Debate rages over what we’ll name it: the Age of Overstatement? The Age of Opulence? The Age of the Overdraft may well prove most accurate. Friends, we are in the grips of a global vibe shift — LA-based trend forecaster Sean Monahan predicted it in a now-viral Substack post — and if the bon vivant spirit felt at the most recent LFW is anything to go by, it’s now well underway.
According to Monahan, these so-called vibe shifts happen once or twice a decade — changes in social, technological and economic conditions generate corresponding changes in the prevailing mood. Everything from the clothes we wear to the food we eat and the pastimes we engage in get a not-so-subtle overhaul.
And if anything, waking up to the startling news of war in Europe again will only serve to hasten the break between what came before and what will soon become the norm. Like driftwood in the tide we (the consuming public) are powerless to fight the vibe, and that tide is turning again.
Prepare yourselves, the atmosphere is about to get febrile.
The energy
On the outs: trying too hard and being too earnest. On the up: irony, nihilism and late nights. The New Vibe’s energy is Jaime Winstone dancing on a table at The Aubrey (as spied at ES magazine’s London Fashion Week party, embodying New Vibe in every shimmy.) Noughties nostalgia has begun to extend to our social lives, where bottle service in a club suddenly seems appealing again — sobriety has had its day and since we’re going out, we’d like our drinks delivered with fanfare.
According to our sources, The Box is making a play to become the comeback kid of New Vibe partying (“I appreciate the insultingly expensive drinks,” said one 22-year-old fashion PR who, like the rest of Gen Z, only discovered the late-night haunt because of a recent Brits afterparty). For those who’ve been there done that, though, there’s a slew of brand new bars to usher in the brand New Vibe.
Morning-after chapped lips from too many salt-rimmed margaritas was the look at fashion week
Alongside The Aubrey (at the Mandarin Oriental which — which opened at the end of January) there’s Silverleaf (which opened this month on the top floor of Devonshire House, part of the Pan Pacific London), Swift bar, Louche (live music, cabaret and cocktails on Greek Street) and Below Stone Nest on Shaftesbury Avenue (the brainchild of the Boxer brothers who between them are behind Orasay, Peckham hit Frank’s Cafe and Brunswick House).
What do all these establishments have in common? The cocktails are strong and they stay open late. Last week, analysts at City Hall reported the beginnings of a boomerang, as many of those who fled mid-pandemic are returning to London; and trust us, after two years of lockdowns, no one is planning to stay home. Morning-after chapped lips from too many salt-rimmed margaritas was the look at fashion week; we predict that it’ll be coming to an office near you imminently.
The attitude
Correspondingly, we should consider career progression and any earnest attempts to self-improve and/or actualize as the preserve of the vibe which came before. Put them on the cultural bonfire alongside such prosaic pursuits as visiting the countryside and doing things for the good of your mental health. The New York Times has christened this upcoming one the Age of Anti-Ambition — personally we’d call it the Age of the Hangover. It’s not so much that we’ve run out of things to achieve, it’s just that weekday drinking is back in vogue. Deadlines, presentations, meetings and almost all other trappings of the #hustle are deeply unpleasant on a hangover (the one thing which remains is the long lunch — all hail).
Problematically, the city’s restaurateurs have not cottoned on to the fact that we no longer want to work. Oxeye, The Ledbury, Jeru, Kitchen Table and Salt Bae all scream New Vibe — and are all very expensive. There’s also Richard Caring’s characteristically louche plans for a new Greek-Italian in Mayfair which he recently said will be named after the “festival of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll”, Bacchanalia. The era of the £300 lunch is upon us.
Fear and hedonism make for a potent mix, last seen in the likes of Weimar Berlin
Of course, credit isn’t cool, exactly, but New Vibe is all about prioritising the good times, which may mean learning to live in the overdraft. Take a lesson from Gen Z on this; a recent poll by Student Beans found that half of the 18-to-24-year-olds they surveyed regularly spent money reserved for rent on new clothes. And really, who can blame them? Rampant inflation across the entire economy, as well as news that house prices rose by a record £8,000 this month, puts paid to any home-owning ambitions that most in the younger generations might harbour.
For Gen Z, nihilism has been the default setting for a while — a combination of the climate crisis and growing up in the turbulent economic waters of the post-financial crash period. The fact that it now extends to their approach to finances makes sense. Add to all this Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine. Fear and hedonism make for a potent mix, last seen in the likes of Weimar Berlin. The attitude then was: we’re all f**cked anyway, let’s enjoy ourselves. The attitude now seems much the same. What it lacks in longevity, it makes up for in joy.
The look
If the most recent LFW is anything to go by, we’ll be dancing on the graves of our credit scores in barely there Poster Girl dresses. Flesh flashing (without any early-Noughties body fascism) has become cool again. Anything short, slashed, bejewelled and acid-bright feels very New Vibe, as well as absolutely anything touched by the designer Chet Lo. “I wanted to make a personification of a Yeti,” he told us of his recent 3D spikey designs. What fun! The joyfulness and irreverence is even more enticing than the sex appeal.
And while we’re on the subject, a note that having sex in private is very old vibe. The apps have ruined dating and as Annie Lord, writing for this publication, found, “51 per cent of singles surveyed recently think one-night stands are a thing of the past”. At the same time, the idea of celibacy as empowerment has been making a comeback as Gen Z begins to discover second-wave feminism.
Sex in public (or rather, at the very many sex-positive parties — Crossbreed, Klub Verboten etc — which have been doing a roaring trade around the capital since lockdown restrictions eased) on the other hand, is much more New Vibe. Or, if you absolutely must be intimate in the privacy of your own home, then best to attend some of the many high-brow sex and intimacy talks which have begun to pop-up around the capital first (our favourite is the monthly Her Hustle Sex Talks series at the The London EDITION, hosted by journalist and broadcaster Emma-Louise Boynton).
