The Interview Editors Look Into the Crystal Ball and Predict 2019’s Wildest Trends
Tracey Ullman on the cover of a 1989 issue of Interview Magazine.
It’s been a year at Interview. We’ve died and come back to life; we’ve talked to everyone from Agnes Varda to Ms. Juicy Baby to a bunch of kids on the Supreme line. But in lieu of an ode to the highs and lows of the year that’s been, we’re choosing to look forward to 2019: the year of the pig, and also, we think, the year of cupping, aromatherapy vaporizers, tiny phones, Giga pets, hunting gear, motorcycle ride-sharing, and the phrase, “I’m just doing my best.” Here, our editors cast their picks for 2019’s most eccentric trends.
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MEL OTTENBERG, CREATIVE DIRECTOR
“I hope pornography becomes a hot new trend! Pencil thin eyebrows would be a trend I would love to see come back. Also, I went to a screening of Belle De Jour last night, and I think everyone should dress like that — men and women. Americans should really be on that level right now because we have such an embarrassing reality.”
JACK VHAY, DESIGNER
“I imagine a 2019 where motorcycle (electric or solar?) ride-hailing apps become a thing. Think Uber, but for motorcycles. They would probably have to have sidecars, unless you want to hug the waist of a stranger. I’m also going to go ahead and predict that there will be a spike in the amount of leather pants sold annually in the U.S., proportionate to the rise in popularity of motorcycle ride-hailing. If you’re going to ride a hog, you’ve gotta look the part.”
Our vision of the future.
MEGAN WRAY SCHERTLER, MANAGING EDITOR
“Trending: Giga pets. The whole reincarnation at the press of a button feels very 2019. Also, EMDR therapy, American river cruises, and the phrase I’m just doing my best.”
NATHAN TAYLOR PEMBERTON, SENIOR DIGITAL EDITOR
“The American fetish for anti-intellectualism will go airborne in 2019 with a mainstream revolt agains the authoritarian language tools of a now-loathed tech industry: auto-correct, spellcheck, and “suggested” words. Proudly displayed typos, brazen misspellings, and semantic swashbuckling will be the markings of an emergent cultural attitude that unites coastal elites, far-right media freaks, the voice of high-luxury brands, urban intellectuals with something to prove, and disenfranchised residents throughout the precious backwaters of our country.”
ERNEST MACIAS, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
“Twitter, avoiding emotions, follow-up emails — all done.”
RICHARD TURLEY, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
“When will cruises become a thing? They keep trying to make it happen — getting hype-y lux boats to tempt people off beaches and real travel experiences to instead drift in mobile metal and glass cities on melted polar ice caps far away from poverty and distasteful scenes that clutter hotels in developing countries. Is this the year?”
NICK HARAMIS, EDITOR IN CHIEF
“2018 began with people eating Tide Pods. It ended with teenage seals snorting eels. So while I’m not sure what 2019 has in store for us, any trend that doesn’t involve gargling with antifreeze is a win in my books.”
SARAH BRODY, SENIOR MARKET & ACCESSORIES EDITOR
“I’m very all about hygge for 2019.”
JASON NIKIC, CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
“1990s nostalgia will be cemented with a string of Billy Blanks’s Tae Bo gyms opening in New York and L.A.”
SARAH NECHAMKIN, ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR
“Why are phones so big right now? Everyone’s thumbs are cramping, and no one has pockets robust enough to carry the slightly smaller versions of iPads they’re lugging around. I think we’re about to see the bubble burst in a sudden frenzy of technological downsizing. Then, when our phones become too small to realistically type a coherent text message, everyone will either walk around obnoxiously dictating them — as they have already begun to practice with the irritating advent of the AirPod — or just equally obnoxiously wave off the incoherence by saying they’re ‘down-sizing — like, a cleanse.’ Also, macadamia milk; the macadamia is the new oat is the new cow.”
MALAIKA CRAWFORD, CONTRIBUTING FASHION EDITOR
“Teletubbies.”
SAMANTHA ADLER, PHOTO DIRECTOR
“Super 8 film is out. I’m tired of shaky hands. Mascara is dead. Watch a lot of people try to bring it back this year. Let’s also bring back the bustle. Everyone’s so obsessed with being thicc [peach emoji] — this feels like a fresh way to do it in 2019.”
LUCAS MASCATELLO, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
THOM BETTRIDGE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
“As the year turns, I think it’s important to think about how our collective notion of the near-past continues to evolve. I believe that the fashion-art complex is in the process of ending a love affair with the 1990s and its pre-social media patina of obscurity and innocence. Now, our primary fetish for recent history is beginning to teeter over to Y2K and into the markedly more depraved period of the early/mid 2000s: the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Simple Life, Hedi Slimane’s collections for Dior Homme, The Sopranos, Juicy Couture, The Strokes, bootcut jeans, Brad Pitt’s Oliver Peoples glasses in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and all the other things I look forward to falling in love with again in 2019.”
