The T Predictor: What We’ll Be Obsessing Over in 2024 – The New York Times Feedzy

Which colors will predominate?

“Brown — the more ‘off,’ the better. It’s subtle and confrontational: Not a lot of colors have that versatility.” — Thebe Magugu, 30, fashion designer

“After a hugely colorful period, I think we’re going back to a place of minimalism in our clothes: black, a faded brown. Subtlety.” — Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, 37, actor

“Whiskey and cognac — a brown with a lot of caramel.” — Jenna Lyons, 55, designer

“There’s always a resistance to meatball brown, so I believe that is going to be the next color to sweep runways.” — John Waters, 77, film director

“Purple. It’s finally getting its due.” — Freddie Ross Jr., a.k.a. Big Freedia, 45, musician

“Deep violet.” — Sharon Van Etten, 42, singer-songwriter

“Colors that reflect opulence. Like bluish purple. It’ll be the year of treating yourself.” — Kwame Onwuachi, 34, chef

“Neutrals will step up their game and pack some actual punch. I won’t be surprised if a diarrhea tone becomes Pantone’s color of the year. On the flip side, bright colors are still seeking vengeance for the millennial tyranny of pastel; we’ll finally get treated to a color like Tyrian purple.” — Misha Kahn, 34, designer and sculptor

“Pops of red. Navy, too.” — Alex Eagle, 40, creative director

“More blue — the color of the oceans and the skies that arc over every human being on this planet.” — Carole Iida-Nakayama, 46, chef

“Aside from quiet black, I’ll still be promoting gentle grays to show respect and modest deference to others and the conditions they might be going through.” — Rick Owens, 62, fashion designer

“Chroma key green — an ‘invisible’ color that’s ever-changing.” — Alex Da Corte, 43, visual artist

“The color of butter. I’m not sure who it looks good on, but I love gazing on it.” — Eileen Myles, 73, poet

“The hyper trend will probably continue: neon greens, safety orange, maximum reds. Though everyone will still look like they’re going camping. Picture lumberjacks at a rave.” — Jeff Tweedy, 56, musician and songwriter

“Teal green. But it’s anyone’s guess. Trends are predictable, yet hard to predict. I am, however, 100 percent certain we’ll have had enough of bubble gum pink before year’s end.” — John Cale, 81, musician and composer

Who or what will have a comeback?

“He’ll be old news to people who know me, but the Japanese philosophical farmer Masanobu Fukuoka — cultivation where you don’t interfere too much.” — Rirkrit Tiravanija, 62, interdisciplinary artist

“Charlotte Rampling. A lot of young people don’t know who she is.” — Jenna Lyons

“Art Nouveau; that’s when Japan came to Europe. I also think there are going to be a lot of patterns next year, like Liberty prints.” — Satoshi Kuwata, 40, fashion designer

“Victorian devotion, discipline, austerity and occasional pageantry reflect the direction people want to go in today.” — Thebe Magugu

“People [will] need to step out of the closed box that has continued to burden the environment and return to nature, toward the age of hunting and gathering.” — Kengo Kuma, 69, architect

“Marisol Escobar’s wooden symbolist portraiture and Joe Brainard’s diaristic and handmade artworks. I’ve also been thinking of [the conceptual artist] Felix Gonzalez-Torres and the poetry he could impart to objects, in honor of the people he loved and lost. In Victorian times, flowers would bear silent messages; I hope we might find poetic ways to speak using new codes.” — Alex Da Corte

“The timing is right for all things Dada — the discovery of humor where there is none to be realized.” — John Cale

What plant or flower will we fall in love with?

“That little pineapple plant should be in everyone’s apartment, like how in the ’80s everyone had silk flowers. She has a really pretty flower when she sprouts, but she’s also kind of funky.” — Raul Lopez, 39, fashion designer

“The bearded iris — such weird and wonderful variations.” — Rick Owens

“People will always buy plants merely because they like how they look but, increasingly, gardeners are choosing plants that serve more than the human eye, that are better for insect life. Like Eupatorium maculatum [spotted joe-pye weed], Asclepias tuberosa [butterfly weed] and species of echinacea [coneflower], aster and eryngium [sea holly]. Plants are a big part of how we can heal ourselves.” — Piet Oudolf, 79, garden designer

“Some sort of small tree. People will realize that flowers aren’t sustainable.” — Satoshi Kuwata

What will the aesthetic trends be?

“Back to the ’80s again. Except this time, no pop, little color, hard angles, firm materials, power shoulders — basically, body armor [in the style of] Grace Jones or Robert Longo’s ‘Men in the Cities’ series [1979-83].” — Franklin Sirmans, 54, writer and museum director

“Donna Karan’s ’80s look. Power suits.” — Alex Eagle

“Indie sleaze. At the Fringe at the Edinburgh Film Festival recently, it was just kids spilling beer and smoking and being messy. The nail polish was a bit broken.” — Nathan Stewart-Jarrett

“The ’90s (though in my mind they’ve never gone away). Cargo pants and low-rise pants that [pool on] the floor. JNCO jeans, too.” — Sharon Van Etten

“Because our situation in this world has gotten more urgent, I think the wholesome, natural, beige, quiet, wabi-sabi/Belgian look will disappear. In its place: the spirit of certain ’80s and ’90s British creatives — the fashion designers Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, the stylist Judy Blame, the editor Min Hogg. They weren’t afraid to blend politics with art. A sort of punk sensibility will prevail. Not a literal return of the punk aesthetic — more the attitude.” — Faye Toogood, 46, designer

“I hope Y2K burns in hell: I’m so done with this copy-and-paste [aesthetic], the micro-mini with the little lettuce hem, the little blouse. It’s going to be more about taking classic silhouettes and giving them a twist: 1950s, really tailored, sharp. With pocket watches. Also: long tees. The cropped, Kanye-esque disheveled short tee is gonna fade out.” — Raul Lopez

“Design will be more open to conversations with scientists; we already have bioplastics made of seaweed and bacteria. And salt will be a material of the future.” — Patricia Urquiola, 62, architect and designer

“A lot of happy graphics. When I’m depressed, color becomes very important. When I’m happy, I love black.” — Carla Sozzani, 76, gallerist and retailer

“For something to seem new again, it has to be freshly hated, like the mullet. Remember the short-lived pirate look that came after punk? Maybe that. Or maybe big shoulder pads or men’s sport coats where you push up the sleeves; that kind of ‘Miami Vice’ look that no one would be caught dead in now.” — John Waters

“Polka dots.” — Alex Eagle

“Alternative leathers. I’ve used shrimp leather in my collection. I never would’ve thought fur would go away, and yet here we are.” — Peter Do, 32, fashion designer

“When I was growing up, it was all about the new [Air] Jordans. But my four kids just cannot wait to get into a secondhand clothes bin.” — David Oyelowo, 47, actor

“We’ll move further and further away from the sleek, minimal aesthetic and toward things that feel as though they’ve been touched by another human being: quilts, lace and tapestries.” — Laila Gohar, 35, chef and artist

“That kind of rec room geometric pattern; there’s such a nostalgia for the late ’70s/early ’80s in design.” — Jenna Lyons

“Rather than a light that weighs a ridiculous number of pounds and takes an enormous amount of energy to make, we’ll see more surfaces that reflect and refract to maximize the output of a single light source that you maybe don’t even see. Lights will also be dimmer as a way of cultivating mystery and stillness. When you do see materials, they’ll be ancient, like bronze, stone and clay — things that [evoke] the feeling of gathering around a flame.” — Lindsey Adelman, 55, lighting designer

“More wood, more carving, more plaster, more casting — evidence of more touch and material engagement.” — Alex Da Corte

What will the cultural trends be?

“Gay ladies. There’s a lot of intrigue right now, and there’s very little [out there].” — Jenna Lyons

“Throuples haven’t been explored that much. I’d love to see Tom Ford direct a movie about the relationship between Monroe Wheeler, Glenway Wescott and George Platt Lynes, the creative forces from the 1930s.” — Rick Owens

“Dramatizations of actual events will become even more prevalent; [they’re] more grotesque and unbelievable than anything we can think up. I expect an OceanGate play on Broadway next spring.” — Thebe Magugu

“In the wake of Covid-19, we’re going to see even more of the biggest concerts ever.” — David Oyelowo

“During the pandemic, playwrights did very little playwriting. Then many of us returned to it, in part because our screenwriting work was on hold. So I’m very excited to see what new plays come out of this period.” — Samuel D. Hunter, 42, playwright

“The art world will continue to become more open to the dispossessed and underrepresented. The cat’s out of the bag.” — Jamie Nares, 70, multidisciplinary artist

“Rage will become more straightforward in art.” — Christine Sun Kim, 43, multidisciplinary artist

“In music, people will crave things that are more challenging, that maybe require more of an attention span: noise, distortion, something more experimental.” — Michael Hadreas, a.k.a. Perfume Genius, 42, singer-songwriter

“The past year has felt like A.I. fever. It exposed how many so-called creative works are just unnuanced examples of juxtaposition. [We’ll see] a more exciting jumble of media. Expect a lot of hard-to-put-your-finger-on-it nuance and a more complex use of references.” — Misha Kahn

“I feel like nihilism will return, unfortunately — and with it, a certain kind of humor. Acoustic electronic jazz will have its moment. It’s the kind of music that shuts the brain off: mindfulness music. And vaporwave is going to return. I can just tell.” — Jacolby Satterwhite, 37, visual artist

“More communal art. Like a piece of art on the wall or in a plaza made by a lot of different people coming together. We realized during the pandemic how much we missed connection. Then we tried to throw our souls back into these dark theaters and museums, but that’s not working.” — Larissa FastHorse, 52, playwright and choreographer

“An escalating resistance to structures that impose loneliness.” — Es Devlin, 52, artist and stage designer

“We might have multiverse fatigue. There’ve been some good stories about infinite possibilities, but [we’re] craving stories defined by constraints. I also wonder if we’ll see weirder stories. Not to say A.I. can’t generate weirdness with its hallucinations. But intentional weirdness is one area where humans might be able to keep our edge.” — Charles Yu, 47, writer

“Design, art and architecture will all be much less abstract. Abstraction has served an important role in history — [Wassily] Kandinsky discovered it when he left a painting in his studio and, upon returning, didn’t recognize it because it was upside down — but we’re now in a moment where clear communication is the most important thing, and we need recognizable figures and shapes.” — Gaetano Pesce, 84, architect and designer

“We’ll turn toward abstraction. I predict that Donald Trump is going to win the election and, when people seek some sort of relief valve or means to move forward, I don’t think they’re going to do that by looking at a bunch of figurative paintings. We’ll need to stare into the blur and ask the biggest possible questions: ‘Who are we? What are we? What the hell are we doing?’ And those are questions that abstraction, as a mode, posits … I also think we’ll encounter a radical new abstraction. Take Wade Guyton’s [recent] show at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York or Julie Mehretu’s at White Cube in London. These weren’t just shows of paintings on the wall: They moved into the space. [Going forward], the painting itself will surround you.” — Adam Pendleton, 39, painter