand ticks every box: embodiment, a very strong innate aesthetic, the right collaborations, strong community engagement, storytelling built around female empowerment—and perfect mastery of communication. It has launched a YouTube channel, podcasts, and more. It has applied formulas borrowed more from the entertainment industry than from beauty, right down to the composition of its products, which feature peptides, the new obsession of the American cosmetics industry. With the sale of the brand to e.l.f. Beauty, a major player in dupes, the circle is complete. Rhode demonstrates that, in the end, coherence always pays.”

What if we had to choose just one word to define this era? “I would say ‘agency’—or agentivité in French. Very common in English, the term is more academic when used in French. The philosopher Michel Foucault used it extensively. It refers to the capacity not to simply endure things, while recognizing that our actions can have effects on ourselves and on our environment.”

“In the future, I think we will increasingly seek to reclaim agency, sovereignty over the body, over life, over the way in which we consume. This is how brands will succeed in asserting their singularity: by trying to break free from what is merely performative, even if doing so is not easy”.

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