What Oliver Bonas Tells Us about Millennial Apathy

Dear Readers,

In this week’s edition:

Welcome new subscribers, I’m Dr Eliza Filby, a historian of generations who explores how society is changing through the prism of age, tackling how each generation is evolving as consumers, workers and citizens.?Helping you feel out of touch and up-to-date in equal measure….?

What Oliver Bonas Tells Us about Millennial Apathy

Why aren’t millennials more angry….? They are letting off steam in different ways

No other brand embodies the millennial mid-life spirit and aesthetic more than Oliver Bonas. What Laura Ashley was to affluent Boomers in the eighties, Bonas provides the same function today. The quaint domesticity and faux personalisation of all those gold-rimmed alphabet mugs. Or the statement coasters. Or affirmation-laden stationary. Or the chintzy leopard-print dog leads. Or the must-have diffusers. All bringing a hint of luxury, character and Instagrammable gloss to homes we cannot afford to upgrade or do not actually own. Then there’s the millennial woman’s uniform: the floral, shapeless dresses, the rainbow sequins and the bold print polyester jumpers (that we always overheat in) and the silver western ankle boots that makes the millennial woman walk a bit taller as she marches towards her forties. Forget Gen Z’s counter-point in their masculine silhouette and muted neutral tones; you can spot a millennial woman from a distance in all her cheugy-glory.

But watch this TikTok and you’ll never be able to browse an Oliver Bonas shop in quite the same way again. It also got me thinking about how Oliver Bonas is a microcosm of our values. We’re the generation that has always prized experiences over assets and while the pandemic domesticated (and physically grounded) us, economic reality continues to preclude most of us from fully embracing the kind of home obsession that dominated our parents’ mid-life. Thus the preference for candles rather than new kitchens. We are also the generation who are increasingly choosing fur-babies over actual babies all performed with a level of attentiveness and personalisation that brands like to feed and our parents wince at.

We’re also the generation who invented digital peacocking and where the more colourful and seemingly more personalised our environment appears, the more likes we garner. At the same time, we are the generation for whom the rainbow is not just an aesthetic but one that evokes an emotion; pride in our NHS and in our culture of acceptance.

In truth then, the kaleidoscope palate of nick-knacks on show at Bonas’ is not an exercise in consumer-driven self-expression but a collective expression of our fate and values. And therein lies our generational paradox for although we’ve all grown up in the era of hyper-individualism and personalisation, the truth is that our desire for authenticity has engineered nothing but a consumerist-following of the herd. Diffusers, bath bombs and statement coasters are the opium of the millennial peeps. And if all this feels obvious and familiar, it is because as we uncomfortably hit mid-life, we’re beginning to realise this more and more.

The office romance is not the Gen Z preference. Should we mourn it? Not really. It only means we’re getting better at separating work and personal life. Read my article in?CityAM .

Stuff I’ve read

1. Is mid-life over??Anita Chaudhuri tells the story of the disappearing life-stage. ?Age is now a fluid concept but are we missing something in it not being more fixed?
2. What really motivates workers?? Read Rory Sutherland on how most people are driven by either power, money or autonomy.
3. The Kids are Alright!?How one 17-year-old exposed the hypocrisy of the eco-warrior private-jet loving tycoons.? People talk about how idealistic Gen Z are but it is their ability to expose hypocrisy that feels most unique and refreshing.

Feast for the Senses

Watching:?children

Listening:?to children

Reading:?Julia Donaldson

Visiting:?Playgrounds….. it’s been half term.

AND Finally…

Strikes, inflation, loss of international standing: the ‘Broken Britain’ narrative is real (even if it does feel like a self-conscious rewind back to the ‘70s). Expect it to play a significant role at the next election.