ICYMI: Brain rot, Beyoncé and the TikTokalypse
From historic wins at the 2024 Fashion Awards to Beyoncé's record-breaking Christmas Day Halftime Show, the latter part of 2024 had no shortage of cultural milestones. The entertainment world continues to innovate and break records while the fashion industry continues to set up for creative innovation. Meanwhile, the word of the year sheds light on the cultural sentiment of content fatigue, as audiences lose steam keeping up with trends and the breakneck speed of content. Here’s a look back at 5 key cultural milestones that made waves over the Holiday period.
1. Fashion's Creative Director Shuffle
This past December, the fashion world saw a series of major shake-ups in the ranks of its creative directors, as major houses navigate an ongoing reset in creative leadership. Louise Trotter was announced as the new creative director of Bottega Veneta , a highly anticipated move that will see her balance her leadership role at Carven. Trotter’s appointment at Bottega comes on the heels of Matthieu Blazy stepping in to fill the huge shoes left vacant at 香奈儿 . Meanwhile, Lucie and Luke Meier are set to part ways with JIL SANDER , after a remarkable period of collaboration with the OTB group. Meanwhile, Maria Grazia Chiuri will say ‘au revoir’ to the house of Dior with a grand finale cruise collection, staged in Rome this May. John Galliano also bid farewell to his decade-long stint at Maison Margiela , leaving the house without a creative director for the time being, while Fendi finds itself in a similar position after Kim Jones' departure. And, more recently, founders of Proenza Schouler , Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, bid farewell to the brand after 20 years.
As iconic names reshuffle, it’s clear that the fashion industry is entering a transformative period, with fresh visionaries stepping into some of the most coveted roles in fashion.
2. Brain Rot & the TikTocalypse
At the end of 2024, the Oxford English Dictionary named its word of the year: aimed to reflect annual cultural sentiment, ‘Brain rot’ embodies ‘the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging’. Incidentally, consumer research from The Independent’s first whitepaper, Luxury’s Great Reset, showcases a clear indication of global content fatigue, especially around the trend-cycle, which is often culturally synonymous with social media. The report found that globally, the driver to be ‘in the know with trends’ has declined consistently on the consumer index from 2019 and is forecast to drop by an additional 6.38%pt. by 2027, with only 39.41% of consumers saying trends were important to them.
In an uncanny tandem, the US is fast approaching a nationwide ban on ByteDance owned TikTok . The US operation of the platform’s app must be sold by Sunday 19th January, otherwise TikTok will be forced to close for US users. There are many looming questions regarding where the platform’s creators will flock to, with many asking their audience to continue to follow them on Instagram or Snap Inc. , whose stock prices have both seen hikes as a result of the bans announcement. Others have flocked to 小红书 , a 2013-founded Chinese based platform, also known as RedNote, a surge which saw the app pushed to the top of the list of free apps in the US App Store, and over 10M downloads on the Google Play store.?
Time alone will tell for the fate of TikTok in the US, however, in an era of dizzying content consumption, it’s clear that consumers are craving new means of media communication.?
3. Beyoncé Breaks Viewing Records
Unarguably one of the biggest pop culture icons of a generation, Beyoncé made her first performance since her ‘Renaissance’ tour at the Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens Halftime show on Christmas Day, streamed live on Netflix and brought in a staggering +27 million viewers, as per Nielsen via The Wrap. Thanks to Bey’s influence, the NFL saw the highest game viewership on record for 18-34 year-olds since 2001. Her ascendancy was acknowledged by Billboard, naming her as the greatest pop star of the 21st century in December 2024.?
In addition to the impact of star power on viewership, a notable takeaway from the event is Netflix’s entry into live programming.? Known for its binge-worthy series and blockbuster films, Netflix is now expanding into live content, starting with WWE streaming which debuted on Monday 6th January 2025. What’s more, in December 2024, FIFA announced that Netflix had secured the rights to broadcast the 2027 and 2031 Women's World Cups in the US, marking its first full sports broadcasting deal. With its strong portfolio of coveted deep-dive documentaries into sports and music stars, and now live-streaming sport and music events, Netflix appears to be positioning itself as a one-stop destination for all entertainment needs.
4. Netflix Taps Sabrina Carpenter for Christmas Special
Also leveraging the power of pop, and broadening Netflix’s expansion into live streaming, the platform debuted a timely musical-comedy Christmas show, hosted by Sabrina Carpenter. Featuring her Christmas pop hits, heartfelt covers, and gags featuring appearances and performances from global stars such as Chappel Roan, Tyla, and Kali Uchis, as well as a rendition of ‘Santa Baby' with Shania Twain. ‘A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter’ debuted on Friday, December 6, and brought in 2.6 million views that weekend.
5. The Fashion Awards
The 2024 Fashion Awards caused quite the stir, with the head-to-head battle for Model of The Year being awarded to Alex Consani, marking an historic win as the first time a transgender model has claimed the honour. In another standout moment, Jonathan Anderson took home Designer of the Year for the second consecutive year, thanks to his work at Loewe and his namesake label JW Anderson .
Meanwhile, Ahluwalia was awarded the New Establishment Menswear Award celebrating menswear designers who have sparked a new movement in British fashion and made a lasting impact on the global industry. The brand’s Creative Director, Priya Ahluwalia, commented: “Winning this award is such an honour. To be named the New Establishment Menswear Designer means so much to me. Ahluwalia began with menswear and has expanded to so many categories and canvases so to win this award is truly special.”
Want to know more??
Download our collaborative report, A Year in Data, 2024, in collaboration with our partners at? The Independents Group, Lefty , revealing a retrospective of all the key data and metrics you need to know from 2024.
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