Last newsletter, I wrote about the new goth frontiers. Roughly the same time as the newsletter dropped, Charli XCX teased the first song from the Wuthering Heights soundtrack – a pure goth rock gem together with John Cale of The Velvet Underground. We are truly in the goth era right now.
The most interesting things I’ve read, seen, thought about, or debated the last two weeks. High and low.
🎭 HIGH CULTURE RESURGENCE. I’ve written a lot before about literature’s role in current fashion and influencer culture. But fashion’s book obsession isn’t fading, GQ, CR Fashion Book, and Bon have all covered it, Stockholm influencers keep turning into authors, and Dev Hynes just performed with Zadie Smith. Hollywood is updating classics (Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, Dracula, Nosferatu, Dorian Gray) for Gen Z. This made me think it’s bigger than books: classic high culture is having a resurgence. Rosalía’s new album is structured like a classical work, conducted by Daníel Bjarnason and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. Berghain now runs orchestral sessions. Chanel is a major Paris Opera patron. Demna is shifting Gucci from the Met Gala to LACMA’s Art+Film gala. The art market mirrors it: in H1 2025, post-war and contemporary art fell while Old Masters surged 35.6% sparking a renaissance. Fashion is moving from ease to ambition. Tailoring is back: this year’s Met Gala was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” and new bespoke names like Martelo and Husbands are rising. High culture is having a resurgence, with a contemporary twist. Just like Rosalía’s Lux.
🎞️ ANALOG FLEXING. Apple recently revealed the rebranding of Apple TV, and the behind-the-scenes footage blew up the design internet because the animation comes from a physical, purpose-built glass installation filmed in real life. The OpenAI TVC was shot on 35mm film (not AI). Barbour just published its Wallace and Gromit Christmas ad featuring a BTS video demonstrating its analogue power. David W. Marx once called GenAI “our polyester,” so it makes sense that premium brands want to demonstrate their value and values by investing in true craft.
💶 RETURN OF THE MIDDLE MARKET. A new wave of French mid-priced brands is stealing customers from luxury brands. On the Lyst index, both COS and Coach are ranking high. So does a pair of $30 Havaianas flip-flops. When LVMH invested in Our Legacy, one of their key rationales was the level of design and quality relative to its (compared to the rest of the LVMH portfolio) slightly low price point. Twenty years ago, McKinsey deemed the “vanishing middle market” dead, now it might be back.
🧑🏻🎨 CULTURAL OPTIMIZATION. Self-optimization has taken over culture for the last couple of years (I even ended up at a recruiter’s after-work drinks that turned into a brain boot camp). As someone who prefers culture over biohacking, two studies made my week: King’s College London found that art galleries lower stress markers, and Australian researchers found that making or listening to music supports brain health and helps fight dementia. So even the hardcore optimisers should head to an art show. John Hegarty recommends “Your Brain On Art” and it’s now in my to-read stack.
🧴 DIVERSIFIED SKINCARE. Rini – a skincare brand for kids (sic!) – has sparked well-deserved debate. They are not alone in seeking niche pockets in a very crowded category. OneSkin is a hyped up skincare brand aimed at the SF biohacking community. Targeting can also go vertical on the price ladder. Augustinus Bader, a skincare brand known for its flagship product The Rich Cream, priced at $285, has launched a joint venture with Dua Lipa, selling in the price range of $40-$80. Camille Moore claims, “This is how you kill a premium brand,”.
🤖 AI ADS OR NOT. Coca-Cola’s new Christmas ad has reignited the debate around AI in advertising, but what does the research say? A study in the Journal of Advertising Research finds that disclosed AI-generated ads drive more engagement but also trigger fear and negative reactions. A second paper shows that AI can outperform humans in performance marketing, as long as humans review the ads before launch. System1’s research shows people generally like AI-generated ads when they don’t know they’re AI, and they can’t accurately tell them apart from human-made ones. Yet after being told an ad is AI-generated, they claim they can spot the difference. The bigger issue is that AI doesn’t naturally follow brand strategy or distinctive assets without human oversight. The simplest conclusion: aim for good creative, however you make it.
👍🏻 LOW FOLLOW FLEX. Are a few followers the new big thing? Feed Me recently celebrated Air Mail’s new editor, Julia Vitale, for having a “sub-500 follower count”. New York Magazine writes that having few followers is the new status symbol since social media algorithms have evolved. According to the CEO of Puzzle Partner, social media has shifted to interest media where entertainment is everything, and there is no longer a linear correlation between your follower count and your engagement levels. Instead, it’s all about creating content that captures attention.
🧠 PRIMING BIAS. A new paper from WPP, named “How Humans Decide”, has the new showstopper in the Marketing Effectiveness Community© ® ™: a chart (with neat category breakdowns) stating that 84% of all purchases are happening for brands that have a “priming bias” (fancy word for well-positioned brand). WPP hosts a talk on the report this Tuesday in Stockholm.
😢 SAD BOYS. According to Vice, the performative male is so dead that he deserves an obituary. Vogue claims having a boyfriend is now embarrassing, but also “lame” and “republican”. The key takeaway is that people feel the ick of seeing too much boyfriend content. Men seem to be on the lower-swag end of their “swag gap relationships” (like Lana Del Rey and her husband). Being a (young) man seems more complicated than ever, but luckily, Scott Galloway is here to save all the young men.
🍫 PROTEIN OVERLOAD. Are we at the peak level of the protein wave? I reported earlier on the protein ice cream at 7-Eleven. I visited Joe and the Juice recently and almost all snacks at the counter were protein-infused – including the potato crisps. I also visited Pressbyråns “innovation concept” PBX and the space (which was fully stocked with sustainable products a few years ago), and it was protein all over. Including matcha protein bars. Barebells is launching “protein soda” in the US. The trend is going beyond small niche products such as protein cereal – Scandi dairy stalwart Arla is pushing out a broad set of protein SKUs next year. The big question is – are we “peak protein” and instead entering the creatine era?
🔎 RETURN OF GOOGLE. Pivot claimed a few weeks ago that Google is becoming relevant again. Gemini is gaining more share in AI than other AI companies, it’s the fourth most popular free app on the App Store, and by many benchmarks, it’s the best performing one. Google’s Q3 results showed record growth and delivered its first $ 100B quarter. Berkshire Hathaway recently acquired $4.3 billion in Alphabet, making it the firm’s 10th-largest holding, which made the stock surge.
✝️ GEN GEZUZ. After School has three interesting observations on the rise of Christianity. Weekly Bible reading in the US is up to 42% in the US since 2024. Gen Z is up from 30% to 49% in one year. Americans between 18 and 28 are now the leading churchgoers in the US. According to British Vogue, the cool kids (“dimes square adult catholic converts” and “Instagram accounts dedicated to the meme-ification of their unifying female archetype”) are now wearing crucifixes. Also, according to The Atlantic, the coolest girl on earth (Rosalía) now seeks god. This newsletter has earlier reported on The Return of Religion and Monastery Madness, so these are not surprising facts.
💝 OFF APP DATING. Young people are still abandoning dating apps. Instead, they are flocking to LinkedIn, Strava, and Substack, among others, to secure their hook-ups. At least according to GQ. This is not only an American trend. SvD reports that data from Svenskarna och Internet suggest people are reverting to old-school dating and want to meet in the “meat world”. The ones that are still on the app seem to “fetishize autistic girls” (sic!). This implies it might be smart to keep that app deleted.
🇩🇰 DANISH INVASION. Is Copenhagen colonizing Södermalm and its surroundings? I work next to Götgatsbacken, and recently, new stores from both Rains and A. Kjærbede opened there. (Also, Søstrene Grene has opened there, but I try not to remind myself of that) Danish design brand Fredericia recently opened a showroom just a stone’s throw away on Nytorgsgatan. Just south of Södermalm, the people behind Nybroe Smörrebröd in Östermalmshallen are opening the new restaurant “Dansken” serving “smørrebrød, øl and akvavit”. Hopefully, they all stay longer than Jon Dahl Tomasson.
🖌️ PEAK SERIF? Serifs have taken over fashion and lifestyle branding, and now tech (once obsessed with futuristic sans-serifs) is chasing the same “human” feel amid the AI backlash. Claude is full-serif, Perplexity uses serifs in its ads and browser, and Faculty, Harvey, Sana, and Legora all follow suit. WSJ points out that “Instrumental Serif” is the font of the moment. Swedish telco Tele2, known for its bold slab serif, is adding a serif, which made me start to wonder if we’ve hit saturation. Personally, I’m ready for a swing back to The Dare’s American Apparel era.
Stuff I read, listen to, and watch. Some ladder up to bigger insights, and some are just great reading in their pure form. I’ll share them here.
📰 Good read on Chandelier Creative (WSJ).
📈 The BOF/McKinsey State of Fashion 2026 report is here.
🤳🏻 Emma Chamberlain (and Chris Black) believe skinny jeans are back.
📈 AUFI INDEX by Ask Us For Ideas is a yearly index of 20 exceptional business leaders.
📰 Google Gemini is fusing AI into every step of consumers’ shopping journeys.
🤳🏻 Are you in your “controlled demolition era”?
🎧 Rosalía on Fashion Neurosis.
📰 How Gen Z made Pinterest feel new again (Elle).
📰 How Stüssy Infiltrated the Downtown Streets of ’90s New York (GQ).
Stuff that’s relevant for Stockholm-based marketers. Hence, exciting job openings, new third places to freelance work, or random gossip.
🏛️ Someone seems to have turned CF HILL/Acne Advertising’s old space into an event location.
🧴 Polaris is Scandinavia’s only perfume expo and it’s happening on November 29-30 in Stockholm
💼 Producer at Åkestam Holst (12 Month Interim)
Xoxo, don’t forget to share this newsletter with your friends.
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