The Mayans were right - but rather than marking the end of the world, 2012 is the catalyst for the end of the world as we know it, as a new state of consciousness takes over.

This will be the year we put more thought into what we eat and wear. New advances in 3D and artificial intelligence will break boundaries - and if it all becomes too much, we will seek escapism in nostalgia for two hedonistic eras from the last century. By Craig Jacobs.

FLAP INTO THE 1920s

If you were also entranced by Woody Allen's romcom Midnight in Paris, you won't need to be like the character Gil and take a carriage to 1920s Paris to sip absinthe with Hemingway or hang out with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

This year also sees OTT director Baz Luhrmann dive straight into the flapper era with his version of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald's exploration of the Jazz Age. Fashion, never one to miss a beat, hasn't been far off the mark with dropped waists and razzle-dazzle dresses on the catwalk.

Why do we think this will trend will stand out? The roaring 20s, with their decadence and excess, proved to be the last hurrah before the Great Depression. Is history repeating itself?

SHORT STORY

If you've hit the pavements in Manhattan of late, you would have noticed that American men are starting to take a short cut to office attire by baring their ankles. The masculine answer to the mini skirt, this trend finally gives men a breather from the heat come summer. So pair that suit jacket with a pair of shorts and ditch the socks on those lace-ups - but just don't shave your legs unless you're Lance Armstrong.

3D

With 3D TV sets making the technology behind Avatar more commonplace, seeing in multi-dimensions takes on new forms, from dresses to carpets.

ETHICAL DESIGN

Giving back is becoming a clarion call for conscious creatives, from international online portals such as JPSelects.com (which features only eco labels or companies who donate a portion of their sales to philanthropic causes), to Vivienne Westwood, whose Ethical Fashion Africa collection sees the grand dame of Brit fashion work with a UN agency in Nairobi to turn rubbish (such as old flip-flops and tents) into handbags and totes.

Now you can justify that shopping splurge by explaining: It's not about me, it's about making a difference to the world.

RISE OF THE GOTH

Grunge hit the runways last year, and this year the edgy 1990s trend makes way for its darker cousin, the Goth.

Reference The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo character Lisbeth Salander and the actress who plays her, Rooney Mara, as fashion's new muses (Mara appeared on the cover of the November issue of Vogue).

Givenchy's winter 2011 collection encapsulates this harder-edged style. Expect to see lots of black lacquer and metallic perforated details appear in décor.

GREEN PATCH

With food scarcity part of the global vernacular and the openness of the global marketplace making us burn more carbon just by buying basic supermarket greens, locally sourced produce is becoming vital.

Globally, restaurants are trumpeting source to table dining (where all their ingredients are sourced within close proximity to their establishment) while households are turning to allotments (main picture and above) in London and New York to put food on the table.

Locally, the Joubert Park-based Greenhouse Project is showing how you can "build, cultivate and cycle resources". So if you've mastered that herb garden, why not branch out to other greens such as tomatoes, which don't need that much space to grow?

LONDON CALLING

It's third time around for Great Britain, with the Summer Olympics coming to London this year after the games of 1908 and 1948 - and Cool Britannia is set to make the UK this year's hippest country. However, don't think obvious Union Jack references here - the controversial 2012 London Olympics logo (which the British Sun newspaper says looks like Lisa Simpson performing fellatio) and Paul Smith's stamp collection for the Isle of Man show how lively London design has become.

COLOUR OVERLOAD

What's the biggest colour trend in 2012? The answer is to take your pick from the boldest palette to date. Hard on the heels of the still relevant colour-block trend (where primary colours are clashed together), a menagerie of eclectic colours, often mixed together, is what's going to be hot. Take your pick from jewel tones (metallics to topaz, emerald to gold and all things that shine), acids (eye-popping yellows, greens and blues) and all shades of pink and red (from carmine to Tom Ford's Cherry Lush Lipstick, coral to hot pink).

DISCO BALL

Roy Halston Frowick, the late American designer who got his break designing Jacqueline Kennedy's hat at JFK's inauguration, and whose heyday was the disco era of Studio 54, would be smiling at how much he is being feted and copied by the world's leading design talents right now. His mastery of cut and pizzazz is resonating in fashion, which is taking a whimsical view of the 1970s in all its incarnations, from the Bay City Rollers to flower power, from psychedelia to hedonism. And if ever there was a time to raid mom's attic and bring out those kitsch Formica chairs, it's right now.

AI

Artificial intelligence has long fascinated popular culture, from 2001 A Space Odyssey's HAL to Knight Rider's KIT, from Star Wars's R2D2 to what promises to be a big box-office hit, Steven Spielberg's Robopocalypse, which will hit movie screens later this year. But until the arrival of Siri (the voice-activated personal assistant that comes packaged with the iPhone 4S), AI has been strictly the stuff of sci-fi. This year sees all that change, with artificial intelligence set to become more commonplace as the year goes on - proving that those futurists who foresaw talking fridges and cars were not so loony after all.