Want to be the height of cool in 2018? Pop a red pill and sling on your moon bag as you head out into an ultraviolet glow. Here are the seven biggest trends, from food to fashion, architecture and social media, for the year aheadMYSTICISM, THE SHADE OF 2018
Favoured by boundary-pushing pop icons from David Bowie to Prince, and closely associated with meditation and mindfulness, purple is the most mystical of hues.
No wonder then, as we wake from one of the most disruptive years in recent history, that the world’s leading colour authority, Pantone, has signposted Ultra Violet, a complex and contemplative shade of purple, as the colour of 2018.THE RETURN OF THE MOON BAG
Better known in the US as a fanny pack, in South Africa that small, strap-around zip-up bag favoured by tourists is a moon bag, and the British call it a “bum bag” because “fan -ny ”means something else in the UK.
Whatever you call it, it’s back.
Once the source of ridicule (witness Dwayne Johnson before he became The Rock accessorising his with a poloneck, baggy jeans and chunky chain in a pic New York ’s Daily News captioned as exemplifying “almost everything wrong with ’90s fashion”), this most kitsch of accessories is uber - cool again.
From Beyoncé to Kendall Jenner, Anne Hathaway to A$AP Rocky, celebrities have been spotted strolling the streets and the red carpet with the hands-free holdall — probably because it allows them to update their Instagram feed with minimal fuss.
And if you must, my choice for the nicest of the lot is the Supreme X Louis Vuitton flaming-red version from the Fall/Winter 2017 collection for guys, while high five to Khanyi Mbau, who owns the ultimate for gals, the Gucci GG Marmont matelassé leather belt bag.GENDER NEUTRALITY
If 2017 was the year of the gender fluid, 2018 will be the year that accommodates the nonbinary in all spheres, from the workplace to the home.
Realising that inclusivity needs to extend beyond simply introducing nongender-specific restrooms, companies will increasingly hire consultants to help them under - stand how to adapt their company culture and language to reflect acceptance.
After all, as many millennials (half of whom, according to a 2015 study, believe that gender isn’t limited to male and female) can attest, transgender is not the same as gender fluid and co-ed does not equal neutral.
It is little wonder Facebook now allows you to customise your gender, while the nonspecific honorific Mx, in - introduced in the 1970s, is widely accepted by the UK government and many businesses.This year we can expect more retailers to follow the lead of Swedish multinational clothing company H&M, which introduced a gender-neutral denim line in March 2017, and US discount store chain Target, which in July introduced a collection of children’s products created by kids’ game development company Toca Boca based on inclusivity and diversity.RE-ENTERING THE MATRIX
Blue pill or red pill? You could be forgiven for thinking you ’re still down the rabbit hole in search of Wonderland if you saw the Fall/Winter 2017 collection for Balenciaga by tongue-in cheek fashion god Demna Gvasalia.
Insouciant models in ironic couture trudge down the runway, eyes covered by razor-thin shades seemingly lifted from cult 1999 sci-fi flick The Matrix.
As the boundaries between our digital and real selves blur, it is fitting that the Wachowski siblings’ vision of a dystopian future where what is real is simulated has become a source of inspiration.
The Spring/Summer 2018 catwalk offers Matrix-like trench coats that are voluminous at Céline, structured at Dior, deconstructed at Vivienne Westwood and gothic at Sonia Rykiel.
Designers and creatives from all realms are advised to stream the film’s 136 minutes for further clues to trends bound to percolate into existence in the next few months... unless you’d prefer to imbibe the blue pill, which enables you to wake up and believe whatever you choose to believe is true.SOCIAL FEEDS FOMO
Not content to touch our smartphones a mere 2,600 times a day (according to one survey), we shall soon be scrolling more frequently and frantically as social media platforms build on their temporal features cribbed from Snapchat - videos and images that disappear after 24 hours.
The move has found fertile ground among those fearful of missing out, encouraging people to check their feeds in case they miss a makeup tutorial from Kim Kardashian, say. Where celebs tread, brands quickly follow, so expect marketers in 2018 to conjure up clever ways of using ephemeral marketing to snare millennial consumers with online challenges: get the deal now because once you blink, it's gone.BUILDINGS THAT DOUBLE AS INTERACTIVE SCULPTURES
While there has been much criticism of architects who create outlandish landmark buildings simply to show off their creativity (take Frank Gehry's titanium-clad Bilbao Guggenheim, which is said to draw more visitors than the art it houses), there is no doubt that photogenic buildings can transform their surrounds.
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, which opened in Cape Town in September, has transformed the Silo district of the V&A Waterfront into a trendy hub.
In 2018, Thomas Heatherwick - the architect behind our new museum of contemporary African art - will take the idea of building as urban sculpture one step further by introducing "vessel", a labyrinth of intersecting flights of stairs, as the centrepiece of Hudson Yards, the new 11ha development on Manhattan's Upper West Side.SORGHUM - THE NEW SUPERFOOD
We may associate this most African of crops with beer and porridge, but internationally, sorghum is increasingly seen as a rival to quinoa. Sorghum pips the South American food when it comes to versatility: it is a rice or flour alternative and can be popped like popcorn.
Websites dedicated to food and health claim that the African staple helps improve digestive and bone health and contains nutrients which assist in cancer prevention and diabetes control. In addition, sorghum is a boon in drought-stricken California because, the UK's Guardian newspaper reports, it needs less water to grow. All great news for the sorghum industry, which has seen consumption decline over the past two decades...