A new order is taking form—one that glorifies dominance, reward through aggression, and a return to traditional models. It marks the breakdown of Western ideals, and the rise of aesthetics rooted in conquest, control, and survival with the cultural necessity to collectively redefine the value of Civism (expect Civic tech, Civic design and Civic education to become revived movements). This structural trend charts the convergence of fragmented powers, masculinist revivalism, extractive capital, and cultural tensions in an attempt to resist change by entering a state of maintenance rather than embracing present complexity.
Once confined to the high places of frenetic innovation, promethean and transhumanist ideologies now rise to the geopolitical tables. Cultural narratives increasingly embrace aggression, dominance, and primal rituals, reshaping contemporary identities and consumer markets. Brands strategically balance provocative expressions of confrontational aesthetics and primal symbolism with responsible engagement in complex socio-political climates. Carnivorous aesthetics, the decline of clean beauty in favour of cannibalistic beauty, the comeback of military patterns and fur in fashion along with hunters, cowboys and criminals figures in entertainment is here, indicating the multiple manifestations this trend will encompass. Sports will also gain more power becoming national symbols of dominance and power, making legacy sports reclaim their status as fields of strategic competition, conquest, where mastery, control, and strength are celebrated. This fascination with primality suggests not regression, but a symbolic recalibration of power in collapsing Western empires.
contextual
drivers01
European
Rearmament
Europe is rearming at speed, abandoning its post-war pacifism. With €800 billion now reinvested by European leaders in March 2025 in collective defence, the continent is reshaping sovereignty in response to American disengagement and Russian assertiveness. This signals both a fracture of liberal order and a new opportunity for Europe to assert independent strategic agency—potentially fostering innovation in non-aggressive defence and collective resilience infrastructures.
02
Rise of National
narcissism
“America First” has hardened into institutional doctrine. Geopolitical leadership gives way to protectionism, domestic fear, and digital isolationism. As climate denial resurfaces and global responsibilities are shrugged off, opportunities emerge for alternative alliances and decentralised leaderships rooted in mutualism, not imperial residue. In 2025, climate change was removed from the U.S. National Threat Assessment, the first omission in over a decade. (U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Annual Threat Assessment 2025)
03
Dispersed
powers
With states losing centrality, corporations, cities and communities step into power vacuums. Yet this leads to a spike in ideological and algorithmic micro-conflicts—10,000 small wars replacing singular global threats. In this polyconflict world, local peace-building, digital diplomacy, and resilience ecosystems may become core to a new civic infrastructure. 40% more conflicts occurred globally in 2023 compared to 2020, many small-scale, non-state or cyber in nature. (ACLED, 2024)
04
Brolygarchy
& masc crisis
Masculinity is under siege. Online echo chambers breed backlash against feminism and spawn hyper-masculine cults—crypto-rich, aestheticised, and aggressively performative. 45% of Gen Z men in the UK believe promoting women’s rights has gone “too far”, with 32% admiring Jordan Peterson. (IPSOS, 2024) Yet this regressive pull also opens a space to reimagine manhood: plural, caring, and powerfully empathetic. A new narrative for masculinity is urgently needed, and brands can help shape it.
05
Gender
polarisation
Gender identities split across ideological and economic divides. In the US, women aged 18–30 are 30 percentage points more liberal than men of the same age (Financial Times, 2024). DEI collapses under political pressure, especially in the West, leaving a vacuum in inclusive governance. While divisive now, this rupture may allow for more radical, grassroots redefinitions of equity, agency, and belonging—beyond institutional tokenism.
06
Resource
predation
Extractive capitalism intensifies. The world’s richest 1% emit 30 times more carbon than what’s sustainable. Natural resource extraction is set to rise 60% by 2060. By 2060, natural resource extraction will increase by +60% from 2020 levels. (UNEP, 2024) In this predatory model, regenerative systems—like bio-fabrication, circular farming, and rights for nature—become more urgent and marketable than ever.
07
Cultural Carnivorism
& Primal Imaginaries
Across beauty, food, and fashion, a symbolic return to primality is underway. Carnivorous aesthetics, the decline of clean beauty in favour of cannibalistic beauty, the comeback of military patterns and fur in fashion along with hunters, cowboys and criminals figures in entertainment is already booming, indicating the multiple manifestations this trend will encompass. Only 2% of U.S. adults now identify as vegan (down from 6% in 2019); plant-based meat sales fell 8% year-on-year in 2024. (Mintel, 2024) These trends challenge brands to balance raw expressiveness with ethics—fueling a provocative but potentially regenerative new aesthetic paradigm. As consumer culture gamifies dominance (via sports, aesthetics, fiction), new ethical design roles will emerge—how to design for power without glorifying violence?
08
Eroded reality
& Technofeudalism
Conspiracy theories proliferate. Tech giants morph into digital landlords, controlling access to identity, labour and even love. But trust in AI companies in the U.S. dropped from 50% to 35% between 2019 and 2024 (Edelman Trust Barometer, 2024). As public trust wanes, opportunities arise to design for transparency, ethical tech, and post-feudal digital commons where sovereignty returns to the user.
09
Hyperlocal
& Secessionist Dreams
Global institutions falter. Autonomous leagues, gatekeeped communities, and digital enclaves rise—often driven by neoreactionary nostalgia. Yet these formations also hint at new models of governance, built on participation, proximity and community sovereignty—if redirected from fear to solidarity.
10
Sports as national
theatres of power
Legacy sports—tennis, football, MMA—are no longer mere entertainment; they are platforms of national strength and symbolic warfare. The global sports sponsorship market is projected to grow to $109.1 billion by 2030 (PwC, 2024), and could become an influential vector for peaceful cultural diplomacy and global storytelling around resilience, excellence and mutual support.
11
Creative
Defense
Creative classes will also rise and address the trend. Human ingenuity becomes a form of cultural resistance to algorithmic homogeneity, valuing discernment and skilled craft in an era of automated content. Artisanal work gains political weight—handmade, local, irregular but mostly, feral. A new “craft militancy” may emerge, with collectives acting as stewards of nuance and "living" heritage.
12
Dogmatic
Wellness
A wave of neo-puritan wellness cultural movements will blend austere aesthetics, ritualised routines, and ideological notions of health, cleanliness and purity. Expect emerging sub-trends like Monastic Design and Pastoral Futurism reimagining countryside living as a site for radical wellbeing. In contrast, “Decorp Wellness”, our trend coined in 2024 will continue to champion imperfection, celebrating vitality through joyful, messy, anti-perfectionist care. Post-4AM skincare & Post-BRAT.
reactionary signs
Machiavel reignited
Giuliano da Empoli’s 'L’heure des Prédators' unveils a world ruled by theatrical autocrats, rogue tech lords, and power-hungry elites thriving on chaos—where decisions are impulsive, AI is ungovernable, and geopolitical power has become a predatory, performative game.
Answering technological predation
'In The Blue Flower Syndrome', Benze De Ream examines how discriminatory foundations in algorithmic systems invisibly shape societal structures, while Astrid Kim’s 'Uneven Ground' critiques crypto-state apparatuses through a speculative detainee centre. Both works expose how tech empires reduce individuals to datafied or bio-political entities, expanding the logic of dominance into invisible systems.
A World without Caesar
Jay Graber’s defiant “Mundus sine caesaribus” moment challenges the masculinist imperial cosplay of tech titans like Zuckerberg. At SXSW 2025, the Bluesky CEO’s t-shirt becomes a political manifesto against centralised authority, algorithmic control, and hyper-masculine digital empires—positioning Bluesky as a decentralised rebellion in the shadow of collapsing techno-authoritarianism.
Cannibalistic Regime
Los Angeles health food store Erewhon offers Dr. Paul’s Raw Animal-Based Smoothie, created by Paul Saladino, blending freeze-dried beef organs with raw kefir and blueberries, indicating a wider return to primal consumption: meat as medicine, purity as rawness. Meanwhile, Burger King’s Bundles of Joy campaign features mothers eating burgers right after giving birth, reclaiming meat as nourishment, comfort, and victory.
Indulging in horror as catharsis
Tracking the horror genre since 2023 (and especially Southern gothic with Ethel Cain or A24's related films), the horror genre thrives anew with films like 'The Substance', exploring grotesque body horror and blood, and 'Nosferatu', revisiting vampiric romanticism. Horror offers catharsis and symbolic mastery over chaos—making it the perfect genre for uncertain times, where fear becomes art and dread becomes fashion.
Cannibalistic Fashion
Faux fur is making a comeback on Paris and Milan runways, with brands like Sacai, 424, and Emporio Armani blending contemporary streetwear with classic luxury. This “Mob Wives” redux in fashion celebrates aggressive femininity and predatory sensuality, as if dressing for conquest in a world of aesthetic survivalism.
Bleeding Romances
Rose Glass’ 'Love Lies Bleeding' is a visceral descent into violence, survival, and desire. Set in 1989 America, it follows Lou and Jackie, whose passion spirals into carnage in a predator’s world. Their relationship becomes a battlefield—where love is dominance, revenge is intimacy, and desire is survival against a backdrop of toxic masculinity.
Boycotts and self-organisation
In 2025, Danish grocery giant Salling Group introduced a black star icon to highlight European-owned brands across 1,700 stores. Amid EU–US trade tensions and growing scepticism toward American dominance, the campaign reframes regional origin as a consumer value—subtly nudging shoppers to “buy European” and invest in continental resilience through their grocery basket.
Meme-ified sarcasm
In March 2025, skincare label The Ordinary partnered with MSCHF to sell eggs for £2.66 per dozen at its NYC stores—cheaper than most supermarkets during a year of food inflation. This surreal swap of serums for staples wasn’t just a publicity stunt—it was a satire of survival economics, exposing how luxury and basic needs have flipped in a collapsing value system.
desirable
visionsThe future lies in how we will address contextual shifts rather than ignoring them. It will rely on implementing Civic design, leveraging creative audacity and sometimes also, rest, regeneration and pleasure. Predators' paradigm is also waning, this is also the reason why we believe this trend is currently at a stage of paroxysm.
First take: Fiction is power, even if everything becomes a "show".
Predators maintain dominance through fear and myth. Rewriting cultural scripts—through art, fashion, and media—can destabilise these foundations. Elevate narratives of care, softness, and creative rebellion as counter-cultural prestige.
Second take: Limits of growth have long been declared. Embrace entropy, let go and care about small, reachable, positive steps meanwhile.
Predatory systems collapse under their own weight. Regenerative systems—not just 'sustainable'—build capacity while restoring ecosystems. See how pleasure activism, intersectionality and alliances can be implemented.
Third take: Embrace the elasticity of present times.
Predators often act in short-term gain. Elders, traditions, and slow knowledge offer long arcs of resilience and continuity. We have a generation that does not approach time and space in the same cognitive way than previous generations. See how it could break with the cultural cycle of production and distribution amid remixes, reboots and remakes. Step outside the same loop of inspiration when looking at the past, change lenses and embrace elasticity. Infinite content is just an overload leading to delusion. See how hand-crafted and finite content, formats and side quests derived from gaming could be potential opportunities for ritualistic destinations.
Fourth take: Predation thrives in opacity. Sunlight, accountability, and shared data dismantle exploitative systems.
Develop open-source models, ethical AI, and transparent supply chains. 'Transparency' has become a buzzword, meaning cannot be reduced to opacity, it has depth. Consent and agreements are to be teached, learn and verified if we want to gain this depth.
Fifth take: Emotional repression fuels aggression.
Cultivating empathy, repair, and emotional fluency counters toxic power. In a 2025 interview, Elon Musk described empathy as a “civilisational bug” undermining Western strength, arguing that compassion has been weaponised and must be curtailed to preserve societal stability. Embed care economies, emotional labour recognition, and mental health infrastructures into design. Cognitive abilities are at stake when we want to be able to envision, create and imagine options.
This is not exhaustive and our intention, through this text, is only about sharing thoughts and analysis, articulating words and perspectives. We are committed to co-build desirable opportunities and scenarios now, also implying the sharing of our research and thoughts aside from our collaborators projects and client missions.