Trend magazine 2020

Trend magazine assignment for Academie Artemis in Amsterdam.

While mourning her late husband prince Albert, Queen Victoria of England inspired the world to a new morality: religion, modesty, politeness, work ethic, and personal improvement took root in what we now call ‘Victorian’ morality. The word Victorian tends to evoke old-fashioned ideas: women in corsets, strict gender roles, and prudishness. In a world where consumerism, technology and self-expression rule, the nineteenth-century worldview of self-restraint seems hopelessly outdated.

But the Victorian ethos is not dead. It lives on, manifesting itself in the new upper middle class’s behaviour. Omnipresent technology, over consumption and abundance are leaving their marks on our planet and our wellbeing, both mental and physical. Living soberly, interest in even the freakiest phenomena of nature and self-loathing will replace Sunday promenades and evening lectures. But make no mistake, they serve the same purpose: showing off moral superiority of the upper-middle class. Patterns, colours and materials will be used to display these new virtues. This magazine aims to give a glimpse on what lies ahead by applying these motives to objects used for another typical Victorian custom: the weekly salon. Perhaps we might find ourselves hovering over objects inspired by this magazine whilst enjoying in pleasant conversations with our friends in years to come.