WEEKLY TRENDS REPORT Pictured: Pexels
Friday 18 September 2026
Difficult to action
Micro trend
THIS WEEK’S FORECAST Macro trend
Apple goes foldable
I’m going ‘gateside’ A24 X DIOR
Easy to action
Birkin lost its appeal Sibling cohabitation
Make a (digital) wish
Icon Glossary
Trending
News you should know
On the up
Cancelled
It’s gonna be big
That’s the tea
Sustainability
Consumer habit
TikTok trend
Be quick
FOR YOUR This week’s dates INFO & microtrends TikTok trends Show off your incredible sleeping positions with the Zayn Sleeping trend. Find your celebrity lookalike with Starbyface or turn your relative into you. Edits of the week: “Thoughts on …?” photoshop trend and the noodles no noodles edits.
ICYMI The Chicago Cubs released a romance micro drama on their socials. Should have named it ‘getting to third base’.
Apple goes foldable. Game-changing or a way to flex you got $£$.
Tea of the week The Stella Lefty discourse is still going on, Sydney Sweeny plays for the wrong team and Wolverine disappoints.
What we’re loving A24 X Dior is so perfect. Now the struggling protagonists will be decked out in full Dior, how relatable! The stranded at Albuquerque airport saga.
On our radar
Image: @A24
Hope – 25 September Sense and Sensibility – 25 September American Horror Story S13 – 24 September Steel Ball Run JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: 2nd-3rd Stage – 25 September Silent Hill: Townfall – 24 September
Tinashe: Popstar – 25 September
Weekly doses of cute Free dog hats, dog diners in HK, Celine Dion roars back, fridge magnets, 30 best songs about cats and tech in Zoo habitats.
Rising trend Phones are the new cigarettes at restaurants and we’re continuing to see distressed fashion be uber cool.
Image: Suica
The future
Goodbye Suica Penguin. The people of Japan will soon vote for their next Suica mascot. We love option C.
Established trends
Remember the last couple weeks when we had warnings about AI? Here’s a new one! Now there’s a 10% chance AI could go all terminator!
What Gen Alpha boys are getting at the barber and the hypnotising appeal of a bleached buzz.
Stat of the week
Phrase of the week “The age of tiramisu.” Who wants to join our end of the world tiramisu party? It’s BYOS (Bring your own spoon).
The academic-dishonesty AI crisis continues to grip higher education. If there’s a will, there’s a way.
One in Nine migratory birds are threatened with extinction and 45% of migratory species are in decline.
Insights of the week
Ones to watch
Digi updates
The Birkin has lost its appeal to the rich because every influencer and their pet has one.
N3on, internet streamer, launches a 24/7 AI live stream. It’s somehow worse than you think.
New college students are already quitting two weeks into the semester.
Prison Break reboot, Kai Cenat’s Vivet debut, Oasis returns, Widow’s Bay is a winner, Netflix with Sega, WOW Forever and StarCraft makes a return.
Image: @hddany_
TREND TRACKING How some of the trends we’ve identified have evolved in recent months
On the floor creators
I’m going ‘gateside’
Sibling cohabitation
Image: @payton
Image: @earthtones
Image: @sisterssanctuary
With its creator program and series of music focused ads, GAP is continuing to go all-in on social by expanding its creator program to its employees. We predicted ECG to be an increasingly popular strategy and we’re seeing it in action with Staples baddie and Kathryn Turner, star of M&S. GAP is hoping to create an internal ambassador whose posts will paint GAP as the go-to place for where young hip people go for their closets or want to work at. Will their newest denim tote bags, upcoming A.P.C. collab, and nostalgic perfumes help them move the needle to make them unstoppable? They’re the blueprint for making a triumphant comeback after years of irrelevance. We don’t want to glaze them too hard; the KatseyeGAP hoodie couldn’t ship to us. Fix it!
We weren’t born pre-2001 so we never experienced the airport gate confession except from old rom coms. The TSA is bringing back the pre-9/11 airport experience where non-travelers can enter the airport without a plane ticket to send off loved ones or enjoy the benefits of an airport. Reading this viral reddit thread of airports in the past gave us a taste of a forgotten experience. While this is US only for now, could we see airport tourism become a thing? There are some incredible new airports full of exclusive experience that we briefly glimpse, could it be apart of the itinerary? Will we see airport gate confessions come back? Probably not, you still have to go through tons of security.
Sorry only children. Sisters are increasingly buying homes together and are living together post-parent/post-university. We’re living in the age of impossible housing prices, childless futures, singlehood losing its taboo and the loneliness crisis. Having a sibling to buy a home is being seen as a solution to all these societal changes. It used to a common trope in film/TV with Practical Magic, Full House, Golden Girls but it has now evolved. We’re seeing this with the rise of sister cohabitation social media accounts, Keke Palmer showcasing her home with her two sisters and the general trend of living with parents past teen hood. Next holiday gathering, play nice with your siblings you could end up being real estate moguls.
Trend: Work Hard, post Harder
Trend: Travel rediscovered
Trend: Home is where the Hub son is
This week’s long read
MAKE A (DIGITAL) WISH
Image: giftful
Clout chasing hits the world of gift-list apps Every app can be social one if you try hard enough – and that’s exactly what Gen Z and Gen A are proving as they turn shoppable gift list apps like Giftful into a new way to find inspiration, express themselves, and connect with others. And their rise makes sense. This demo is more product than brand-loyal: they prove who they are by curating the items around them. On these apps, users build visual lists of whatever products they love, want, or wish for, based on whatever occasion, holiday, or theme they choose (autumn inspo, anyone?). Here, the taste making ground is more level: gaining followers isn’t about what you can buy, just what you wish for.
They scratch their itch for self-expression, and as The Strategist said, mean anyone can feel like an influencer. On TikTok, teens show off their lists and ask for reccos for the greatest list-makers (drop your handle in the comments!). You can “shop” other wish lists and show off your identity one product at a time. For this group, expected to drive 40% of fashion spending by 2035, online shopping is as natural as breathing. They reject ad-heavy platforms but are twice as receptive to the pull of an influencer recommendation. So, when they find a new way to show off their personal taste – with a side of shopping? Sign them up.
Image: @giftful
Image: @thestrategist
Weber Forecast Insight
Image: @marylouross12
The rise in the wish list app opens a new playground for brands for world-building, and a new place to find potential influencers. Campaign worlds can be built and extended on them, making it easier for consumers to buy into your brand – and use your products to signal belonging, even before purchase.
BRANDWATCH Inspiring creative from around the world
IKEA
Burger King
adidas x Pokémon Touchland x Crocs
Dyson
Image: @ikeauk
Image: @burgerking
Image: Vanquishe
Image: @touchland
Image: @dyson
IKEA has achieved the seemingly impossible: making storage solutions genuinely exciting for gamers. In an official Skyrim mod, players can recruit Kallax Storageborn – an IKEA shelving unit voiced by Matt Berry - to carry loot and accompany them across Tamriel. Rather than a simple logo placement, IKEA turns its storage expertise into useful gameplay, creating the kind of unexpected, fan-first collaboration that sparks conversation far beyond the gaming community. From furniture aisle to fantasy icon – a wardrobe…
Burger King is proving that even chicken nuggets can have a fashion moment with the launch of Le Nugguette – a nugget-sized micro bag complete with sauce-inspired charms. Released during fashion season, the accessory leans fully into the viral appeal of tiny, impractical luxury-style bags while celebrating the brand’s revamped chicken nuggets. Blending fashion and collectability to turn a menu launch into a social-mediafriendly cultural moment that fans want to talk about, it might be a tiny bag, but it has huge potential.
adidas and Pokémon are tapping into peak nostalgia with a collection of premium 8-Ball leather jackets inspired by Pikachu, Charizard and Gengar. Featuring colourcoded sleeves, oversized character graphics and classic varsity styling, by blending heritage adidas silhouettes with Pokémon’s 30th anniversary celebrations, the brands create something that feels equally at home in a sneakerhead collection, on social feeds, or on the high street. The ultimate evolution of fan merchandise. Gotta wear ‘em all.
Crocs and Touchland have turned a practical everyday essential into the latest must-have accessory, relaunching their hand sanitizer case collaboration with a new Jet Black design. Complete with customisable goldtone Jibbitz™ charms and a keyring, the case transforms Touchland’s hand sanitizer mist into a fashion-forward bag charm that’s designed to be seen, not hidden. Taking a functional product, tapping into personalisation trends, ideal for influencer collabs. Turning practicality into personality, one charm at a time.
Dyson has officially entered its “why didn’t anyone think of this sooner?” era with the Dyson CameraJet™ - an electric toothbrush that features an in-mouth camera and Gap Optical Targeting™ technology to help users precision-floss while they brush. It’s a classic Dyson innovation story: taking an everyday category, adding unexpected tech, and creating a headline-grabbing conversation starter that turns brushing your teeth into a genuinely futuristic ritual. When a toothbrush becomes a talking point, you know Dyson’s involved.
Pictured: Pexels
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