This month we welcomed the spring equinox. A pivotal moment every year that means we made it through winter. Yes!
This sense of renewal has led me to think about fresh sources of creative inspiration. And how, during times of immense change, creatives need to stay engaged to remain in demand/relevant.
So, in keeping with the theme of change, Just Write will be a little different from now on.
Every last Friday of the month you will get an overview of a zeitgeisty topic, followed by a writing tip or exercise.
The idea is simply to inspire creativity. To think outside of the box. All while staying informed about the ongoing whirlwind of change.
Let’s go.
Quiet luxury is out. Boom boom is in.
The fashion industry is notorious for predicting (or guiding?) changes in culture, and greed is apparently back in style with boom boom culture parading down the catwalks.
But what does “boom boom” mean?
This article in Guardian says boom boom “is glamour and greed, epitomised by a style and mindset reminiscent of the sleazy, money-saturated world of late 80s New York. There is an end-of-empire, end-of-history nihilism to it, a sense of raising another bottle of Moët into the air while the world burns around you.”
Basically, it’s not shying away from the fact that you’ve spent lots of money, despite what might be happening in the world. Instead, it’s about actively displaying it.
Sounds familiar? Perhaps. Especially when we look at the super rich tech titans in the US.
But this shift towards shameless displays of wealth has been growing for a while. We just might not have wanted to see it.
An article in The Cut says: “As runway collections are conceived of months in advance, I wondered if boom boom, like Trump voters, had been right under our noses for a while, quietly gaining ground. Maybe the “mob wife” aesthetic was the writing on the wall.”
For those that don’t know, “mob wife” was a 2024 TikTok trend that favoured animal prints, opulent jewellery and fur coats – the antithesis to the “clean girl” look that dominated recent years.
Some may think these trends in fashion and culture are nothing more than reflections of the fast-moving world of social media.
But maybe all this points to something deeper in society – an underlying fear of the big changes taking place all around us. After all, it can feel good to brazenly signal that you don’t care about something when deep down you really do.
Whatever the reason for this shift to conspicuous consumerism, boom boom culture is here. And, as creatives, we should be paying attention to it.
But I’ll leave it to your judgement as to whether it’s time to dig out the fur coat.
Something for your creative soul
Here’s a writing exercise to counteract the greed.
Consider an object from the natural world. It could be a houseplant, a tree or a rock.
Now write about the world from the perspective of that object. What does it feel? What does it see and hear? How does it view its role among the day-to-day changes?
Try this exercise with the free writing method.
Set yourself a timer, or a page limit, and write continuously without stopping to edit. Keep going, even if you think you have nothing more to write.
You’ll be surprised about what comes up.
One last thing …
“In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.”
- Elsa Schiaparelli